Poll of the Day > I hate that "fake news" became a serious thing people say.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It sounded like something a five year old would say. Now people are just used to it.
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Fake News is a problem.

For example: The UK is trying to pass a copyright law so that linking to news costs money, however - you can't copyright fact... so this is an implicit admission that their news is non-factual
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Yellow posted...

It sounded like something a five year old would say. Now people are just used to it.

Probably because just about every mainstream news source loves to publish misleading bullshit, then double down on their bullshit when called out on it.
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Fake news is a real problem and the mainstream media is agenda driven with no journalistic integrity.

If you like the person who popularized the phrase is irrelevant.

Agenda driven media that only cares about truth to the extent they don't completely lose credibility for obvious lies was a problem way before Trump ran for election.
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Corrupt news outlets, biased mainstream media.

No, "fake news", aka everything negative about Trump. Now some Liberal outlets are starting to say "fake news" because they want to get in on that.
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Yellow posted...

No, "fake news", aka everything negative about Trump.

Oh, this is a troll topic, my bad.
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Sarcasm
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Never trust the media.
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I agree, it sounds juvenile and awkward. That is just how Trump speaks, so it's par for his course, but it'd be nice if the rest of the adult world went with a term like "misinformation" instead.
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What other kind is there? Seriously, when has the news ever produced something that was relevant to our lives? Never. They're simply a business out to make a buck. They sensationalize all the worst stories or piss and moan over the same story for months. If I got to choose my cable TV options, news and sports would be the first things off the list. The only time I'll pick up a newspaper is for the comics.

Lokarin posted...

Fake News is a problem.

For example: The UK is trying to pass a copyright law so that linking to news costs money, however - you can't copyright fact... so this is an implicit admission that their news is non-factual

EU not UK, stop fake newsing me.
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Today, nobody remembers that "fake news" was originally used by Hillary supporters to describe hoax articles with no basis in reality.
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Things are over-exaggerated in the media for ratings. More ratings = More money and more job security.

The media has been competing with the internet for a while now and have to resort to click-bait headlines and exaggeration of truths to keep the new generations' interest.
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Real fake news is a problem, but so is fake fake news: fraudulent claims that inconvenient facts are lies.
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DPsx7 posted...

Seriously, when has the news ever produced something that was relevant to our lives?

Weather forecasts are a kind of news, and have definitely dictated my plans before.
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Fake news is more readily understood than specifying the myriad of complaints regarding the shoddy or outright deceitful media coverage of certain issues.

For instance, you could point out that CNN frequently gets things wrong, runs wildly inaccurate stories based on bad information (such as claiming the Boston Bomber was already in custody, with potentially disastrous results), has hilariously coverage practices (such as having reporters stationed a street away from each other), and does ridiculous things to fill their 24 hour news cycle (including spending months on a missing airline, including asking whether a black hole might have swallowed it). At a certain point, it's just easier to call them fake news. Humorously, though, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, and others spent years mocking CNN yet the second it get attacked by a Republican they rallied their wagons around it.

And, while the term came up in regards to Trump, these problems are anything but new.
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Fake News should just be the Onion.

But sadly we have Fox News becoming more ridiculous by the day.

Zeus posted...

Fake news is more readily understood than specifying the myriad of complaints regarding the shoddy or outright deceitful media coverage of certain issues.

For instance, you could point out that CNN frequently gets things wrong, runs wildly inaccurate stories based on bad information (such as claiming the Boston Bomber was already in custody, with potentially disastrous results), has hilariously coverage practices (such as having reporters stationed a street away from each other), and does ridiculous things to fill their 24 hour news cycle (including spending months on a missing airline, including asking whether a black hole might have swallowed it). At a certain point, it's just easier to call them fake news. Humorously, though, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, and others spent years mocking CNN yet the second it get attacked by a Republican they rallied their wagons around it.

And, while the term came up in regards to Trump, these problems are anything but new.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand fake news.
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*sigh*

Topics like this depress me, because it proves Trump has taken over the term "Fake News" and completely neutered it of its efficacy.

No one seems to remember this anymore, but "Fake News" originally referred to the very real problem of Russian disinformation networks bombarding social media with completely false and non-factual stories in an attempt to discredit candidates they didn't like and more generally to sow discontent and disunity. This was a threat identified by intelligence agencies across the West, and in the US specifically. The name was coined during the 2016 election cycle and was supposed to refer to actual bullshit news that was pushed out by fraudulent, Russian state-sponsored media networks.

Then Trump came along and flat-out stole the phrase (presumably because he heard it in the news and liked the sound of it), except he used it to attack any news outlet he didn't like, including those that were legitimate or whose comparatively minor falsehoods were based on error, not malice. And that application of the phrase even started gaining traction among Trump's opponents.

