Post Tagged with: "Fake News"

Lying about Lying: Why We Must Revisit the Definition of ‘Fake News’

Lying about Lying: Why We Must Revisit the Definition of ‘Fake News’

The phrase ‘fake news’ continues to be deployed routinely in US politics. In a polarized political atmosphere, both Republicans and Democrats distrust media organizations affiliated with opposing parties. This means that most of what is uttered or written by CNN is ‘fake news’ for Republicans, and much of what appears in Republicans-affiliated media is ‘fake news’ for Democrats. The phrase[Read More…]

by 04/04/2023 Comments are Disabled World
 Emergence of Editorial Eye as a Civic Value in this Era of Social Media

 Emergence of Editorial Eye as a Civic Value in this Era of Social Media

There has been a remarkable upsurge in the reach of journalism, social media, and public engagement, through digital sources in the recent 20 years. Every minute of every day, our planet now pulses with trillions of digital social signals, bombarding us with streams of status updates, news stories, tweets, pokes, posts, referrals, advertisements, notifications, shares, check-ins, and ratings from peers[Read More…]

by 10/05/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Fact Check Brigadier

The Fact Check Brigadier

Written by Ketan Mundhada, Rohan Saxena and Sai Unmesh In August 2016, Pratik Sinha was accompanying his mother, Nirjhari, on a 10-day protest march from Ahmedabad to Una. Earlier that month, seven Dalits were flogged by a vigilante mob for skinning a dead cow to make leather. Having had previous experience and a reach among the masses from his previous[Read More…]

by 14/12/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Fake news and the power of confirmation bias

Fake news and the power of confirmation bias

Internet offers pathways of enhancing democratic participation, increased interconnectedness and access to knowledge and entertainment. However, uncritical use of digital platforms and uncritical consumption of digital content can impede achieving the very goals it promises. For example, Fake news is currently a serious threat to democracies worldwide. Collins dictionary defines ‘Fake news’ as ‘false, often sensational, information disseminated under the[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Fake Arguments on Fake News

Fake Arguments on Fake News

The constipated tedium that follows each call, denial and condemnation after another round of fake news and its giddying effects has become daily fare.  Entire episodes with the sanctimonious and the solemn are being created to show up the citizen journalist, the blogger, the self-opinionated masturbator of news, in the hope that some high priest set will reclaim the ground. [Read More…]

by 17/09/2019 Comments are Disabled World
Fact-Checking the Establishment’s “Fact-Checkers”: How the “Fake News” Story is Fake News

Fact-Checking the Establishment’s “Fact-Checkers”: How the “Fake News” Story is Fake News

 It would be an understatement to say that during U.S. President Donald Trump’s term in office, the issue of truth and falsehoods has been a central topic of political discourse. It was a reoccurring issue throughout the 2016 election and has only continued following his unlikely triumph. While naïve liberals who fetishize Trump would have us believe he is the[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment World
‘Fake News’ is turning India into ‘lynchocracy’

‘Fake News’ is turning India into ‘lynchocracy’

There is spate of lynching incidents reported from different parts of India. Many of them are attributed to fake news that is discovered much after the damage is done. The Supreme Court of India has become agog to such frightening reality and had ordered the Centre and the States government to take immediate steps to stop the dissemination of misinformation[Read More…]

by 20/07/2018 2 comments India
 Google ‘Ministry of Truth’ Intensifies Suppressing ‘Fake News’ (Such As This)

 Google ‘Ministry of Truth’ Intensifies Suppressing ‘Fake News’ (Such As This)

  On November 18th, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt spoke about how Google will help to defeat Russia. He said that Google helps in this effort not by “censoring” Russian newsmedia, but by “de-ranking” them in Google web-searches, so that web-pages from these sites, which he calls “propaganda,” will show so far down in the rankings in any Google-search, so that[Read More…]

by 01/12/2017 1 comment World
Backlash Against Russian ‘Fake News’ Is Shutting Down Debate For Real

Backlash Against Russian ‘Fake News’ Is Shutting Down Debate For Real

A few days before the Halloween hearings held by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, where powerful tech companies would provide testimony about their roles disseminating “fake news” during the 2016 election, Twitter announced it would no longer accept advertising from the Russian government-sponsored broadcast channel Russia Today (RT), or the state-owned Sputnik. In a Twitter PublicPolicy blog post (10/26/17), the company said it would “off-board advertising[Read More…]

by 30/11/2017 Comments are Disabled World
Does Russia Produce ‘Fake News’? Or Does America? Or Both?

Does Russia Produce ‘Fake News’? Or Does America? Or Both?

