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.
Did Morty the dog really jump 30 feet out of a helicopter after catching the scent of a person in need in Puerto Rico? Probably not.
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 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.
Tweets published by those with verified “blue check mark” accounts get greater visibility on Twitter. Twitter also admitted to using algorithms to shadow banning 600,00 accounts including those of U.S. Congressional representatives. Twitter is a mess.
Twitter’s failed algorithm censored people based on their assessment of their followers, over which the censored person has no control. This caused Twitter to effectively shadow ban over 600,000 accounts, including those belonging to members of Congress.
“The San Bernadino Sheriff’s Department is under scrutiny for posting this photo of a deputy praying before his shift. If you support this Deputy and his department’s decision, share this.” appears to be a fake Internet meme created by a troll operation and designed to inflame emotions.
This blog analyzed a popular social media propaganda post that was widely distributed in 2016. The poster encouraged viewers to share if you wanted the U.S. to be just like Denmark. Nearly all the claims about Denmark, however, were false. Yet the poster was widely shared. Another popular meme is that Denmark is a socialist country and we should be just like Denmark. Except Denmark is not a socialist country – and that is according to the Prime Minister of Denmark.
Google even analyzes the photos you take with your phone, including collecting data for facial recognition, and attempts to identify the emotions of those in the photos.
Software that pretends to be as intelligent as humans (or as unintelligent as humans) some times make funny errors…