One of these headlines is from The Onion and one is from a national media outlet: Can you tell which?
Which is from The Onion?
Manufacturing negative news about SpaceX’s team delivery of mini-sub
Elon Musk calls out BBC New’s incorrect news report. The full correspondence may be seen here. BBC News is well aware of Richard Stanton and his role in the cave rescue. But as is typical, the news had to find “fault” with someone who is voluntarily spending his own money and assigning his own team and delivering a solution, at his own expense and time, to the incident. The BBC has since rewritten their story. The media establishment has, for…
We may be wrong but he is even “wronger”, or something :)
The adversarial relationship developed into a full-scale propaganda war between the Administration and the media. 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. This behavior is bewildering. [1] Some of the items described in the article were previously confirmed by me, although not necessarily mentioned on this blog. Based on my…
Journalism executive creates online news service as click-bait propaganda outlet
NowThis News claims to be in the journalism business, but don’t be fooled. This click-bait venture, which was founded in 2015 by Huffington Post co-founder Kenneth Lerer, is your basic, run-of-the-mill propaganda outfit. Its real goal is the spread of political agitprop. The twist here is that NowThis disguises itself as a genuine newsroom. In reality, this site has less in common with the Wall Street Journal, which does actual journalism, than it does with the low-level Resistance grift, which…
Fun with statistics: When survey results do not mean what you may think they mean
Gallup poll found that 52% of Americans say they were extremely proud to be American in 2016; 51% in 2017 and 47% in 2016. Gallup says this is a record low. Source: In U.S., Record-Low 47% Extremely Proud to Be Americans At the very, very bottom of the press release, in slightly greyed out type, we read that the results had a sampling error of + or – 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Let’s rewrite the 2016-2018…
Reporter resigns after falsely saying shooter wore a political hat
Berry’s apology came after his earlier controversial tweet, in which he posted an image of the president’s “Make America Great Again” hat and implied that Jarrod Ramos dropped one on The Capital Gazette’s newsroom floor before gunning down five people Thursday. The tweet has been removed. … Berry lamented that his tweet “feeds the warped minds of people who think we wake up every day and try to push an agenda.” Source: Springfield Republican reporter resigns after tweet about Maryland…
The main purpose of social media is to spread disinformation?
Is the main purpose of social media to spread disinformation? Sure seems so, whether intentional or unintentional. Yesterday, our local Sheriff’s Office spread disinformation on Twitter with a goal of encouraging safe driving (definitely approve that!) But they did so by using a logical fallacy linking bike and pedestrian accidents to cellular phone usage, a conclusion that is false per the reference they cited in their tweet. Because viewers of the tweet learned something that was not true, viewers became…
News: They don’t care about accuracy
Clarke, club president of CARE, said his interest is transmitting using LP or “low power” apparatus. John Laybourne, vice president of the Rogue Valley Amateur Radio Club, used a high-power 10,000 watt setup needing a gas-powered generator for the off-the-grid event. Source: In era of Wi-Fi and LTE, ham radio enthusiasts don’t mind a challenge | The Columbian Depending on license class, band and geographic location, the limits are 5 watts, 50 watts, 200 watts or 1,500 watts peak-envelope-power, not…
News: Click bait versus actual news headline
I’m so old, I was taught that a news headline encapsulated a brief summary of the news article. Today, the purpose of a headline is to act as “click bait”. This screen capture from Google News illustrates the concept – the one at the bottom is the “old school” approach. The past week has seen a flood of “news” reports about immigration issues-some were mostly correct yet some, may be many, were poorly researched, left out context, and were intended…
News: One of these things does not go with the other
One thing: The Centers for Disease Control is reporting an outbreak of norovirus on a Holland America cruise ship in Alaska. Some 73 people reported falling ill on the Zaandam which is carrying more than 2,000 passengers and crew. Source: Holland America cruise in Alaska hit by norovirus And the other thing – CDC Official Statement: The CDC Vessel Sanitation Program is monitoring the outbreak and the ship’s response procedures. Specimens have been collected and tested onboard using a norovirus…