Tag: Journalism

The News Goes Dark

Ever since the Clinton gang made it possible for corporations to own the news and the rise of the internet providing news of the day newsrooms have been in a bit of bother……slowly but slowly the public is losing those small news operations that cannot compete with the corporations and their influence.

Just last week the news broke that BuzzFeed was shuddering their news room….

BuzzFeed News is being shut down, BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti announced in an email sent to staff on Thursday. He wrote that “we are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% today across our Business, Content, Tech, and Admin teams, and beginning the process of closing BuzzFeed News.” He continued, “HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com have signaled that they will open a number of select roles for members of BuzzFeed News. … Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience.”

Last month, CNBC reported BuzzFeed was slimming down its roughly 100-person news department through voluntary buyouts offered to what sources said was about a third of those employees. CNBC noted that investors had lobbied to have the entire newsroom shut down. Sources said it was losing $10 million annually, and that killing it off would increase the company’s market cap by $300 million; CNBC reports shares had crashed 90% since its IPO. The company shut down its news app at the beginning of the month.

CNBC reporter Alex Sherman called Peretti’s email an “unusually apologetic note by a CEO.” After outlining the challenges that have battered the company (ranging from COVID to a slew of economic headwinds), Peretti writes that “I also want to be clear: I could have managed these changes better as the CEO of this company and our leadership team could have performed better despite these circumstances.” He faulted a slow integration of the company’s two business organizations, BuzzFeed and Complex and a “decision to overinvest in BuzzFeed News because I love their work and mission so much.”

“This made me slow to accept that the big platforms wouldn’t provide the distribution or financial support required to support premium, free journalism purpose-built for social media,” he continued. “More broadly, I regret that I didn’t hold the company to higher standards for profitability, to give us the buffer needed to manage through economic and industry downturns and avoid painful days like today. … I’ve learned from these mistakes … It might not feel this way today, but I am confident the future of digital media is ours for the taking. Our industry is hurting and ready to be reborn. We are taking great pains today, and will begin to fight our way to a bright future.”

Now news has broken that another small news operation will no longer be available…..Vice

Vice, the media company that went from a Montreal punk magazine more than 20 years ago to a juggernaut with a $5.7 billion valuation, is the latest member of the Fourth Estate to be on the brink of going belly up. The New York Times, citing three “people with knowledge” but not authorization to blab publicly, reports the company is currently shopping for a buyer but preparing for bankruptcy in the event that doesn’t happen. It’s quite a trajectory: Vice dazzled among new media companies, raising huge amounts of funding from the likes of Disney and Fox, and expanding into global bureaus, an HBO show, and even a movie studio.

“Vice Media Group has been engaged in a comprehensive evaluation of strategic alternatives and planning,” Vice said in a statement. “The company, its board and stakeholders continue to be focused on finding the best path.” The Times notes that a bankruptcy filing could give control of Vice to its biggest debt-holder, Fortress Investment Group, which holds “senior” debt over Fox and Disney—also meaning that Fortress is at the front of the line to get paid if Vice should sell. Quartz notes that it’s been a rough stretch for media, with BuzzFeed shutting down its news operation last month, and the likes of FiveThirtyEight, Gannett, National Geographic, NPR, the Washington Post, and Vox all rattled by layoffs in the past several months.

Vice filed for bankruptcy as expected Monday morning, the latest large media company to go under. In this case, it appears that a group of Vice lenders including Soros Fund Management and Fortress Investment Group will attempt the buy the company with a credit bid of $225 million, reports CNBC. All of which cements “Vice’s status among the most notable bad bets in the media industry,” per the New York Times.

It appears that the elimination of the more independent journalists has begun and the winners will always be the corporate media.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

We Have Our First AI Arrest

First I would like to wish all the mothers that visit IST a very happy Mother’s Day.

This seems to be the big story for the past month or so….the rise of ChatGPT…..it can be used for writing anything like blog posts to news stories to fiction…..

There has been worries for the future of actual journalism (as subjective as that is)…..

2023 World Press Freedom Index on Wednesday warned that the rapidly growing artificial intelligence and fake content industries are endangering the livelihoods of journalists around the world and cutting down on people’s ability to access fact-based news.

The annual report, released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), includes a section titled “Effects of the fake content industry,” which notes that out of 180 countries evaluated by the group, 118 of them reported “massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns” in which political figures have been involved.

“The unprecedented ability to tamper with content is blurring the lines between true and false,” RSF said in a video shared on social media as it released the report.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/fake-content-ai-threat-journalism

That said I need to get back to the meat of the title of this post……

Looks like China has made the first reported arrest of someone using ChatGPT……

Mere mortals have done no shortage of tongue-wagging and fretting over ChatGPT: The “godfather” of AI is done with it, Elon Musk is going to reinvent it, and now China has apparently given us our first arrest over it. As Quartz reports, China arrested a man in Gansu province, identified only by the surname of Hong, for the offense of using ChatGPT to generate a story about a fake train crash involving fatalities and subsequently publishing it online.

