I think the media really let us down and are continuing to do so. It is all about drama and entertainment and very little to do with serious journalism. It is all about ratings not the truth. Add to that the cess pool of social media and America is being dumbed down as it never has in the past.
During the last three months before the election, most “news” passed along in Facebook was completely fabricated by groups who profit by passing along ads attached to fiction. This isn’t a matter of biased sites like Fox, or even stories generated through lopsided editing, as is common on Breitbart. These are completely fictional stories that originate at sites made up to look like legitimate television or newspaper sources.
NPR took the time to track down the man behind one of these sites, and found that he’s actually at the hub of a “news network,” where every single story is 100% fiction.
Coler’s company, Disinfomedia, owns many faux news sites — he won’t say how many. …
At any given time, Coler says, he has between 20 and 25 writers. And it was one of them who wrote the story in the Denver Guardian that an FBI agent who leaked Clinton emails was killed. Coler says that over 10 days the site got 1.6 million views. He says stories like this work because they fit into existing right-wing conspiracy theories.
It’s proven easy to create stories that reinforce right-wing memes and generate huge numbers by playing to existing assumptions, but it’s not exactly a both-sides-do-it situation.
“We’ve tried to do similar things to liberals. It just has never worked, it never takes off. You’ll get debunked within the first two comments and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out.”
“Three-quarters of Americans think that news organizations keep political leaders in check – preventing them from doing things that they shouldn’t be doing.”
.
“But about the same portion (74%) say that news organizations tend to favor one side – including 75% of those who say the media prevents leaders from doing things they shouldn’t.”
.
“Political differences emerge here with conservative Republicans most likely to think that news organizations are one-sided.”
.
“This ideological difference is reinforced by earlier research that asked about trust of individual news organizations. Of the 36 sources asked about in our 2014 survey, 28 of them were trusted more than distrusted by respondents who expressed consistently liberal political views across a range of questions about political values; 24 of them were distrusted more than trusted by consistent conservatives.”
This is what the terrorists have always wanted. We have been stripped of our relevance and the media helped usher this in. Instead of fact checking, they provided a megaphone for Trump in the hopes of ratings. Had they fact checked along the way Trump would never be where he was as he lied his way to the white house. he is very dishonest but the right doesn’t mind because he’s not a democrat.
KenseidenXL over 7 years ago
Thanks to the commodification and corporatization of the news, he’s not far off the mark, sadly.
sandflea over 7 years ago
The NEWS isn’t the only thing that’s fake.
Theodore E. Lind Premium Member over 7 years ago
I think the media really let us down and are continuing to do so. It is all about drama and entertainment and very little to do with serious journalism. It is all about ratings not the truth. Add to that the cess pool of social media and America is being dumbed down as it never has in the past.
superposition over 7 years ago
News is now entertainment and in a capitalist society embellishment often sells better than the naked truth?
Happy Two Shoes over 7 years ago
Brought to you by crooked Trump’s good friends in Moscow.
kaffekup over 7 years ago
During the last three months before the election, most “news” passed along in Facebook was completely fabricated by groups who profit by passing along ads attached to fiction. This isn’t a matter of biased sites like Fox, or even stories generated through lopsided editing, as is common on Breitbart. These are completely fictional stories that originate at sites made up to look like legitimate television or newspaper sources.
NPR took the time to track down the man behind one of these sites, and found that he’s actually at the hub of a “news network,” where every single story is 100% fiction.
Coler’s company, Disinfomedia, owns many faux news sites — he won’t say how many. …
At any given time, Coler says, he has between 20 and 25 writers. And it was one of them who wrote the story in the Denver Guardian that an FBI agent who leaked Clinton emails was killed. Coler says that over 10 days the site got 1.6 million views. He says stories like this work because they fit into existing right-wing conspiracy theories.
It’s proven easy to create stories that reinforce right-wing memes and generate huge numbers by playing to existing assumptions, but it’s not exactly a both-sides-do-it situation.
“We’ve tried to do similar things to liberals. It just has never worked, it never takes off. You’ll get debunked within the first two comments and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out.”
superposition over 7 years ago
“Three-quarters of Americans think that news organizations keep political leaders in check – preventing them from doing things that they shouldn’t be doing.”
.
“But about the same portion (74%) say that news organizations tend to favor one side – including 75% of those who say the media prevents leaders from doing things they shouldn’t.”
.
“Political differences emerge here with conservative Republicans most likely to think that news organizations are one-sided.”
.
“This ideological difference is reinforced by earlier research that asked about trust of individual news organizations. Of the 36 sources asked about in our 2014 survey, 28 of them were trusted more than distrusted by respondents who expressed consistently liberal political views across a range of questions about political values; 24 of them were distrusted more than trusted by consistent conservatives.”
.
http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/07/trust-and-accuracy/
hooglah over 7 years ago
what a bunch of bullshit. What turnip truck did you fall off of?
Happy Two Shoes over 7 years ago
The media loves liar pervert Trump, they will; continue to play his ugly games.
braindead Premium Member over 7 years ago
Alex, what do you consider a credible, unbiased news source?
PainterArt Premium Member over 7 years ago
The White House will soon be a prime time reality show. Take that you Democrats. We will be making the facts and the news will be reporting it.
Mr. Blawt over 7 years ago
This is what the terrorists have always wanted. We have been stripped of our relevance and the media helped usher this in. Instead of fact checking, they provided a megaphone for Trump in the hopes of ratings. Had they fact checked along the way Trump would never be where he was as he lied his way to the white house. he is very dishonest but the right doesn’t mind because he’s not a democrat.