Facebook Fake News & America’s Cultural Crisis

I recently touched on the “fake news” becoming mainstream in my Closing Thought…..I read a post later that went into more detail and its effect on the culture of the country.

It appears that “fake news” made the rounds of the MSM as real news…..did it influence the election….not a question I can answer and others will not admit the deception……I know of at least two blogs that I visit that ran with at least one of the fake news items…..and yet they will not admit that they were fooled into believing crap.

Technology has changed culture. It has empowered new voices, but also permitted our political fights to invade many other worlds once exempt from partisan combat: celebrities, beauty pageants, and arguably even our churches, from the Right’s point of view and the Left’s.All the places where we once gathered to celebrate the idea of a world outside of politics are increasingly split by the same hyper-partisanship that characterizes our political culture, which this week is traveling under the cover of what the Left calls a “fake news” crisis.Even corporate culture, which needs to be reality-based to succeed, is increasingly pushing itself in a one-sided way into political combat with half its customers. The Chamber of Commerce declared war on conscience protections for gay-marriage dissenters in deep-red states. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola decided it had to deprive former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement of his law partnership for the crime of defending the House of Representatives in DOMA litigation. The corporations that run sports entertainment decided to punish the state of North Carolina for its so-called bathroom bill, relocating events they had planned to hold in the state. ESPN is enthusiastically covering and debating those who refuse to stand for the national anthem.Technology, by facilitating the spread of outrage, created the backlashes that led to all of these punitive actions. It has also enabled people’s worst impulses to bully and shame, and unleashed formerly contained voices of open racism and anti-Semitism, as well as open “progressive” racism in universities and elsewhere.RELATED: Report on Scourge of Fake News Turns Out to Be FakedIn the week since Donald Trump was elected, the Left has been quick to hype the crisis of “fake news” on Facebook, complaining that the social-media giant swung the election by allowing the spread of false pro-Trump stories. There is no doubt a kernel of truth to the charge — fake stories were shared on Facebook during the election, and that is worrisome — but insofar as it allows the mainstream media to avoid even a moment’s introspection in the wake of Trump’s victory, it is a convenient distraction. The much bigger problem is we no longer have a consensus, centrist view of what is true and not true: There is no mainstream media anymore.What do I mean by that? Just take a look at the past week’s worth of false media narratives:1. The Trump administration is in disarray. The purge of Chris Christie, apparently for filling the transition team with business-as-usual lobbyists — or possibly as Jared Kushner’s revenge on Christie for prosecuting his father — was, of course, news. But the idea that the Trump administration is behindhand in orderly transition is just fantasy, as David Axelrod acknowledged.2. Trump is already showing signs of unsavory nepotism. Yes, there are laws against employing family members. But they do not apply to the president, and even if they did, they would not prohibit Trump from talking to Kushner, his children, or anyone else in his family about policy, strategy, or legislation.3. Steve Bannon is a white nationalist like David Duke. Yes, Breitbart has championed the alt-right. But the evidence is not nearly as clear as the media have made it seem.Surely, we can and must do better. But trusting the mainstream media to decide what is real and fake news, or asking Facebook and Twitter to sort it out for us, is not the answer.Jonathan Rauch has written, I think rather persuasively, that the absence of authoritative institutions, including political institutions, is a new problem. The fake news “crisis” is emblematic of the cultural problem we have: There appears to be no mainstream any more. The center is not holding. We have few agreed-upon truths that unite us in this Internet age. We don’t have agreement, above all, on who has the power to decide what is true and false and right and wrong.That’s what a culture war is, as James Davison Hunter taught us: a struggle over who has the power to name reality. And, all reports to the contrary, America’s has not gone away; it’s just metastasized.— Maggie Gallagher is the author of four books on marriage and a longtime contributor to National Review.

Source: Facebook Fake News & America’s Cultural Crisis | National Review

Where do we draw the line? I agree with freedom of the press….but is outright lies covered in that freedom?

