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Category: Pseudo News

The headline: “Over half of Americans delay or don’t get health care because they can’t afford it”

The headline: “Over half of Americans delay or don’t get health care because they can’t afford it”

The survey appears to have found that over half of Americans postpone preventative checkups when they are not experiencing any health problems which is different than avoiding seeking care for an active health care problem.

The distinction is that in many health care visits, a patient is experiencing something wrong and visits a provider to hopefully find a solution.

In a preventative check up, a patient goes to a provider and asks the provider to find something wrong with them.

Fake headline: “Someone just made a floating hovercraft Delorean”

Fake headline: “Someone just made a floating hovercraft Delorean”

Here’s the fake headline: Someone just made a floating hovercraft Delorean – Esquire Middle East.

Matt built his Delorean look-alike hovercraft between 2010 and 2012 which is hardly “just made”. He has, however, put it up for sale. We both have hovercraft and we both flew them at solar eclipse viewing events in Oregon in 2017.

Staged photos used to illustrate a “news” story

Staged photos used to illustrate a “news” story

The way to respond to accusations of fictional news reporting is to double down on accuracy, objectivity and remaining calm. Unfortunately, the news industry continues to harm itself through self destructive behavior typical of middle school drama. Here, an online magazine staged their photos to accompany an interview, down to providing the clothing worn by the subject being interviewed.

Creative news writing – “First solo flight” claim is false

Creative news writing – “First solo flight” claim is false

Numerous “news” outlets botch a new story saying a 17-year student pilot made a successful emergency landing on her “first solo flight”. In reality, her first solo flight was a year ago. However, this erroneous report was repeated by numerous news stories, nation wide. When they cannot get even the simplest of facts correct, should we trust anything in the news?

How does a college student “intern” become a “senior adviser”?

How does a college student “intern” become a “senior adviser”?

How the New York Times turned a college student intern into a “federal analyst”, “senior adviser” and host of other titles, in a single front page news story. Title inflation makes a news report more persuasive through use of an “appeal to authority”. Citing an anonymous college student intern does not sound as good as citing an anonymous “senior adviser”. Unfortunately, the news media frequently uses both title inflation and anonymous sources to persuade you to adopt their agenda.

Journalists fall for false meme, because they want it to be true?

Journalists fall for false meme, because they want it to be true?

The long time thesis of this blog is that social media is a frictionless platform for the spread of propaganda. In the “good old days”, propaganda required owning a printing press or broadcast license. Today, anyone can become a propagandist by posting an appropriate meme on social media and watch it shared thousands or millions of times. Journalists frequently use their personal accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (but especially Twitter) to share items of interest to themselves. Due to…

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Full text of the comment that was shadow banned by Oregonian newspaper

Full text of the comment that was shadow banned by Oregonian newspaper

The next morning, my comment remains shadow banned by the Oregonian. Here is the description of the shadow ban, from last night with a screen capture of how the ban appears. (This link goes to the old WordPress.com website for this blog: https://socialcoldstreams.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/i-was-shadow-banned-by-oregonian-censorship-a-powerful-form-of-propaganda/) Here, I present the full text of the shadow banned comment plus the supplementary information for how I obtained the facts presented in the comment. Here are actual price quotes from HealthCare.gov. The first quotes are for…

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