The problem (other than the obvious why?): ChatGPT is illegal in China—which tends to keep an eye on its people’s internet habits—and has been since Jan. 10, per Reuters. The story, uploaded to Chinese social media on April 25, garnered a relatively meager total of 15,000 hits before authorities cracked down. Per Quartz, Hong faces a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” which could land him five years in prison if convicted.

Let me reiterate….I have NO intention of ever letting a program write my posts for me.  I am not lazy and I can read and think for myself.

Moms enjoy your day and be safe…..

Mother's Day 2023: When is Mother's Day This Year? | The Old Farmer's Almanac

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is The Media Failing Us?

I know I rant about the disservice I think the MSM is doing to the public by not reporting to passing on propaganda….few are listening instead they drink the disinformation kool-aid all to justify the waste of taxpayer money.

For now

In my considerable opinion it is failing badly…..the press that is…..

But then I am a cynic and do not think that the MSM is doing a service to the people of this country…..instead they are PR for the defense industry and as so they give only one side of any story….Ukraine is a perfect example of this disservice.

They have done their duty well…..their reporting have people so confused and indoctrinated that they will deflect when they are presented with alternative facts and information.

All that opinionated stuff aside….the question remains….is the media failing the citizens of this country?

As U.S. leaders speak more openly about their geopolitical goals, and Russian leaders warn of the risk of nuclear war, there are essential questions that journalists should be raising in their coverage of the war in Ukraine that they are not. Chief among them:

Is escalating what has clearly emerged as a proxy war between the United States and Russia hastening or prolonging the carnage in Ukraine?

And: What’s the best way to minimize the risk of a nuclear conflict?

Thus far, most American news coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has reflected an unquestioned conviction that the more weapons the United States and the West send the Ukrainians the better.

It may well be that continuing and accelerating the arming of the Ukrainian military is, in fact, the best of bad options, the quickest way to peace, and doesn’t increase the likelihood of a nuclear strike. But that’s a hypothesis, which should be questioned and discussed, not blindly embraced as fact.

And in the meantime, Ukraine is being destroyed. Civilians are dying, refugees are fleeing for their lives, untold damage is being done to Ukraine’s infrastructure, and young men in arms are killing each other.

It’s time now for journalists to talk and write about at what point the goal of punishing Russia could diverge from the goal of bringing peace to the Ukrainian people as expediently as possible — and what the West should do if and when that happens.

The American media is failing us on Ukraine

I have been suspicious of the reports that were coming out of Ukraine….most are ‘unverified’ yet were reported as fact.

I am not alone….even real conservs see the crap the MSM is spreading…..

The coverage once again provided very little context regarding the underlying issues. Matters such as NATO expansion or the difficult, contentious Russia-Ukraine relationship were either ignored or treated in a way that confirmed Western and Ukrainian virtue and maximum Russian villainy. Journalists portrayed a complex situation as a stark melodrama, with all blame put on one side. Indeed, experts and pundits who even suggested that NATO’s policies had contributed to the current tensions were quickly smeared as siding with Putin, willingly circulating Russian propaganda or disinformation, or even as being outright Russian agents. Some of the architects of the new wave of smears were the same individuals who used similar tactics in the lead up to the Iraq War. Max Boot, Jennifer Rubin, and David Frum, for example, were all prominent alumni of that earlier campaign to silence dissenters, and here again they were hard at work branding critics of Washington’s Russia policy as disloyal.

The Press Fumbles Again on Ukraine

Americans need to care more about what is going on in Ukraine because there are American law makers that are calling for American troops to take a more active part in the conflict in Ukraine.

Even Pay Pal is trying to silent independent journalism by trying to close the accounts of two independent investigative journalism sites, Consortium News and Mint Press.

What are they afraid of?

Do you truly want another prolonged war?

NO?

Then pay attention and get all the facts before blindly side with war.

Image

Be Smart…..Learn Stuff….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–14Apr22

We all have our favorite sources for ‘reliable’ news….and none of them are all that reliable.

Is the most ‘reliable’ news source FOX or MSNBC or CNN or…….just which one?

The answer may truly surprise even you.

When it comes to the weather, most of us are on the same side of things—or, at least we’re all watching and believing the same reports. That’s according to YouGov, a UK market research firm whose latest poll on the media found that the most trusted news source among Americans is one that’s somewhat surprising: the Weather Channel. In the survey of 1,500 US adults taken March 26 to March 29, the network was found to be trustworthy by 52% of respondents, and it’s also the channel that found the most agreement between Republicans and Democrats: Half of the former trust it, while 62% of the latter do. Behind the Weather Channel are PBS (trusted by 41% of all Americans), the BBC (39%), and the Wall Street Journal (38%).

