Bill Nye Science Guy and Show About Facts Coming to Netflix.
Story in the New York Times.
Entries by Will Thalheimer
Great Article about Fake News in 1896.
Check out this nice article in the Atlantic, written by Adrienne LaFrance, that shows that fake news is not just a new thing. Quote from the article: “It could not be foreseen that a time would come when a partisan press would seek to mislead the people,” a columnist lamented for The Davenport Daily Republican […]
Two Economists Claim that Fake News and Social Media Had Little Influence on Election.
James Warren, writes a nice article on Poynter (whose mission is to train journalists and support journalism) reviewing the work of Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow, two economists who claim in an academic article that fake news and social media had very little influence on the election. On first blush, this seems like an important […]
Just Some Guy, Interested in Republican Politics, Needing Money, Breaking Democracy
Great story by Scott Shane of the New York Times on Cameron Harris and his fake-news concoctions. “Asked whether he felt any guilt at having spread lies about a presidential candidate, Mr. Harris grew thoughtful. But he took refuge in the notion that politics is by its nature replete with exaggerations, half-truths and outright whoppers, […]
Gary Kasparov Pens Interesting Article on Truth in Russia and the United States
Here is a quote from the article: The credibility of today’s democracies depends on reinstating the value of truth—something that no number of social-media followers or cybercapabilities should be able to subvert. At the moment, we are experiencing a cultural crisis in which propaganda has a tactical advantage. It is easy to lie; finding the […]
Fake News is an Antitrust Problem — Facebook and Google are Competing Unfairly
Sally Hubbard, writing on Forbes, says that Facebook and Google’s designs are intentionally stealing user’s attention, keeping it away from it’s competition, legitimate media companies. A very provocative read!
Is There Any Room for Optimism or Are We Doomed to Live in a Misinformation World?
Many smart people are throwing up their hands and have given up, believing that our current political-information system is doomed to failure. For example, see Harvard professor Bhirat Anand’s thoughtful article. Here are some of the many arguments for this pessimism: Donald Trump is a sociopathic liar and will be lying through his presidency. Social […]
New York Times: Trump Keeps Lying — And What It Means
This website is being built to fund a nonprofit organization — Truth For Democracy — that will (hopefully if funded) provide a nonpartisan effort to “make truth a virtue again in our American political conversations.” Of course, nonpartisan does not mean BLIND! So we must report when our most powerful politicians continue to push falsehoods. […]
Cutting Off Funding for Hate-Mongering Websites like Breitbart
Pagan Kennedy, writing in the New York Times, details a Twitter group that is taking aim at cutting off online advertising dollars to websites like Breitbart, which spew racist antagonisms. As the Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) Twitter account says, “We are trying to stop racist websites by stopping their ad dollars. Many companies don’t even know […]
Harvard Professor Says America’s Political System is Doomed.
In a deeply intriguing and rather depressing article, Bharat Anand describes how fundamental forces are working together to encourage a dysfunctional political process. And he doesn’t see any way out. Anand ends with this: Three forces combine to create the media coverage of political campaigns we observe today: connected media, which spreads messages faster than […]