Tag Archives: fake news

More Mainstream Media Fake News, by Ol’ Remus

Posted on December 22, 2016 | Leave a comment

Does relevant news you won’t print because of racial considerations constitute fake news or suppressed news, or both? Regardless of the answer, the following story has a lot to do with why many Americans are fleeing the mainstream media. From Ol’ Remus on a guest post at theburningplatform.com:

The Associated Press news service, as policy, does not specify the race of a perp unless he’s white. When there is no description at all we’re supposed to believe none is available, which has become something of a wink-wink in itself. Recently the AP used an inventive dodge, “police did not release a detailed description”. How precious. Now even their coverups have a coverup.

Here are the particulars.

“Boy, 3, out shopping with grandma dies in road rage shooting” says this Associated Press news report from Little Rock, Arkansas. It continues, “Police said they were looking for an older black Chevrolet Impala. Police did not release a detailed description of the man who was driving it.” The last sentence seemed devious even for the AP, so I checked a source known for being more straightforward and complete, the UK’s online Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail report was , “Arkansas boy, 3, is shot dead in sickening road-rage attack ‘because his grandma wasn’t driving fast enough’”, by Associated Press and James Wilkinson for dailymail.com. Here are the key sentences: “The other driver honked his horn, and King-Macon honked back, the police report said. ‘A black male then exited [the Impala] and fired one shot’, the report said.”

To continue reading: More Mainstream Media Fake News

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Who Will Watch the Watchers? by Uncola

Posted on December 18, 2016 | Leave a comment

Nothing should make people feel better than an announcement from a major technology and social media company that it will be watching out for them. From Uncola at theburningplatform.com:

On December 15th, 2016 Facebook announced a series of measures designed to address what they have termed the “issue of fake news and hoaxes”. The assault on fake news by Facebook will consist of four initiatives including: Easier reporting by readers, flagging stories as disputed, informed sharing and disrupting financial incentives for spammers.

If Facebook readers, in their infinite wisdom, decide a certain shared story is a hoax, they can simply click the right hand corner of the post. This is great. Why, it might even make the Facebook community a last line of defense in the online information war. I don’t know about you, but I, for one, am going to sleep much better knowing this. What could go wrong?

Next, in order to flag any story as fake news, Facebook has started a program working with third-party fact checking organizations that are “signatories of Poynter’s International Fact Checking Code of Principles”.

Thirdly, “Informed Sharing” is explained by Facebook in this way:

We’re always looking to improve News Feed by listening to what the community is telling us. We’ve found that if reading an article makes people significantly less likely to share it, that may be a sign that a story has misled people in some way. We’re going to test incorporating this signal into ranking, specifically for articles that are outliers, where people who read the article are significantly less likely to share it.

To continue reading: Who Will Watch the Watchers?

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What Is The Real Purpose Behind “Fake News” Propaganda? by Brandon Smith

Posted on December 16, 2016 | 3 comments

The mainstream media is hurting rather than helping itself with the “fake news” story, and that may be just what the powers that be actually want. From Brandon Smith at alt-market.com:

Here is the first problem with modern political discourse — too many people want to “win” arguments instead of getting to the greater truth of the matter. Discussions become brinkmanship. Opponents launch into immediate attacks instead of simply asking valid questions. They assert immediately that their position is the only valid position without verification. When confronted with rational responses and ample evidence, they dismiss everything instead of pondering what you have handed them. After this line is crossed, there is no point in continuing the debate. It will go on forever.

This is one of the great tragedies of the Saul Alinsky method of political confrontation; it has bred entire generations of people who now believe that there is no objective truth. They think everything is relative. Because of this belief, they assume that there is no wrong or right side, no wrong or right goal. Instead, there are only goals that are MORE right than the goals of others. Everything boils down to a “lesser of two evils” mentality, and the ends therefore justify the means. Using dishonest measures to win the fight becomes acceptable.

In the end, ideological combat actually prevents people from learning rather than helping them get to the root of the issue. We live in a world where truth is superfluous to the overall narrative. The only thing that is important is destroying your rivals.