For instance these people……

With the controversy over fake or deliberately misleading viral stories making headlines, the Washington Post and the New York Times each have interesting features on the topic:

The Post profiles two twentysomethings who were unemployed restaurant workers six months ago but have since struck it rich by creating the fast-growing LibertyWritersNews website. Paris Wade and Ben Goldman churn out quick stories from their couch with headlines like “THE TRUTH IS OUT! The Media Doesn’t Want You To See What Hillary Did After Losing,” promote them via their Facebook page (now with 805,000 followers), then watch them go viral. They collect money from a slew of ads on everything from Viagra alternatives to acne solutions. “We’re the new yellow journalists,” says Wade, at another point explaining their headline-writing process thusly: “You have to trick people into reading the news.” Read the full story.

The Times, meanwhile, deconstructs how one false story in particular went viral. The difference is that this one wasn’t intentionally fake. It began when 35-year-old Eric Tucker in Austin, Texas, posted an image of parked buses near an anti-Donald Trump rally on Nov. 9, after leaping to the conclusion that the protesters had been bused in. (Turns out, the buses were completely unrelated.) He had just 40 followers on Twitter, but his tweet suggesting the protests were manipulated got picked up on Reddit, then on conservative forums including the Gateway Pundit, and, soon resulted in headlines like “They’ve Found the Buses!” ricocheting around the web. (Trump himself seemed to buy into the sentiment.) Looking back, “I might still have tweeted it but very differently,” says Tucker of his original image. “I think it goes without saying I would have tried to make a more objective statement.” Read the full story.

It has become all too easy to get Fake News into the national conversation…..but I am positive that this “fake news” is here to stay…..what can be done?

Major Internet companies, such as Google and Facebook, are being urged to censor such articles and to punish alleged violators. Also, teams of supposedly “responsible” news providers and technology giants are being assembled to police this alleged problem and decide what is true and what is not.

But therein lies the more serious problem: who gets to decide what is real and what is not real? And – in an age when all sides propagate propaganda – when does conformity in support of a mainstream “truth” become censorship of reasonable skepticism?

Source: What to Do About ‘Fake News’ – Consortiumnews

I am sure there is another post lurking in there some place……

What Is Missing In The News?

Content for one!

I have been bitching about thew media’s coverage during this season as a worthless waste of time….all they cover is the stupid trying to outdo stupid….no coverage of the issues that we need to hear about before we make our choice.

I have tried to stay away from the absolute moronic rants of the candidates that serve no purpose as much as possible but it has been an uphill battle to find something they say as important.

So when I read about this new study of the media’s coverage or the lack of coverage on the issues I was glad to see that I was right all along…..

Walking away from a long-standing tradition of covering issues and presidential policies during campaign season, the network evening newscasts have all but abandoned that type of reporting this year, according to recent tabulations from Tyndall Report, which for decades has tracked the flagship nightly news programs.

Since the beginning of 2016, ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News have devoted just 32 minutes to issues coverage, according to Andrew Tyndall.

Differentiating issues coverage from daily campaign coverage where policy topics might be addressed, Tyndall defines issues coverage by a newscast this way: “It takes a public policy, outlines the societal problem that needs to be addressed, describes the candidates’ platform positions and proposed solutions, and evaluates their efficacy.”

Source: Study Confirms Network Evening Newscasts Have Abandoned Policy Coverage For 2016 Campaign

The other sad thing is that the people, the voters, did not stand up and demand better issue coverage they got sucked into the reality TV mentality and have been stuck there for over a year…..

Another odd thing is that most descent journalist see this disturbing situation but they cannot break away from it for you see they live or die on air by ratings ….and this reality mentality feeds the ratings……

We have NO one to blame but ourselves…

God help this country!

The New McCarthyism

How many of you young’ns even know what the term “McCarthyism” means?

The term is named after Sen. Joseph “Tail Gunner Joe” McCarthy a senator from Wisconsin and his witch hunts for “communists” hiding in plain sight within our society…..

He used the House Un-American Activities Committee as a cover for his witch hunts…..

“Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party?”

In the 1950s, thousands of Americans who toiled in the government, served in the army, worked in the movie industry, or came from various walks of life had to answer that question before a congressional panel.

Senator Joseph McCarthy rose to national prominence by initiating a probe to ferret out communists holding prominent positions. During his investigations, safeguards promised by the Constitution were trampled.

Source: McCarthyism [ushistory.org]

I bring this up because there are some the see a return of the days of McCarthyism….the demonization and the accusations abound.