The biggest difference between American and Russian news-reporting has been a simple factual issue between the two sides, on what incident started the ‘New Cold War’ between the U.S. and Russia. (The original Cold War was between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and had an ideological, capitalist-versus-communist, alleged basis, but this one doesn’t — so, it’s not really a[Read More…]

by 30/10/2017 1 comment World
Arsonist or Fire Fighter?

Arsonist or Fire Fighter?

This world is a coin. It has two faces. Both joined together but both different; often the opposite of one another. I am speaking about social media, the coin which on one side has convenience, communication and companionship and on the other, lies, ignorance and hatred. Both made possible by technology which like all technology is value neutral. What we[Read More…]

by 02/10/2017 Comments are Disabled World
Typical Deception By The New York Times

Typical Deception By The New York Times

Here’s a common example of authentically fake-news journalism, the type that’s pervasive in the U.S. — not something like “Saddam’s WMD,” which changed history, but the ordinary everyday type of lies by the American press, being mixed-in with truths so as not to be 100% fictitious, but just enough truths so as to gild the lily of lies that all[Read More…]

by 08/09/2017 Comments are Disabled World
Countering The Fake News Industry

Countering The Fake News Industry

While fake news industry has existed in some form or other in the past too, the rise of BJP into power has coincided with the disproportionate growth of fake news industry. What makes it alarming is these fake news sites are closely connected to BJP IT cell. They are on a continuous run to produce fake news which is used[Read More…]

by 25/05/2017 1 comment India
The Rise And Fall Of Populism And Fake News

The Rise And Fall Of Populism And Fake News

Populists have chosen a bad time to wrest power. The main weapon at the disposal of the populist is the power to turn conjecture into fact. The danger is in the steady march of populists around the world turning conjecture to fact to law. The populist remains agile and formless, shaping opinion according to necessity, the only consideration being a[Read More…]

by 19/03/2017 3 comments World
Mainstream News And USA’s Heroics In Vietnam: Why The Silence About The 7 Million Dead?

Mainstream News And USA’s Heroics In Vietnam: Why The Silence About The 7 Million Dead?

The amount of bombs dropped by Americans on the innocent citizens of tiny French Indochina was more than twice the amount of bombs dropped in Europe, Africa and Asia during the Second World War, and this includes bombs  dropped on the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong by American hero Senator John McCain, who proudly ran for president on his military[Read More…]

by 14/02/2017 2 comments Imperialism
Fake News, Hacked Mail, Alternative Facts – That’s Old Hat For Climate Scientists

Fake News, Hacked Mail, Alternative Facts – That’s Old Hat For Climate Scientists

Distortion? False information? Conspiracy theories? Hacked email? Climate scientists have known all this for decades. What can be learned from their rich experience with climate propaganda. The world is slowly waking up. “Post-truth” was declared the word of the year 2016 by the Oxford Dictionaries. Finally, people start to widely appreciate how dangerous the epidemic of fake news is for[Read More…]

by 09/02/2017 1 comment Climate Change
(Photo: Elena/cc/flickr)

Cold War Redux: The “Fake Information Age”

London.: The great tedium of history is that those who refuse to acknowledge its immemorial works tend to see exceptional events everywhere.  The next event of terror is singular; the next act of technology inspired hacking is remarkable. Listening to the crackling consternation of the airwaves this Friday morning, the sense of a dark, sulphuric fog, not unlike the polluted air[Read More…]

by 05/02/2017 1 comment World
The Fake News Inquiry: Old Wine In New Bottles

The Fake News Inquiry: Old Wine In New Bottles

London: Any inquiry into fake news is much like having a Royal Commission into the make up and motivation for Halal food. (The latter absurd proposition has been put forth by a few Australian politicians irritated by the Islamist bogeyman.)  Neither mission is particularly helpful, other than to illustrate a mounting ignorance about a phenomenon that always was. In the[Read More…]

by 31/01/2017 1 comment World
Post-Truth Is A ‘Relative’ Concept; India Experiencing It For Years

Post-Truth Is A ‘Relative’ Concept; India Experiencing It For Years

  The pendulum swings both ways. Big things or changes in socialactions and behaviour of human beings, in its true macro sense, do not happen within a year. To a section of observers of the social and political developments around the world, post-truth did largely manifest in 2016. It would be a mistake to assume similar interpretations of the post-truth[Read More…]

by 18/01/2017 1 comment World
From Official Policy To Mainstream Discourse: Propaganda In The Making