To continue reading: What Is The Real Purpose Behind “Fake News” Propaganda?

 

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“Fake News”, Censorship, Darwin and Democracy, by Charles Hugh Smith

Posted on December 14, 2016 | 1 comment

From the article: “What the ruling political elites and their mainstream media shills fear is a wide-open, chaotic and very Darwinian competition of concepts and ideas.” From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:

Censorship is not helpful to democracy–rather, it is the death of democracy.

The mainstream media is awash with hyper-active headlines about “fake news.” How can we make sense of this sudden obsession?

Perhaps we can start by separating “news” from “analysis” from “commentary.” “News” is “he said this, she did that, this happened.” Analysis tries to make sense of trends that are apparent in the news longer-term–for example, why did Trump win? Is the economy actually healthy or not? “Commentary” is opinion that establishes a point of view and defends it while attacking other POVs.

All three of these news flows are constantly being spun /manipulated to support specific agendas and narratives. Now we are being told some of these news flows are false/ misleading and their intent is to disrupt democracy.

I would counter that censorship is not helpful to democracy–rather, it is the death of democracy. It’s all too obvious in the MSM hysteria over “fake news” that the narrative being pushed is: any criticism of Hillary or questions about her health, foundation, etc., were BY DEFINITION Russian propaganda.

Never mind that few if any voters changed their mind as a result of the “Russian hacking” (the Podesta emails); voters were already so polarized that the content of the the emails did not influence their decision, which was based on deeper foundations than “news.”

The fear of those who want to preserve democracy is that under the excuse of “eliminating Russian propaganda” the status quo will restrict everyone who is inconveniently challenging the status quo narratives with data-based analysis.

To continue reading: “Fake News”, Censorship, Darwin and Democracy

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There’s a Psy-OP, All Right, But It Isn’t “The Russians” by Daisy Luther

Posted on December 13, 2016 | 1 comment

In a desperate bid to regain some relevance, if not the credibility, that it lost during the election, the mainstream media has lined up behind the Russia fabrication. From Daiy Luther at daisyluther.com:

Enough with “the Russians” already. This “Russian Disinformation” and “Russian Hacking” stuff is getting more ridiculous by the day.

First, don’t let the irony escape you that most, if not all, of the pundits breathlessly blaming the Russians for “fake news” and “election interference” are the very ones who were saying that Hillary Clinton was a shoe-in for president. They’re the ones who were providing her campaign with questions in advance, and allowing her people to approve/disapprove of articles.

Secondly, many of the entities blamed for spreading “Russian propaganda” were the ones with the audacity to tell the truth about the Clinton crime family and spread knowledge of the information released by Wikileaks. Obviously, I’m not including those Macedonian college kids in this, but keep in mind that they weren’t doing it for the Russians – they were doing it to make money.

This isn’t about the Russians at all, which anyone with half a brain realizes is absolutely ridiculous.

Here’s what this really is.
This is a war on the Trump presidency. It’s an attempted coup.

Maybe it’s even another effort to outright steal the presidency from Trump. Maybe there’s someone with a lot of money to throw into this “OMG THE RUSSIANS” rhetoric who really hates Russia and who really wanted Hillary Clinton to be the President. Maybe his name rhymes with “Doros.” I don’t know this for sure, but it’s at least a more likely story than “The Russians” hacking our election and deliberately spreading propaganda.

To continue reading: There’s a Psy-OP, All Right, But It Isn’t “The Russians”

 

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War on ‘Fake News’ Part of a War on Free Speech, by Ron Paul

Posted on December 12, 2016 | 1 comment

Why the “fake news” issue is so important, from Ron Paul at ronpaulinstitute.org:

A major threat to liberty is the assault on the right to discuss political issues, seek out alternative information sources, and promote dissenting ideas and causes such as non-interventionism in foreign and domestic affairs. If this ongoing assault on free speech succeeds, then all of our liberties are endangered.

