Fake news

We'll start with this gem, which I spotted this a.m. on Facebook:



Sounded ridiculous and of course was, if you believe Snopes, who have given me no reason to doubt their veracity. This, spotted nearby on the same timeline



is less clear cut. realorsatire.com's verdict is whoa, Nelly. You then have to consider realorsatire's possible bias; and away we go...

The rise of this sort of 'news' exploded with the forces arrayed against Obama. You could spend the rest of your life trying to dig your way out of that Augean Stable. But as we're at the dawn of a much despised new administration, the wave will be trending the other way. "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy," one might say, but race-to-the-bottom fake news is bad for everyone even as it offers The Onion a run for its money.

I learned about both of these thanks to a credulous relative who hateshateshates Trump. Fair enough, but oy vey, don't be part of the problem.

Do you have any favourites?

And I always took the Onion as satire.......who knew?

The Melania quote, while not ha-ha funny, almost could've been written by The Onion. Speaking of the world's greatest newspaper, another purveyor of fake or almost-fake news is The Daily Express, a master of old-school clickbait. Play Express bingo!

I think the Mail may be satire. Some of the things....I just have this image in my mind of a bunch of guys rolling around on the floor clutching their sides.

Let's put the blame where it belongs: Facebook! 

A bunch of Croatian students and Facebook have essentially killed democracy in the US.  I'm even angrier that my company payed more taxes in the UK than Facebook did in one recent year. 

A bunch of Croatian students and Facebook have essentially killed democracy in the US. 

I am reaching personal limits of comprehension of it all. It is a baffling landscape out there. And I was pretty confused before it all.

I know, it's impossible to keep up with the silliness.  Just in case you didn't get it, some students in Croatia set up some news sites that were completely fake.  They would create fake stories, both for Trump and against Trump, but always very sensational.  Things like "Obama signs bill banning the Pledge of Allegiance in schools.  ". The Croatians then start spreading these links on Facebook and encourage the braying idiots to send it to their idiot friends.  Facebook is aware of what's happening but doesn't care because as long as the idiots are clicking on each other's idiocy, they are making money.  Trump wins the election because he's the only politician that will bring back the pledge of allegiance.

"Social media gives you a flood of click-bait, hoaxes, and out-of-context images – and I mean “you,” as it’s algorithmically filtered to fit your darkest preconceptions.

Through every increasingly tiresome cycle my conservative friends forward me horror stories about the violence and hatred of the liberal moonbats, and liberal friends do the same about the conservative wingnuts, with each side --- and many cliques inside those sides -- living on a different news planet. None of us, honestly, have the time or bandwidth to research everything we receive. All this leaves us breathtakingly unprepared for the moment when we look up from our glowing rectangle at some actual fleshy neighbours, who have spent the last several years inside a different filter bubble, and realise we have no shared points of reference to discuss our country."

I think the Mail may be satire. Some of the things....I just have this image in my mind of a bunch of guys rolling around on the floor clutching their sides.

In a checkout queue yesterday I was informed that the ancient scourge had been vanquished:



Foolish of me to begrudge them the 65p it would've taken to bring this good news home to help protect my loved ones, still reeling from the promise of the last Mail-touted cure.

Sometimes you can see a real newspaper struggling to get out, but it well deserves the nickname Daily Fail.

I took media as my first degree here in the UK and one thing that always left me baffled was that so many "newspapers" (the red tops really) were able to get away so blatant lies with no fact checking whatsoever. The aim is to sell papers, not to tell the truth. I'm always left shaking my head when someone on Facebook shares a story from the Daily Express, usually written to incite some sort of outrage and hatred. How many times must a newspaper be sued before people start realizing that it's full of crap?

How many times must a newspaper be sued before people start realizing that it's full of crap?

I think they just factor that into expenses.

"We must face the fact that Facebook doesn’t care about news in the journalism sense. News represents about 10% of the average user newsfeed and news can be cut overnight if circumstances dictate with no significant impact for the platform."

Did you guys hear about the nut job that actually took his gun into a pizza place because Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring from it?   Apparently, he was going to do his own investigation, free the children and catch Hillary in the act of abuse.   He knew all this was happening because it was on Facebook.

Armed Man Threatens D.C. Pizzeria Targeted By Fake News Stories
http://one.npr.org/i/504467162:504467163

I think the only way to combat this is for the Democratic Party to fund a massive Facebook disinformation campaign that exposes the truth behind Trump, including his drinking puppy blood and eating kittens.  We can't keep losing the moron vote.