It's infuriating because actual, legitimate Fake News is still an ongoing problem, one that is going to be an even bigger issue in the lead-up to the 2018 midterms, but Trump's abuse of the phrase is preventing us from actually discussing it properly and treating it as the threat it is.
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actual fake news: news article said my friend(who you guys might remember me mentioning is in legal trouble) said he admitted to doing the crime, which he hasn't. was in a local news article.

not fake news: facts that i dont like.

darkknight109 posted...

No one seems to remember this anymore, but "Fake News" originally referred to the very real problem of Russian disinformation networks bombarding social media with completely false and non-factual stories in an attempt to discredit candidates they didn't like and more generally to sow discontent and disunity.

That was post election. iirc, he was already using it or variations thereof during the election. Otherwise, that became known as Russia influencing the election which was then turned to Russia rigging, hacking, etc, the election because influencing wasn't a strong enough term.

argonautweakend posted...

actual fake news: news article said my friend(who you guys might remember me mentioning is in legal trouble) said he admitted to doing the crime, which he hasn't. was in a local news article.

Then he should sue for defamation after his case is dropped. He could collect millions.
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argonautweakend posted...

actual fake news: news article said my friend(who you guys might remember me mentioning is in legal trouble) said he admitted to doing the crime, which he hasn't. was in a local news article.

not fake news: facts that i dont like.

you are fake news
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adjl posted...

DPsx7 posted...

Seriously, when has the news ever produced something that was relevant to our lives?

Weather forecasts are a kind of news, and have definitely dictated my plans before.

Yeah I guess. I go to the Weather Channel for that. More of what matters and less of what doesn't. I work outside though so weather is something I have to watch for.

I hate that "fake news" is a real thing.
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Zeus posted...

That was post election. iirc

Nope.

Here's a summary of the timeline (along with Donald Trump's first tweet that included the term "Fake News", which was on December 10, 2016)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/03/how-hillary-clinton-might-have-inspired-trumps-fake-news-attacks/?utm_term=.463525d897d0

Here's another article which references the shift that occurred late 2016/early 2017, when Trump suddenly fell in love with the phrase:

https://www.npr.org/2017/02/17/515630467/with-fake-news-trump-moves-from-alternative-facts-to-alternative-language

Here's some summaries of the pre-election fake news spread, which was being talked about (albeit not as widely as it was after the election) even back then

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/technology/automated-pro-trump-bots-overwhelmed-pro-clinton-messages-researchers-say.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-google-crack-down-fake-news-advertising-n684101
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-pro-trump-twitter-bots-spread-fake-news
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The only news I trust completely is the local news. Stuff like CNN or MSNBC don't really LIE, just mislead or leave information out, stuff like VICE and The Washington Post push their agenda with a lot of lies and propaganda, and stuff like Fox just outright lies or they have no idea what they're talking about at all.

My local news, both on TV and radio just report what happens, mostly locally or what will affect our area, with no bias. And I love them for that.
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Rasmoh posted...

Probably because just about every mainstream news source loves to publish misleading bullshit, then double down on their bullshit when called out on it.

This, so very, very much.

I'm less concerned about how people tend to refer to it, and more concerned by the fact that so much mainstream news - on both sides of the political spectrum - tend to be absolute bullshit these days. The desperate need to "scoop" other news sources means no one fact checks their sources anymore, and the desperate need for ratings in a 24-hour news cycle means that news sources are more than willing to sensationalize headlines and push non-stories in an attempt to "clickbait" their way to success. The end result being that a ton of information people are processing every single day is blatantly untrue.

And despite how many people online love to turn this into biased political bullshit, BOTH sides do it. And the people on top rarely have political agendas as much as the do financial ones - and they know that pandering to extremists on both sides makes for better ratings.



adjl posted...

DPsx7 posted...

Seriously, when has the news ever produced something that was relevant to our lives?

Weather forecasts are a kind of news, and have definitely dictated my plans before.

And ironically, they're also a type of news that is often factually incorrect, but which people also give a huge pass to most of the time, in spite of how many times our day may have been ruined by it.


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SirPikachu posted...

The only news I trust completely is the local news. Stuff like CNN or MSNBC don't really LIE, just mislead or leave information out, stuff like VICE and The Washington Post push their agenda with a lot of lies and propaganda, and stuff like Fox just outright lies or they have no idea what they're talking about at all.

You only believe this because you're more willing to buy some people's lies as opposed to other people's lies, because your own predetermined political biases already skew Left enough that you're willing to ignore or simply fail to investigate when "your side" is doing the lying.

Welcome to Human Nature 101.



SirPikachu posted...

My local news, both on TV and radio just report what happens, mostly locally or what will affect our area, with no bias. And I love them for that.

And you only believe this because those stories are minor enough that you aren't able or willing enough to fact check them yourself, meaning you don't see as much evidence of those stories being contradicted or disproven by alternate sources.


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