The New Cold War and its fellow-traveler, the New McCarthyism, are arriving on the hawkish wings of The New York Times and other mainstream U.S. media outlets, writes Robert Parry.

Traditional U.S. journalism and the American people are facing a crisis as the preeminent American newspaper, The New York Times, has fully lost its professional bearings, transforming itself into a neoconservative propaganda sheet eager for a New Cold War with Russia and imposing a New McCarthyism on public debate.

The crisis is particularly acute because another top national newspaper, The Washington Post, is also deeply inside the neocon camp.

Source: New York Times and the New McCarthyism – Consortiumnews

I have long said that the MSM is nothing but a propaganda tool for the neocons and the defense industry…..they use the MSM to make the case for intervention and conflict……plus they are used to further the anti-Russian dialog and anyone that disagrees is somehow a “Russian apologist” (have I heard the term before?)

I have long said that the NYTimes and WaPo were nothing but tools that gave up all claim to fair journalism…..and they are not alone……just the most visible of the MSM……

The Day Before Today

From the Desk of Chuq

In case you are confused that would be yesterday. The media did what it always does….it chooses what will be news……no secret that I think very little of the MSM to me they are just a group of worthless propagandists.

Fir instance yesterday…..they reported on a shooting in Texas and the name of a new baby in the Royal family (I will not mention that fake report by FOX News that the rest of the MSM jumped on as fact)…….but let’s talk about these two news reports……..

First, the shooting at an anti-Muslim cartoon fest in Garland, Texas. Nobody should have been surprised! The group sponsoring the festival is a “hate for profit” group that pulls down about $3 million a year. For years they have been spouting hate and the dangers of Islam…….they got the reaction they had hoped for….it provoked someone to talk action and thus their many years of prophecy arrives and they are now validated and the profits will rise. Yep, this was news….but for the wrong reason……the MSM gets several days of milking this story for everything and the bitch in charge of the group gets a couple of days of massive bookings to help spread her message nationwide…….for the 2 groups it is a win-win scenario you are always hearing about…….

Second, the name of the Royal baby….why? Most most intelligent people could care less….it is NOT news for anyone but the Queen. About 200 years ago we fought a revolution so we do not have to care what happens to the royals. No where in journalism, true journalism, should this have been a lead story…….it the grand scheme of things it is NOTHING!

The reason that I bring this up is that while the American MSM was focused on “reality” TV real situations were occurring……

First, the Saudis war with Yemen……..it has taken a turn that the US could well be drawn into and NOT in a good way….

Weeks of Saudi airstrikes against Yemeni cities have extended into the first deployment of ground troops over the weekend, with witnesses confirming Saudi special forces on the ground in Aden, backed by helicopter gunships.

Not making much progress that way, the Saudis seem to be bringing in the first of their ground troops. With massive numbers of troops massed around the northern border, this may just be the first of a full-scale war.

Since the US is a major ally to the Saudis….who will get called when things go South?

The second major story…..and one that you will most likely NEVER hear on any of the MSM outlets………

Israel has repeatedly denied reports of deliberate targeting of civilians during its wars in the Gaza Strip, those claims were once again proven false today with the release of a new report by Israeli veterans NGO Breaking the Silence.

The report features testimony from more than 60 Israeli soldiers who confirmed that not only did they deliberately target civilians during the most recent invasion, but that they were explicitly ordered to do so.

“Whoever you see there, you kill,” is how one soldier summed up the orders. He said soldiers were told the civilians “knew they’re not supposed to be there” and therefore they were to kill anyone who wasn’t an Israeli soldier on sight.

Western media will do all they can to make sure that this story never sees the light of day for they are always covering up any story that paints Israel in a negative light.

The Media makes me sick! We NO longer have what they all say they are about….”fair and balanced” reporting….that is only a slogan that does not represent the truth in any form!

Enough said?

Say It Ain’t So!

Please overlook the use of the word “ain’t”….all I can say is that I had a momentary brain fat!

I came across some news that should make a liberal smile and the radical right quote the title of this post…(it is nice to be quoted)……I found the good news while reading Alternet website……(it brought a smile to my face and before coffee)…..