One of the most common assaults on the First Amendment is the attempt to force public policy organizations to disclose their donors. Regardless of the intent of these laws, the effect is to subject supporters of controversial causes to harassment, or worse. This harassment makes other potential donors afraid to support organizations opposing a popular war or defending the rights of an unpopular group.

Many free speech opponents support laws and regulations forbidding activist or educational organizations from distributing factual information regarding a candidate’s positions for several months before an election. The ban would apply to communications that do not endorse or oppose any candidate. These laws would result in the only sources of information on the candidate’s views being the campaigns and the media.

Recently the Federal Election Commission (FEC) rejected a proposal to add language exempting books, movies, and streaming videos from its regulations. The majority of FEC commissioners apparently believe they should have the power, for example, to ban Oliver Stone’s biography of Edward Snowden, since it was released two months before the election and features clips of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump discussing Snowden.

The latest, and potentially most dangerous, threat to the First Amendment is the war on “fake news.” Those leading the war are using a few “viral” Internet hoaxes to justify increased government regulation — and even outright censorship — of Internet news sites. Some popular websites, such as Facebook, are not waiting for the government to force them to crack down on fake news.

To continue reading: War on ‘Fake News’ Part of a War on Free Speech

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The CIA’s Absence of Conviction, by Craig Murray

Posted on December 12, 2016 | 2 comments

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who is personally close to Julian Assange, blasts the CIA’s Russian concoction. From Murray at craigmurray.org.uk:

I have watched incredulous as the CIA’s blatant lie has grown and grown as a media story – blatant because the CIA has made no attempt whatsoever to substantiate it. There is no Russian involvement in the leaks of emails showing Clinton’s corruption. Yes this rubbish has been the lead today in the Washington Post in the US and the Guardian here, and was the lead item on the BBC main news. I suspect it is leading the American broadcasts also.

A little simple logic demolishes the CIA’s claims. The CIA claim they “know the individuals” involved. Yet under Obama the USA has been absolutely ruthless in its persecution of whistleblowers, and its pursuit of foreign hackers through extradition. We are supposed to believe that in the most vital instance imaginable, an attempt by a foreign power to destabilise a US election, even though the CIA knows who the individuals are, nobody is going to be arrested or extradited, or (if in Russia) made subject to yet more banking and other restrictions against Russian individuals? Plainly it stinks. The anonymous source claims of “We know who it was, it was the Russians” are beneath contempt.

As Julian Assange has made crystal clear, the leaks did not come from the Russians. As I have explained countless times, they are not hacks, they are insider leaks – there is a major difference between the two. And it should be said again and again, that if Hillary Clinton had not connived with the DNC to fix the primary schedule to disadvantage Bernie, if she had not received advance notice of live debate questions to use against Bernie, if she had not accepted massive donations to the Clinton foundation and family members in return for foreign policy influence, if she had not failed to distance herself from some very weird and troubling people, then none of this would have happened.

The continued ability of the mainstream media to claim the leaks lost Clinton the election because of “Russia”, while still never acknowledging the truths the leaks reveal, is Kafkaesque.

To continue reading: The CIA’s Absence of Conviction

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From Captive Audience to Open Democracy: Why the Mainstream Media Is Freaking Out, by Charles Hugh Smith

Posted on December 11, 2016 | Leave a comment

The mainstream media has destroyed itself, and is grasping at all sorts of straws to try to regain the trust of the American people. It’s not going to happen. From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:

In a democracy, trust must be earned. It cannot be imposed.

In its panicky rush to demonize the independent media via baseless accusations of “fake news,” the mainstream press has sunk to spewing “fake news” of its own.

Here’s The Washington Post’s criminally false “fake news” article in case you missed it: Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say.

So-called “fake news” was perfectly acceptable to the mainstream media when it was the exclusive purview of the central state. The infamous Gulf of Tonkin Incident in August 1964 that was used to justify a massive escalation of the heretofore limited war in Vietnam was heavily promoted by the mainstream media of the day.

Within hours of the incident, Navy commanders had notified the Pentagon that the entire incident was very likely illusory, a “fog of war” error.

