Mollie Hemingway:
Facebook recently announced that it has begun testing changes to its platform to limit the sharing of “fake news.” Here are five problems with their plan.
1) Fake News Is a Fake Story
Simply put, the “fake news” hysteria is just that: hysteria. It’s a narrative being pushed by progressives to explain how Hillary Clinton could have possibly lost an election to Donald Trump. Rather than come to terms with the reality that Trump, flawed though he is, was more appealing to American voters than the scandal-plagued, corrupt crony Hillary Clinton, the media choose to cling to conspiracy theories that explain his win. That’s why liberal elites from Hillary Clinton and President Obama have joined fellow progressives in the media to call for people to “do something” about this problem.
This is not to say that “fake news” doesn’t exist. Of course it exists. It always has and it always will. But the idea that it’s a major problem requiring limits on expression is crazy. Even the stories claiming it’s big news show that it’s not. Pew Charitable Trusts followed their progressive marching orders and did a poll on the matter. They spun it as dramatically as they could: “Many Americans Believe Fake News Is Sowing Confusion.”
But it actually showed that 84 percent of Americans are confident that they can detect fake news when they come across it. Their concerns about fake news are really concerns about the spread of false information — something that just as well describes mainstream media as sites that more overtly craft fake news.
To give just two examples, this week we saw that two stories pushed hard in many major media outlets were false. One was about a Santa holding a dying boy in his arms and one was about yet another hate crime hoax, this time from a Muslim New York woman. The supposedly respectable media find it very easy to spread completely false stories and unsubstantiated reports.
The Pew study also showed that more than half of the 23 percent of people who had shared fake news had done so knowingly — to draw attention to its fakeness or for laughs. This is the crisis of our age that requires a heavy-handed top-down solution? And what percentage of this fake news that people are admitting to sharing wasn’t “fake news” as defined by liberal media but stuff the liberal media itself promulgates, such as the widely praised, but since proven completely false, University of Virginia gang rape hoax that was on the cover of Rolling Stone?
In Pew’s write-up of its poll, it linked to a debunked BuzzFeed analysis (“This Analysis Shows How Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook”) to substantiate the epidemic of fake news. As Tim Carney wrote weeks ago at the Washington Examiner, the analysis doesn’t measure how much traffic went to fake election stories versus real ones, but only the top few in each genre at a few sites. It only chose from a tiny handful of mainstream sites instead of the ones with the most traffic.
And the “real news” stories aren’t real news at all! One was an opinion piece headlined “Trump’s history of corruption is mind-boggling. So why is Clinton supposedly the corrupt one?” The second was a rambling screed claiming people only dislike Clinton because they’re misogynists. And the third top “real news” story was racy Melania Trump photos. What’s more, to gather its data, BuzzFeed used a URL search method that Facebook later announced was inaccurate.
2) PolitiFact Is A Joke
According to media reports, the “fact” “checking” organizations Snopes.com, PolitiFact, ABC News, Factcheck.org and the Associated Press will determine which stories are fake for Facebook. Snopes is still coasting on a good reputation it earned when it limited its service to exposing Internet hoaxes and false email forwards. Now it’s ventured into more bizarre territory.
I first noticed this when it rated a completely true claim about Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber’s remarks regarding the stupidity of the American voter a mixture of truth and falsehood for reasons that made no sense at all. Also, it’s got a weird satire meter. My tweet sharing the brilliant satirical stylings of Babylon Bee is featured, and other satirical tweets are similarly “debunked.”
But the real problems are PolitiFact and Factcheck.org, both of which have no idea how to check anything, least of all facts. The problems with these “fact” “checking” operations are legion.
To give but one example, PolitiFact took a statement by Casey Mattox that is 100 percent true and rated it “half true.” His statement was “Zero Planned Parenthood facilities are licensed to do mammograms. Planned Parenthood, women don’t need you!” PolitiFact, after many, many, many paragraphs of throat clearing, admitted that the fact claim was true — zero Planned Parenthood facilities are licensed to do mammograms.