Since October, Rush Limbaugh’s ratings have fallen by 33 percent and Sean Hannity’s by 28 percent, while Glenn Beck’s been dropped in several markets. Could this be indicative of a larger trend? This week Salon wonderedif their decline foretells a death whimper for the age of the extreme right talk show host.If true, this would also coincide with the public’s increasing disdain for the GOP’s economic policies, wrought by Paul Ryan’s unsustainable budget plan and last night’s unanimous vote to kill Medicare despite the wishes of their constituents. And while the extreme right pundits still enjoy a healthy amount of media coverage thanks to their willingness to drop outrageously racist, sexist, classist quoteables, it’s all countered by a recent surge of citizens getting behind boycotts, which helped result in Beck’s ouster from markets in New York, Connecticut, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. So, is there hope for an end to the windbag era? We can only hope. Read the full Salon piece here.

Is the sheep that listen to talk radio becoming more savvy of the political situation in this country? Or is it just their listen, all of them over 60 years of age, like their Medicare, even though I do not like the idea of a single payer system?

Lamestream Media

Daily Agitator

Sarah Palin was RIGHT! (Progressives read the entire post before the condemnation)

For years I have bitched about the media in the US….that they NO longer report news but rather drive the news….and I am talking about both sides of the political spectrum…they should be seen for what they are….HACKS! Professionalism in journalism…..is dead and now it is a joke!

The photo question about Osama’s death has been answered…and it is NO…let it go…to keep the issue in the news is just short of irresponsibility….the American people do not care one way or the other…just say thank you to the special ops guys and move on!

The next piece of crap is the endless reports on the details of the raid and the subsequent killing of Osama….the media is really upset the the details keep changing and they have to have expert after expert paraded across the tube trying to get a handle on the details….

Here is the answer you dipshits are seeking…..it is called DEBRIEFING!…as the team is debriefed more and more details come out and then is passed on…there is NO story in this….only in the peanut brains of those trying to make a story where NONE exist…there is NO suspicion….only in the conversation that the media WANTS to have and the news they want to manufacture……..

The media, both lib and conserv is truly exactly what Palin called them…..LAMESTREAM MEDIA…….time to find REAL news and do what is expected of you, not by the corporate bosses, but rather the people, that you pretend to inform…..there is real news out there but that would mean you twits would have to work for it….I guess it is easier to make the news up…that is why I search out sources that do not have an agenda to drive.

This whole story about the photos and the details is just plain PATHETIC!

What Happened To The Nerd Fest?

We know what I think of most of the media and the coverage of the stories of the day…that they drive the worthless conversation and seldom make politics answer questions but instead allow an endless diatribe on the day’s talking points……

The Nerd Fest? Yep that is what the Correspondents Dinner use to be called….why? I was just the journalists, their family, some minor celebrities and some low level government speakers….in other words it was just a dinner where the journalists slapped each other on the back and schmoozed a bit…..but all that changed!

Now the Correspondents Dinner is a gala affair….a must have ticket….the A list…..you get the point…..it is the place to be on that specific night…Dana Millbank observes…..

Dana Millbank points out the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner “was a minor annoyance for years, when it was a ‘nerd prom’ for journalists and a few minor celebrities. But, as with so much else in this town, the event has spun out of control… With the proliferation of A-list parties and the infusion of corporate and lobbyist cash, Washington journalists give Americans the impression we have shed our professional detachment and are aspiring to be like the celebrities and power players we cover. “

I have been bitching about the lack of real news offered up by those journalist that cover our politics….and this dinner is why we do NOT get the news we can use……power, money, celebrity…the media is just as bought as our politicians……another reason why I get better info from the papers of the UK…..

I mean come on….when you see a noted journalists having a dance with the chief of WH staff and rapping to each other…..then our news has become the joke that our political system has become…….professional political journalism is DEAD! All in all a pathetic lack of professionalism! Long live the Beck’s of the airwaves! (that was sarcasm)……..

Truth In Journalism

Easter is over……the weekend is over…..back to the mundane stuff that just pisses everybody off…….

For years I have been bitching about the media and how they seldom give the whole story and sometimes even make crap up to drive the news for the next week or so…..I have also bitched about how they allow politicians to give all their talking points and seldom make them answer any true questions on real issues….All cable news seems to be “manufactured news” put out to drive the weekly news cycle……something should be done!