What YouGov calls the “most politically polarizing” media group is CNN, which sees 65% of Democrats rate it trustworthy, while only 11% of GOPers do—a more than 50-point abyss between the two. The New York Times doesn’t fare much better in terms of a partisan gap, with 63% of Democrats trusting it, compared to the Republicans’ 14%. Anderson Cooper of CNN, meanwhile, is the most trusted news personality among all US adults (of those who say they’re familiar with who he is), followed by ABC News’ David Muir (40%) and Fox News’ Bret Baier (39%).

“Truth is the first casualty” is Elon Musk’s somber assessment of the poll. Others are bothered by the still-significant discrepancy between Democrats and Republicans, even on their shared most trusted network. “The Republican skepticism regarding the Weather Channel is hard to stomach for a data guy like me,” one demographer notes. Which leads to the question: Is the Weather Channel’s trustworthiness a matter of perception or actual factual accuracy? WRAL doesn’t answer that exact inquiry, but in an analysis from April 2021, the station dove into how accurate meteorological reports are, coming to the conclusion that “while the forecast may not always be perfect, forecast accuracy is a lot higher than many people are willing to admit.” More here on that.

Is your weather that reliable?

Mine is not.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Reporting On Ukraine

Note:  Since I wrote this draft for future posting the media has become a bit better at reporting this conflict.  I still think there is too much ‘unverified’ sources.

These are my thoughts and opinions on the quality of the reporting by the MSM on the Ukraine conflict.

As a consumer of the news and interested on the conflicts around the world I am dissatisfied with the quality of the news that is given to us mere mortals on the Ukraine/Russia conflict.

Let me explain why…..

The public is getting canned unverified information there is little to no actual fighting shown…..like the statement that 200 Russian soldiers have been captured….if so then why is the Ukrainians not trotting them out for propaganda purposes….a Ukrainian member of parliament stated that 5000 Russian soldiers have been killed and left rotting in the streets…where is the proof?

Then there is ‘Breaking News’ that is reported for hours…the same story…the same reporters….that is NOT breaking in my book.

Of course the Russians are just as bad they spread false news liberally.

I am not saying that all the news is crap….just that there should be a more concerted effort to tell the story beyond hearsay….quantity does not mean quality.

I fall back to the battle with ISIS…journalist pressed forward to get the real story and the real fighting….not so much in Ukraine….why?

The media keeps trying to make this situation worse….by comparing it to WW2.

We keep hearing the Ukraine crisis described as the “worst since WW II.” This is seems far-fetched given the number of dead (4 million) in the Korean War (which US refuses to end), Vietnam (2.5 million), and Iraq (2 million).

The journalists are doing their jobs as they are instructed to do….but somewhere there has to be someone that will say….”can we please used verified information”…..

The sanitizing of war by the media.

Showing destroyed buildings but the dead are put in a burred bubble…..war is the ultimate obscenity….it is brutal and ugly…..let the people see just how brutal it truly is and the human costs of any conflict.

Then there are there network pundits, so-called ‘experts’ that regurgitate the slogans and views of the groups they actually represent….. Big Time political commentator in the US have to be able to generate nonsense on-demand….and they are excelling at this….

The newest poll shows that 83% of the American people support Ukraine I can understand this figure by the quality of the news they consume….the bias that they are given by the MSM.

I am disappointed in the news coverage….CNN was on top of the beginning of Desert Storm and did some fabulous reporting but their news stories around this conflict is a pale shadow of their previous years.

Please someone explain these networks if the news is 12 hours old it is no longer ‘Breaking News’….it is just news.

I search various sources for info….Reuters, AJE, BBC, France24, DW….and I still cannot put together an accurate analysis of this conflict….so I will stick with my gut and my analysis.

Forf those that want to do their own research (I realize that there are few and far between)…..there are some ‘open source’ intel sites you can go to…..

Bellingcat – A leader in OSINT journalism known for painstakingly geolocating video and photo evidence, Bellingcat is tracking the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine and debunking dubious footage from the Russian invasion. The Twitter feeds of individual Bellingcat journalists including Christo Grozev and Aric Toler, among others, are also useful sources. 

Liveuamap – An interactive map that pins the locations of video and photo evidence of military movements, strikes, and other events. (A recent NYT story describes its history.)

The Centre for Information Resilience – With another mapmaking effort, CIR is working with Bellingcat and others to chart original source material of significant incidents in Ukraine. The group also frequently updates its Twitter account with its work geolocating footage from social media. 

Oryx – Orxy has worked to identify and track Russian equipment losses, including those destroyed by Turkish drones. They have a great Twitter account as well for updates.