Decades later, the mainstream media swallowed the Executive Branch’s “weapons of mass destruction” justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq as well. Even more egregiously, the mainstream media parroted the central bank/state’s narrative about the Global Financial Meltdown of 2008, missing the systemic fraud and embezzlement at the heart of America’s financial system.

Why is the mainstream media freaking out right now? The MSM had bet all its diminishing chips of credibility on Hillary Clinton winning the Presidency. Leading newspapers such as The New York Times ceaselessly undermined Bernie Sander’s campaign in favor of Hillary Clinton, a bias visible throughout the mainstream media. (When Bernie won a primary by a substantial margin, the smallish NYT headline would read something like “Sanders edges Clinton.” When Clinton won a primary by a slim margin, the NYT would declare in large typeface “Clinton regains momentum.” Do you see the not-so-subtle bias?)

To continue reading: From Captive Audience to Open Democracy: Why the Mainstream Media Is Freaking Out

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Anonymous Leaks to the WashPost About the CIA’s Russia Beliefs Are No Substitute for Evidence, by Glenn Greenwald

Posted on December 11, 2016 | 1 comment

Glenn Greenwald is a voice of rationality in the fake news/Russian influence imbroglio. From Greenwald at the intercept.com:

THE WASHINGTON POST late Friday night published an explosive story that, in many ways, is classic American journalism of the worst sort: The key claims are based exclusively on the unverified assertions of anonymous officials, who in turn are disseminating their own claims about what the CIA purportedly believes, all based on evidence that remains completely secret.

These unnamed sources told the Post that “the CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system.” The anonymous officials also claim that “intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails” from both the DNC and John Podesta’s email account. Critically, none of the actual evidence for these claims is disclosed; indeed, the CIA’s “secret assessment” itself remains concealed.

A second leak from last night, this one given to the New York Times, cites other anonymous officials as asserting that “the Russians hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organizations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned from the Republican networks.” But that NYT story says that “it is also far from clear that Russia’s original intent was to support Mr. Trump, and many intelligence officials — and former officials in Mrs. Clinton’s campaign — believe that the primary motive of the Russians was to simply disrupt the campaign and undercut confidence in the integrity of the vote.”

Deep down in its article, the Post notes — rather critically — that “there were minor disagreements among intelligence officials about the agency’s assessment, in part because some questions remain unanswered.” Most importantly, the Post adds that “intelligence agencies do not have specific intelligence showing officials in the Kremlin ‘directing’ the identified individuals to pass the Democratic emails to WikiLeaks.” But the purpose of both anonymous leaks is to finger the Russian government for these hacks, acting with the motive to defeat Hillary Clinton.

To continue reading: Anonymous Leaks to the WashPost About the CIA’s Russia Beliefs Are No Substitute for Evidence

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A “Soft Coup” Attempt: Furious Trump Slams “Secret” CIA Report Russia Helped Him Win, by Tyler Durden

Posted on December 11, 2016 | Leave a comment

There’s not a shred of hard evidence that Russia made any attempt to influence the US election, just a lot of allegations and innuendo. Now various intelligence agencies are destroying what’s left of their reputations by dignifying the allegations and innuendo. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Overnight the media propaganda wars escalated after the late Friday release of an article by the Washington Post (which last week admitted to using unverified, or fake, news in an attempt to smear other so-called “fake news” sites) according to which a secret CIA assessment found that Russia sought to tip last month’s U.S. presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor, a conclusion presented without any actual evidence, and which drew an extraordinary, and angry rebuke from the president-elect’s camp.

“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” Trump’s transition team said, launching a broadside against the spy agency. “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.’ ”

The Washington Post report comes after outgoing President Barack Obama ordered a review of all cyberattacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle, amid growing calls from Congress for more information on the extent of Russian interference in the campaign. The newspaper cited officials briefed on the matter as saying that individuals with connections to Moscow provided WikiLeaks with email hacked from the Democratic National Committee, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief and others.

To continue reading: A “Soft Coup” Attempt: Furious Trump Slams “Secret” CIA Report Russia Helped Him Win

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