But what could we possibly do to correct this situation?

First of all there is a problem…….The First Amendment does not permit government interference with “the freedom of the press.” What that freedom is, is among the great undefined terms in American jurisprudence. But its enduring strength is that few are willing to take the first step down the slippery slope of determining who is a journalist and who is not, and what constitutes good journalism and what does not. It’s all protected, for good or ill.

And there is the rub…….lying in journalism is kinda protected under the auspices of the Constitution….cool huh?

Beyond the Constitution thing……There is no licensing authority for journalists as there is for lawyers or doctors, but the Society of Professional Journalists puts forth a set of ethical standards, though it has no means to enforce them. First among them is: “Deliberate distortion is never permissible.” It should go without saying, but there it is.

The rest of the standards touch on basic tenets of honesty (don’t fabricate, mislead, deceive, silence opposing views), humanity (show compassion, respect and sensitivity to subjects who have undergone trying or traumatic events), and integrity (avoid conflicts of interest and disclose those that cannot be avoided).

But with the advent of the cable 24 hour news cycle….the professionalism has been lost and replaced with CRAP! With conspiracies…..with innuendo…..and finally with out right lies……

It isn’t always that politicians deliver a pack of lies when they appear in public, though they may. And it isn’t that there is a lack of information available. Rather we are fed a starvation diet of news that is easily digested but not very nourishing.

What seems to attract the media and delight legions of supporters is a series of flimsy headline articles that play to the sympathies but not the intellects of voters. When it is said that the country should be run more like a business or, in some cases, like what families decide about fiscal matters sitting around the kitchen table we are required to make false choices. Neither the typical business nor the family home are examples that translate readily to national policy, but in the realm of instantaneous news delivery these images are often used to suggest it is possible to return to simpler times and simpler solutions in a world that grows ever more complex. (from an article written by Ann Davidow for BuzzFlash)

Somewhere, someplace….we can only hope that someday journalist will return to giving the people the facts and nothing but the facts (thanx Joe Friday…good quote) and leave the unfounded editorializing for the editors….one day we will have truth in journalism!

How To Make A Million (Actually 2)

By now we have all heard the story of the firing of the NPR commentator, Juan Williams….just in case you have been in a coma for a couple of days……well a whole magilla has rose up over some comments that the normally liberal pundit had to say on an appearance on FOX News:

NPR is facing sharp criticism for terminating the contract of news analyst Juan Williams.

Williams was fired Wednesday for violating NPR’s ethics policy over comments he made on Fox News about Muslims.

But those comments — and NPR’s response — have prompted questions about where the boundaries are drawn for journalists these days.

Williams appeared Thursday night on The O’Reilly Factor, the same Fox program where he made the initial comments that seeing fellow airline passengers dressed in Muslim garb makes him nervous.

When the news broke…my first impression was……when will he get his FOX contract now that he has found a way to get out of the one he was serving with NPR….the media has been all over NPR for his firing….it has made good fodder for the normally boring news programs…..was it racism? Was it fear mongering? Was it…..on and on…..well my first impression was the most accurate…..and in two days I had my answer….

Williams is now enjoying the full embrace of Fox News, which has given him a new three-year, $2 million contract and a guest slot, Friday night, as host of The O’Reilly Factor.

All this crap is just too damn predictable! Williams is trying to capitalize on the mad money that flies around the people on FOX….he has done and will keep doing whatever it takes to get his slice of that pie…….

UpDate: God I love being right…..it feels semi-orgasmic…….told you so about Willimas

Former NPR new analyst Juan Williams joined the call in a Fox News appearance today to defund NPR in the wake of his firing, saying “if they want to compete in the marketplace, they should compete in the marketplace. They don’t need public funds.”

Williams continued that NPR tries “to make it out like, ‘you know what? We are a public jewel and we need the protection of the federal government,'” but that’s “nonsense. They are on the federal dole is what it is. And they better admit it and step up. If they want to compete.”

This guy is quickly becoming a media whore like the rest of the pundits on the tube……it is NOT about integrity….but rather chasing the God of the media….the dollar bill….

Where Is The Condemnation?

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Tag: Journalistic Garbage