Just about all of the numbers in this USA Today “news report” are wrong, and easily cross checked for the correct numbers. This. Is. Journalism. Where facts are strictly optional.
No, the world is not going to end. This a bad headline designed to strike fear in the reader. It’s based on conspiracy theories and people seeking to find arbitrary patterns in randomness. But – time for some media scary headlines!
“27 police officers injured during largely peaceful” protests. Or something. Several examples of creative reporting, including the MSNBC reporting saying protests are not unruly as a building burns behind him. Words used to have common meanings but apparently not any more. This post is not about the protests about the reporting.
Washington Post publishes a pre-written news report about the BLS unemployment report – and the pre-written report was completely wrong. The WaPo later replaced the fictional reporting with an actual report.
Police shove an elderly, 75 year old man, causing a serious head and brain injury. They walk right past his unconscious body. Then they lie about it. And afterwards the city proclaims this “doesn’t reflect the true character of the Buffalo PD” when, in fact, it is exactly their true character. This is known as the “Begging the question fallacy”.
The CDC emits a continuous stream of inconsistent, often contradictory and generally incoherent messages – after failing to do its job back in January-March – and then blames the public for not understanding their message. The CDC Director is an idiot.
Back in 2016, fake social media posts from fake social media accounts were used to incite fear and hysteria, with attempts to start riots. I documented this in detail back in 2016.
Today we again have fake social media posts being used to incite violence, looting, arson and anarchy – none of which leads to productive solutions to bona fide injustices and societal problems. Social media is playing a central role in this non-productive destruction of our society – and is not providing a platform for problem resolution.
An Internet meme propaganda poster appears to contain false percentage data.
A fake study cherry picks the start date of the pandemic to make a false claim that billionaires became far richer due to the pandemic. The actual purpose of the “study” is propaganda messaging using the methods of cherry picking, appeal to authority, and emotion. The errors made are large enough to be treated as lies, as well.
A national TV reporter hyperventilates on a live broadcast about people not wearing masks as someone walks by and points out his own crew isn’t wearing masks either. Because this is faked news intended to get your emotions going one way or another. Television news is just a big act now days. I may not be a real TV reporter but I play one on TV …