On Fake News, Clickbait & Hoaxes: Verified by Snopes to be True

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > On Fake News, Clickbait & Hoaxes: Verified by Snopes to be True

A Deacon: Nov 17, 2016; by exmarx

Call Me Charlie posted:

'Fake News' is a manufactured scapegoat.

The problem isn't that the corporate media was pushing a false narrative they wanted to come true, no it's just that the stupid idiots of our country couldn't hear it over that drat Facebook. The problem isn't that third way democrats have done nothing to help the working class and the recession never really went away for a large portion of the country, it's the false article saying that Obama wants to ban the pledge of allegiance that allowed Trump to steal those people away. The problem isn't that what's left of our manufacturing jobs are leaving the country and there's no real alternative for what we're losing, it's just that dumb (soon to be unemployed) union worker doesn't know that more manufacturing jobs were created under Obama since the 1990s and we have to prepare for the jobs of the future when they come (arrival date: TBD)

People aren't going to believe Nobel laureate Paul Krugman when he shreds his credibility by saying that Trump is a puppet installed by the Kremlin. People aren't going to believe President Of The United States (and strangely enough, Nobel laureate) Barack Obama when he says things are getting better when they can clearly see that they aren't. People aren't going to believe the prestigious media outlets when they say that Hillary Clinton is a great progressive when there's decades worth of information saying otherwise.

If you want to neuter the power of 'fake news', you don't ghettoize it, you have to regain your own credibility. That means journalists have to behave like journalists instead of pundits. That means politicians actually have to do the things they say they're going to do for a decent amount of time. That means corporate owners of publications have to stop using their platforms like a pulpit.

I agree. The "Fake News" meme was mostly conjured up by the very publications that were caught colluding with the Clinton campaign through wikileaks after Hillary lost the election. The assertion that "fake news" is an exclusively right-wing phenomenon is simply idiotic. For instance: CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and even supposedly prestigious "economists" like Paul Krugman were�and still are�insisting that Donald Trump was working for the Kremlin in one way or another. I have even seen people like Bill Maher and John Oliver give credence to this neo-McCarthyist horseshit.

The mainstream media should do itself a favor by dropping this puerile talking point. This is the digital information age. Outlets like InfoWars and Alternet are not going anywhere; so they should probably just get used to it.

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A Deacon: Nov 17, 2016; by exmarx

Bip Roberts posted:

Is the clear alignment of the trump campaign with putin somehow no longer a real thing? Also how is it remotely "McCarthyist"?

The point was that numerous media & news outlets were blaming Russia and Putin for Hillary's loss rather than the abundance of horrible positions she had on domestic and foreign policy that repelled many voters.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2016 07:17

A Deacon: Nov 17, 2016; by exmarx

botany posted:

The real McCarthyite horseshit was the immediate turn around where anyone critical of Clinton was accused of being a Putin stooge. See the godawful PropOrNot list that accused Naked Capitalism of being in the Kremlin's pockets.

http://www.propornot.com/p/home.html

They are really trying to say that Alex loving Jones is Russia's top propaganda site in the U.S followed closely by the Ron Paul Institute.

:lol:

# ¿ Dec 4, 2016 12:52

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