But aha! They said “numbers don’t tell the whole story” on mammograms because people at Planned Parenthood could talk to women about mammograms and stuff. When Democrat Martin O’Malley said that “97 percent of the work that Planned Parenthood does is about mammograms and preventative health,” which we know is not true since zero percent of the work that Planned Parenthood does is mammograms, PolitiFact rated that “half true” as well. Whatever the hell this is, it’s not fact-checking.
To reiterate, a guy saying a completely true thing about the zero mammograms Planned Parenthood does is rated the same as a guy saying it’s 97 percent of what they do. These are the people who will decide what’s fake or not? How far have the supposedly respectable media spread the fake news that Planned Parenthood does mammograms, something even Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards had to admit was false when she was under oath before Congress last year?
Further on the topic of abortion, how many “fact” “checkers” rated the claim that Clinton supports abortion on demand throughout pregnancy as “pants on fire” or whatever? But when Trump accused her of the same in a debate and she didn’t deny it, the fact checkers moved the goal posts to check something unrelated — the frequency of late-term abortions! It was utterly bizarre, if typical.
More examples include “Lies, Damned Lies, and ‘Fact Checking’: The liberal media’s latest attempt to control the discourse,” as well as “Obama’s Palace Guard: How media fact checkers made themselves of service to the president in the welfare reform debate,” and this, this admission that their “lie of the year” was literally true, this, this, and this. Or see how they rate as “Mostly False” statements that they admit are “clearly accurate” and “technically true.”
PolitiFact is a joke. They should be trusted with nothing. They are the worst candidates to adjudicate fakery in the entire media establishment. Even among the disreputable “fact” “checking” class, they are noteworthy for their awfulness.
I disagree somewhat with this. IMO It’s a concocted narrative, calculated to create false “justification” to censor news which contradicts the manufactured-biased BS (aka. actual fake news,) that the establishment propaganda ministry of “good think” has been shoveling. It’s too late. The public has removed the wool from over their eyes, and is on to the MSM scams.
@Ditto: Fake News is not news. It was not even new when Dan Rather used it about GW Bush and the Air National Guard. Not only was that fake news, it was deliberately made up fake news with a dedicated purpose.
We get fake news every day from GMA,TODAY,CBS NEWS,DATELINE NBC,20/20 60 MINUTES Etc and from the birdcage liners as well as the news Mags(Time,People,USA TODAY and the now defunked NEWSWEEK
CNN has been taking the word of anyone claiming to have knowledge of what’s happening in Aleppo.
I guess that’s why they ran with a scene from a old music video as if it were an actual scene from Aleppo.
Turkey had been warning Russia to stop killing ISIS fighters.
Why?
Because Turkey pretty much IS ISIS.
Has been for some time.
Over a year ago a video of ISIS inside Ankora riding a bus in full black uniform even armed was online.
Think for a second Turkey wasn’t happy to see one of their riot police murder a Russian Ambassador?
Remember the murder of all those French people in Paris?
Turkey BOOed their moment of silence!
And, who do you think buys ISIS’ oil?
Turkey.
Watch the media do all it can to avoid placing any blame on Turkey for this or any other things they’ve done.
from one of those fake news sites about the semi truck that Merkeled all the Christmas shoppers today wont see this on PBS http://pamelageller.com/2016/12/berlin-truck-stolen-polish-truck-driver-kidnapped-killed-berlin-isis-attack-
@RedTeam:
Of course it isn’t. The left keeps pointing to legitimate conservative leaning news as being “fake”, ignoring a plethora of actually fake establishment and leftist news reports, and they want to use biased and often wrong (ahem) “fact checkers” who often misreport what is true v. what is false. Granted, there are quite a few fake news sites of various political bias, but those are not what these progressive propagandists are going after.
Having a political slant to reporting news facts does not of itself “prove” that the reports are fake. Conversely reporting lies, false information, and political opinion as if it is fact, and pretending that all such information is true, is the very definition of “fake news”. what
“Alternative media” is filling peoples heads up with complete crap—such as what was stated in the above sentence. No one needs a bogus explanation as to why we will soon have Trump in the White House—except maybe the right, who cannot see what’s in front of their own noses: Clinton was incessantly demonized; Trump was never inspected closely, and still has not been. Clinton ran a traditional campaign; Trump told his target audience whatever they wanted to hear, whenever they wanted to hear it, as often as they wanted to hear it, and never might the contradictions. He had a hat with a slogan on it.
