How Big Is The Fake News Problem?
Discussion
Trabi601 said:
Gogoplata said:
I'm thinking that fake news are news stories that don't align with a persons political outlook.
Alternatively, some people only believe in news which confirms their bias.glazbagun said:
I thought it was fairly clear that "fake news" referred to stories that were made up or contained fictitious elements. Not biased reporting of events, or commentary with bias, partiality, propaganda or whatever.
The fictional elements are seen as truth or fiction depending on your own beliefs, though. It's often very hard to find out the real truth as both ends of the political spectrum benefit from either exaggerating or suppressing some elements of a story.Trabi601 said:
glazbagun said:
I thought it was fairly clear that "fake news" referred to stories that were made up or contained fictitious elements. Not biased reporting of events, or commentary with bias, partiality, propaganda or whatever.
The fictional elements are seen as truth or fiction depending on your own beliefs, though. It's often very hard to find out the real truth as both ends of the political spectrum benefit from either exaggerating or suppressing some elements of a story.Posting that quote about how he said he would run as a republican because they're all dumb would be fake news.
rxe said:
I'd tend to believe this http://m.dw.com/en/germany-reacts-to-misleading-br... over Breitbart. Breitbart's lack of any proof and misidentification of the flag, for example, cast doubts in my mind over their believability.Trabi601 said:
glazbagun said:
I thought it was fairly clear that "fake news" referred to stories that were made up or contained fictitious elements. Not biased reporting of events, or commentary with bias, partiality, propaganda or whatever.
The fictional elements are seen as truth or fiction depending on your own beliefs, though. It's often very hard to find out the real truth as both ends of the political spectrum benefit from either exaggerating or suppressing some elements of a story."1000 strong migrant mob torches church screaming allahu ackbar" is a spin on what happened. "Small fire during new years eve celebrations" is another spin on the same story.
I don't think it is possible or desirable to attempt to regulate that sort of spin, and it isn't fake news.
The Trump quote was simply fabricated. I don't know if it was actually reported seriously as news but if it was then that would be fake news.
SKP555 said:
I think it is worth distinguishing between total fantasy and even heavy bias though.
"1000 strong migrant mob torches church screaming allahu ackbar" is a spin on what happened. "Small fire during new years eve celebrations" is another spin on the same story.
I don't think it is possible or desirable to attempt to regulate that sort of spin, and it isn't fake news.
The first quote isn't spin, though. All other reports (eg http://mobil.ruhrnachrichten.de/staedte/dortmund/4... state there were 1000 people in the square in total, yet Breitbart want us to believe they must all have been Muslims..."1000 strong migrant mob torches church screaming allahu ackbar" is a spin on what happened. "Small fire during new years eve celebrations" is another spin on the same story.
I don't think it is possible or desirable to attempt to regulate that sort of spin, and it isn't fake news.
Yellow journalism (google it) is almost as old as the industry itself, and before the printing press was printing that it was primarily printing Bibles, which as we all know has a bias on the truth...
There is no way around this, unfortunately, tackling it with states sponsored education or even state sponsored journalism would only fuel the nonsense coming from those too afraid to seek and sort of intellectual rigor or employ the slightest cognitive dissonance.
The world we live in makes no sense, has no purpose and leads to nothing, there's very little moral certainty and other humans should never be trusted... We all know this which is why we all behave like babies sucking onto the nearest thing that looks like a nice juicy teat.
There is no way around this, unfortunately, tackling it with states sponsored education or even state sponsored journalism would only fuel the nonsense coming from those too afraid to seek and sort of intellectual rigor or employ the slightest cognitive dissonance.
The world we live in makes no sense, has no purpose and leads to nothing, there's very little moral certainty and other humans should never be trusted... We all know this which is why we all behave like babies sucking onto the nearest thing that looks like a nice juicy teat.
rscott said:
rxe said:
I'd tend to believe this http://m.dw.com/en/germany-reacts-to-misleading-br... over Breitbart. Breitbart's lack of any proof and misidentification of the flag, for example, cast doubts in my mind over their believability.Jinx said:
And the truth is probably somewhat between. Neither source should be believed in its entirety but there is pressure for the official German position to downplay any difficulties in Germany at the moment as there is another sort of pressure for Breitbart to exaggerate the issues. Don't confuse the source with the message - remember it was the BNP who brought to light the horrific situation in Rotherham well before the MSM touched it.
Exactly. I've watched the video. There were indeed a large number of people,. probably of Syrian origin, letting off fireworks in a manner that would have you nicked in short order over here. There were (lots of) riot police. There were fire engines. So was it "1000 people storm and burn down church" - no. Was it "nothing" - no. It looked like a large number of people behaving very badly and setting fire to stuff accidentally - and being allowed to do it.
Problem is, there is bulls
t on both sides. Breitbart have an agenda. But the German government also have an agenda, and a track record in suppressing details that do not support the narrative. Yes - Rotheram - suppressed by the mainstream for a decade.
Brexit - so much bull spouted by the mainstream that they're actually having an enquiry now.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/01/08/cit...
All you can do is read a load of news sources and come to your own conclusion.
I don't think the news on the BBC etc is what I'd categorise as fake, however sometimes they put a heavy spin on things (what I expect of anywhere to be honest). However the main thing I think they're probably guilty of is suppressing news that doesn't fit with their narrative. Lots of things that many would find important don't get a mention.
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