Fake News from Left-leaning Sites

[Dill]

(05-05-2017, 01:22 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: A friend shared this article on Facebook and I thought it was worth sharing.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/09/18/please-stop-sharing-links-to-these-sites/

There's a lot of discussion about Fake News and Right-leaning organizations like Breitbart (and rightfully so, IMO). But without getting into discussions about "Who does it more?" or "Who does it worse?" or "Who did it first?" (which never get anywhere anyway), those who cast stones should be able to examine their own glass houses (or some plithy saying like that). In other words, you can't be part of the solution if you condone a different aspect of the problem.

I agree one might not get far or change many minds if one began a thread in this forum asserting "side X does it more."  

However, if one were treating the subject in a scholarly fashion, like writing a book-length history of media and politics over the last 30 years, "Who did it first?" would be a researchable question. And if there is some way of capturing the differences in data, the other questions are in principle answerable as well.

"Who does it worse?" is an especially important question, to which I would add "Who does it how?"

One big difference I have seen with the arrival of "fake news" as a national political issue is that right wing news has embraced the term as a wide-ranging label. Trump, Hannity and Rush rage about "fake news" all the time, accusing entire (and entirely respectable) news sources like CNN and The New York Times as purveyors of fake news.  This seems to be aimed at factual reporting which challenges Trump claims on many issues where those claims do not seem supported by any factual record. Also, it offers no means of distinguishing fake from real other than party and policy affiliation.

Liberal and left news sources have moved in an entirely different direction, examining their own glass houses and creating primers to help people distinguish fake news from real news via criteria and practices independent of party affiliation. The article you posted, B-zona, is one example of this, as is your own resolve not to share anything from the offending sites.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/tech/how-to-spot-fake-misleading-news-trnd/index.html
http://augustafreepress.com/mark-grabowski-primer-fake-news/
https://www.fairmediacouncil.org/primer-fake-news/
The New York Times has printed substantive articles on how fake news is developed and presented.

The site First Draft News appears to be working on the problem of fake news with a multi-front approach, supported by over two dozen university journalism departments.
https://firstdraftnews.com/lessons-from-the-new-york-times-super-tuesday-hoax-five-ways-to-spot-fake-news-bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren/

Some public schools are also beginning to teach media literacy https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/nyregion/fake-news-brooklyn-middle-school.html

But at least one right wing site which commonly traffics in the sensational has sought to imitate the "primer" tactic to continue undermining mainstream news sources. https://wentworthreport.com/2017/02/28/news-fake-news-very-fake-news-a-primer/

I am curious if others know of right wing news sources or journalists who have endorsed the primer/media literacy response to fake news as opposed to the "all MSM is fake news" approach.