The truth is that people are finding it increasingly difficult to separate factual information from outright lies. For the past week, Vladimir Putin’s state-funded RT cable channel has been pushing the story that the people of Aleppo are dancing in the streets celebrating their liberation by the very forces that have reduced their city to a corpse-strewn heap of rubble. Do you believe this? Why shouldn’t you? If you watch RT, you’re seeing it on television.
Let me give a simple, non-political example of the manipulation of reality. Here’s a page of links concerning the Flyboard Air, currently under development by the French company, Zapata Racing—the same company that created the water jetpack a few years back. Is it real? Are you sure? How do you know? Maybe you should check it out on the news pages, rather than by looking at the results of a general webpage search. Then you’ll know for sure, won’t you?
@Greg: Greg, you have accepted to liberal philosophy wholly with out doubt. The basis of current liberal philosophy embraces postmodernism with out question. One of the ruling tenants of postmodernism is that everyone creates their own reality. If liberals admit that in society there is “fake” news, then liberals have admitted that their thoughts based upon postmodernism is false. How can there be fake news when under their beliefs each individual creates his own reality? It is so funny watching liberals destroy their own belief system from within. It is like watching a child squirm who was forced to wear wool underwear.
Just look at the liberal view of AGW, abortion is not ending life, liberals know how to best look out for the little people in the country as well as many other liberal issues. You Greg could be the poster boy for demonstrating liberal philosophy failure with your every post.
@Greg: Greg, as much as you’d like to believe it, Hilary Clinton’s and the DNC’s wounds are all self-inflicted.
Fake news was created by the MSM they create, make up and spew government propaganda you can watch and believe. I will check independent news sources and find out what is happening sometimes days before the 16 agencies that confirmed hacking the election have approved it. Guess what the MSM is reporting this morning what I posted last night on post #5 here. About the Christmas shoppers that were Merkeled by a semitruck in Berlin. Source Polish television translated and posted on independent news site one that specializes in terror attacks. While MSM was bitchin bout Trump breaking the news…oooh it hasnt been confirmed, translation the government hasnt told them what to report yet.
@Randy, #8:
Get back to me on that point about accepting without doubt after you’ve looked into a few of the most obvious questions and contradictions regarding the reality television host you’re about to install into the Oval Office.
The guy hasn’t been vetted at any point to any degree whatsoever. Every serious question—and there are many that are very serious—resulted in a coordinated attack on whoever dared to ask it.
Trump supporters probably can’t even see that. They think their boy has been treated unfairly. They think asking serious questions and expecting factual answers is an attack.
To the topic at hand—how fake news put Trump in the White House:
Had the warrant not not been immediately sealed, it would have been apparent that there was likely no new evidence that justified a reopening of the FBI’s investigation or a revision of their determination that there was no evidence supporting the filing of criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. All of the bullshit the right rolled out immediately before the election would have been seen as bullshit, and Trump might well have lost the few thousand votes in a handful of states that gave him an Electoral College win.
That’s what false news has done, and that’s why the right doesn’t want to look at the issue too closely. They require misinformation and ignorance to win elections.
Damn pathetic, go vet Obama.
@Greg: Unbelievable Greg, Trump is/was the most maligned politician to ever run for president. There were more lies told about him each week than most pols have gotten in a whole campaign.
.Trump was never inspected? Really? Then why have so many liberals had to be given coloring books and safe spaces to compensate? Why are there so many apoplectic Dims around? They think that Trump is the devil incarnate. And you think they reached all those conclusions without anyone putting out any info on Trump? Well, one thing for sure. You’re just going to have to take your coloring book, get in your safe space and get busy, You’ve got at least 4 years to get all your coloring done. I heard that when the electoral count got up to 270 yesterday, that the sales of coloring books peaked for the year.
@Greg:
Just to refresh your memory, you participated in the process that put him there. Thanks for helping get out the conservative votes in the correct places.
@Greg:
Be happy to look at it as closely as you think necessary. Bullshit is just that, no matter how closely you look at it and when you were looking at Hillary, that’s what you were seeing, close up.