From Official Policy To Mainstream Discourse: Propaganda In The Making

The Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act (CDPA), passed last December 8th by Barack Obama, was first presented to the US Congress on March 16th. This effort in information warfare was in the making long before the mainstream media campaign against “fake news”,or serious allegations of Russian meddling in US elections, started. This is an analysis of how foreign and domestic[Read More…]

by 14/01/2017 1 comment World
Dossiers, Make Believe And Fantasy: The CIA, Trump And Unverified News

Dossiers, Make Believe And Fantasy: The CIA, Trump And Unverified News

London: Morning breakfast news on the BBC’s Radio Four on Friday was a delightful affair filled with discussions on Russia (when do we not talk about that busy, stirring Bear these days?), Donald Trump, dossiers and the intelligence fraternity. Did it even matter that various sources have been unverified, subject matter lumped together in cumbersome conversations on fake news, sexual frolics[Read More…]

by 13/01/2017 1 comment World
(Cartoon: Mr. Fish / Truthdig)

‘Fake News’ In America: Homegrown, And Far From New

The media landscape in America is dominated by “fake news.” It has been for decades. This fake news does not emanate from the Kremlin. It is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry that is skillfully designed and managed by public relations agencies, publicists and communications departments on behalf of individuals, government and corporations to manipulate public opinion. This propaganda industry stages pseudo-events to[Read More…]

by 21/12/2016 3 comments World
Clinton’s Defeat And The ‘Fake News’ Conspiracy

Clinton’s Defeat And The ‘Fake News’ Conspiracy

  There is an astounding double standard being applied to the US presidential election result. A few weeks ago the corporate media were appalled that Donald Trump demurred on whether he would accept the vote if it went against him. It was proof of his anti-democratic, authoritarian instincts. But now he has won, the same media outlets are cheerleading the[Read More…]

by 19/12/2016 1 comment World
Killing The Messenger: The Politics Of Bringing Up The Russian Hacking Story Again

Killing The Messenger: The Politics Of Bringing Up The Russian Hacking Story Again

  Stealing elections is not new. Most observers can recite examples. It was also clear something was wrong. The size of Bernie Sanders rallies for one in comparison with Hillary Clinton’s even when exaggerated by the main stream media (MSM). It turns out the MSM had been bought in other ways also, printing positive op-eds for Hillary and vice versa[Read More…]

by 18/12/2016 2 comments World
Facebook’s “Fake News” Measures: A Move Toward Censorship

Facebook’s “Fake News” Measures: A Move Toward Censorship

On Thursday, the global social media giant Facebook announced new measures it said were designed to limit the spread of “fake news” from hoax web sites. The measures, however, are part of a broader corporate media campaign to clamp down on independent and alternative news organizations. Facebook’s announcement is in response to criticism it received from major corporate news outlets[Read More…]

by 17/12/2016 2 comments World
Mainstream Media: The Real Source Of Fake News

Mainstream Media: The Real Source Of Fake News

What bothers me is not that we are unable to find the solution to our problems, what bothers me more is the fact that neoliberals are so utterly unaware of the real structural issues that their attempts to sort out the tangential issues will further exacerbate the main issues. Religious extremism, militancy and terrorism are not the cause but the[Read More…]

by 11/12/2016 1 comment World
NYT, WaPo Fake News Still Bringing Real Guns To Iraq, Killing Thousands

NYT, WaPo Fake News Still Bringing Real Guns To Iraq, Killing Thousands

Fake news propagated by the US government and collaborating organizations such as the New York Times and Washington Post helped create an environment in which the US was able to illegally invade Iraq in 2003, killing at least one million and possibly upwards of two million people, including the deaths of some 4,500 US soldiers, according to a meta-study by[Read More…]

by 09/12/2016 2 comments World
The Anonymous Blacklist Promoted By The Washington Post Has Apparent Ties To Ukrainian Fascism And CIA Spying

The Anonymous Blacklist Promoted By The Washington Post Has Apparent Ties To Ukrainian Fascism And CIA Spying

Last month, the Washington Post gave a glowing front-page boost to an anonymous online blacklist of hundreds of American websites, from marginal conspiracy sites to flagship libertarian and progressive publications. As Max Blumenthal reported for AlterNet, the anonymous website argued that all of them should be investigated by the federal government and potentially prosecuted under the Espionage Act as Russian spies, for wittingly or[Read More…]

by 09/12/2016 1 comment World
Dear Media: We’ve Been Living In A Post-Truth Society For A Long Time

Dear Media: We’ve Been Living In A Post-Truth Society For A Long Time

In the wake of the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s victory, both of which the majority of the establishment media clearly did not want to occur, there has been a great deal of talk that we have entered an age of “post-truth politics.” So much so that the Oxford English Dictionary crowned “post-truth” its word of the year. There is[Read More…]

by 07/12/2016 1 comment World