Ukraine Weapons Tracker – This active Twitter account identifies Russian weapons and abandoned (and destroyed) vehicles. 

Satellite imagery companies – Several companies, including Capella Space, Planet and Black Sky have become a valuable source for journalists, researchers and governments seeking to track developments like Russian convoy movements from above.

Some of the reporting smacks of propaganda…..at least to my mind….

Is it propaganda?

Define and explained….so you decide unless of course you will accept crap as news.

What Is Propaganda?

Please do not think for a minute that I feel this war is a hoax….far from…..and the reporting is getting better but I still feel that more could be done.

What are your thoughts on the reporting?

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ukraine And Social Media

I have bitched about the media coverage of the Ukraine/Russia conflict…..the lack of actual action footage just regurgitation of stock vids and photos….then there is social media which seems to have better coverage of the armed conflict….but then the question should be asked if their reporting is accurate or just propaganda.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already fueled some nascent misinformation tactics, including the spread of realistic video game footage and the use of TikTok to create fake war zone livestreams.

The content highlights how misinformation on the internet tends to constantly evolve, with some older forms of misleading content remaining relevant (many users continue to share older videos mislabeled as coming from the ongoing conflict). 

And while TikTok has in recent years vowed to crack down on misinformation, its relatively recent entry into the mainstream as a major social media platform, along with some of its unique features, have made it ripe for misleading content.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/war-ukraine-sparks-new-wave-misinformation-rcna17779

Maybe we should not believe everything we see on social media…..maybe we should look deeper for what the real story is…..just a thought…..

Amid the alarming images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over the past few days, millions of people have also seen misleading, manipulated or false information about the conflict on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Telegram.

One example is this video of military jets posted to TikTok, which is historical footage but captioned as live video of the situation in Ukraine.

Visuals, because of their persuasive potential and attention-grabbing nature, are an especially potent choice for those seeking to mislead. Where creating, editing or sharing inauthentic visual content isn’t satire or art, it is usually politically or economically motivated.

Disinformation campaigns aim to distract, confuse, manipulate and sow division, discord, and uncertainty in the community. This is a common strategy for highly polarised nations where socioeconomic inequalities, disenfranchisement and propaganda are prevalent.

How is this fake content created and spread, what’s being done to debunk it, and how can you ensure you don’t fall for it yourself?

https://theconversation.com/fake-viral-footage-is-spreading-alongside-the-real-horror-in-ukraine-here-are-5-ways-to-spot-it-177921

This article gives the reader that truly wants to know what is happening in Ukraine and not buying into the hype then the 5 ways to spot bad info is perfect (if only people will do what is needed)

But that assumes that the reader wants to know or just follow the lies that fit what they want to believe.

So far I have seen nothing in the media that they are trying to debunk the spread of misinformation on their part…..they just keep spreading the manure of hearsay.

People are dying at least we could do is ask hard questions and find out why this is happening.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–24Dec21

Since it is the day before Christmas and my posting schedule has been slight….I close out the week with a few thoughts on local journalism.

Most of the reading public knows that the state of local journalism is dying…..thanx in part to the internet and social media.

Personally I weep for journalism for quality work has been replaced with sensationalism….

My local paper has shuddered their offices and it is up for sale…..the operation was moved to a site some 60 miles away and the paper is a shadow of its former self.

If only there was a way to save local journalism…….there is an opinion on just how we could do this…..

Under our plan—the foundation of the new Local Journalism Initiative—policymakers in Washington would provide a lump sum to every county in the nation annually based on the county’s population to pay for nonprofit journalism within that county.

Readers of the Columbia Journalism Review are well aware of the importance of local news media; they have been the foundation of the American free press, and political democracy, since 1776. Daily newspapers have traditionally constituted the heart and soul of local news media, and they have provided the lion’s share of original reporting upon which all other news media depend. That remains the case in the digital era as much of newspapering has transitioned online.

CJR readers are also aware that local journalism as it has been known for 200 years has all but disappeared in most places in the United States over the past two decades. The business model for commercial journalism, based on advertising providing most of the income, is dead. Thanks to the internet, it will never return. All efforts to find a viable new business model for local journalism have failed, and investors have abandoned the field, except for private-equity funds on the lookout for distressed properties they can strip for parts.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/12/01/only-public-funding-can-save-local-journalism-and-thus-democracy

I like the idea…..non-profit journalism could be the answer to the problem of ‘fair and balanced’ news.

Thanx to the Clinton admin of the 90s news became a profit making enterprise at the expense of accuracy and neutrality….

This country needs local journalism to survive…..sadly without some sort of plan it will slowly die and be replaced with lies and disinformation…today is the perfect example of the trouble journalism is in…..it needs our help.

Thoughts?

Have a great evening and be safe and smart…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”