I think it rather humorous how quickly the lefties changed their feelings about Comey. Back about July, or whenever he issued that report that ‘cleared’ Hillary, the lefties were all talking about what a great American he was, that he released that info ‘knowing’ it could effect the election, but did what was RIGHT and released it anyhow. Then he released the ‘reopening’ memo and all the liberals headed to the coloring book store. Funny how quickly he changed from the ‘darling of the left’ to human garbage in the eyes of the libs.
@RedTeam, #14:
Lies? Which lies are you referring to? Those about the close connections multiple high-placed campaign functionaries and new administration members have had with Russian interests? Or the contradiction between Trump’s own assertion of no financial involvement with Russia, and his son’s statement that highly disproportionate amounts of their corporate investment funds were coming from Russia? Do you think the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered with a U.S. election to be a made-up story?
Is the observation that Trump has hundreds of complex international business ties that could represent serious conflicts of interest a lie? Is it a lie that this issue can’t be closely examined because he refuses to release his tax returns? (He promised he would do so when the audit was done. That’s a lie. Hell will freeze over first.) Is it a lie that he has cast grave doubts on the sincerity of our NATO commitments? (If you doubt it, ask any European ally.) That he habitually speaks without first checking on the truth of what he’s commenting on, and without considering the possible consequences of his words? Is it a lie that he has made demeaning generalizations about women, Mexican immigrants, unions, Muslims, the media—basically, about whatever will get a rise out of a rally crowd? Is it a lie that he himself lies so often it’s no longer possible to even keep track of the bullshit statements?
Can you truly be blissfully unaware that there’s a central element of truth to every damn bit of that?
Possibly so. Someone pointed out that the right does not require facts in order to achieve believe. Beliefs come first, then they look for the means to rationalize and defend them. Their political views are akin to religious beliefs—or possibly the beliefs held as the result of cult indoctrination. As with any cult, the first lesson is that it’s everyone not in the cult who has been brainwashed.
@Greg: Just pointing out the inconsistencies in your ideology. Maybe you are not capable of understand critical thought.
@Greg: There was no false news. Hillary Clinton violated the law. It doesn’t matter if she was prosecuted or not. That was not false news. You should take some salt tablets to prevent dehydration from all of those tears.
@Greg: Just remember, no matter what Trump said or did, he did not violate the law. Clinton did. That you can not in good conscience dispute.
@kitt: If Obama was a military officer, he would never qualify for a TS clearance.
@Greg: #17
Another collection of rambling incoherance.
@Randy: All moot now we have no hope without he Obamas, its all over. The veggie garden will be plowed under, Kids will get lunches they will eat and not toss in the waste bin, terrorists in the middle east wont get any more arms, americans wont have to try to feed families on several part time jobs, the whole world as we know it no hope. Muslims oh the poor dear muslims they will have to stay in the middle east never to be able to kill people at a christmas party( oh the humanity)Do you have a color book? a puppy a woobie doll?
Anyway Snopes will now make facebook safe from fake news under the careful observation of an extremely obese woman her beta male and their cat. They look so comfy on the well worn couch.
Mean ol DT has changed the conversation to pajama boy from have a cup of cocoa and lets get you covered for health care to get dressed you unlaunched parasite and get a frigging job. booo hoooo
I’m interested in what our FA right wingers–you too Kit–think of the FBI and the CIA. Can they be trusted or not?==simple question.
The same people crying about fake news…..
http://moonbattery.com/graphics/jon-stewart_fake-news.jpg
@Rich Wheeler: Not a simple question you know that, Trump maintains a personal security force along with Secret Service.
Many departments have been weaponized by this administration.
@Greg:
is the audit done?
@Rich Wheeler:
I notice you didn’t say if you trust them. I definitely think both the CIA AND FBI were involved in the murder of JFK. I doubt many people think otherwise.
@Greg:
So true Greg, while the well informed, smart Dimocrats were only able to finish in 2nd place. What was the object, Greg? to be smart and informed and lose the election, or to win the election?
@Randy: True, as soon as it was revealed he was using a stolen Social Security number, that would end the TS verification.