Current Events > REMINDER: Fake news rarely consists of outright lies.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's usually bias in what does or doesn't get reported; only reporting one side of the story; using (usually accurate) statistics in a misleading way or not controlling for other relevant factors, etc.

Unless you're looking at something like Occupy Democrats or Daily Stormer, chances are the fake news you're seeing isn't outright fake, and that "misleading news" would be a better term.
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Unless Trump is involved in which he will outright lie.
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pegusus123456 posted...

Unless Trump is involved in which he will outright lie.

I don't think Trump qualifies as a news outlet. He's just a random Twitter ranter as far as "news" goes.

Unless you're meaning reports that he said things that aren't true, in which case the news article is about him saying it - which is generally true. (Though again, there's plenty of cases where it's out of context.)
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This shit is exactly why guys like Trump use memes and propaganda so fervently. Their is this idea greatly embedded in us about how, 'every story has a grain of truth'. That's not actually true, but it is why they pump out these asinine meme conspiracies, because the people who don't believe them mindlessly share them to laugh at and they pass around until someone bites and goes, "well, maybe Hillary isn't the kingpin of a pedophile pizza ring, but she definitely knows about it!".

Dash_Harber posted...

This shit is exactly why guys like Trump use memes and propaganda so fervently. Their is this idea greatly embedded in us about how, 'every story has a grain of truth'. That's not actually true, but it is why they pump out these asinine meme conspiracies, because the people who don't believe them mindlessly share them to laugh at and they pass around until someone bites and goes, "well, maybe Hillary isn't the kingpin of a pedophile pizza ring, but she definitely knows about it!".

That's not what I was getting at. More like, it's easier to fall for it because often that grain of truth is there - just enough to make it believable, especially in the case of "manipulating statistics".

And I'm absolutely not saying it's exclusive to one side either - heck, that's why I made sure to mention well-known fake news sources from both sides in the original post.
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DarkTransient posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

This shit is exactly why guys like Trump use memes and propaganda so fervently. Their is this idea greatly embedded in us about how, 'every story has a grain of truth'. That's not actually true, but it is why they pump out these asinine meme conspiracies, because the people who don't believe them mindlessly share them to laugh at and they pass around until someone bites and goes, "well, maybe Hillary isn't the kingpin of a pedophile pizza ring, but she definitely knows about it!".

That's not what I was getting at. More like, it's easier to fall for it because often that grain of truth is there - just enough to make it believable, especially in the case of "manipulating statistics".

But like I said, it's goes the other way, too. They exploit the fact that there are people out there who want to believe that 'the truth lies somewhere in the middle' or 'there is a grain of truth to everything' or 'both sides', so they can make up any sort of insane lie and hope that people will try to rationalize the insane, bullshit conspiracy into something more rational, but still completely untrue.

Really, though, this whole issue could be completely resolved if people just took the five fucking minutes to google whatever they are finding out about and getting familiar with the tactics used by propagandists.

Dash_Harber posted...

Really, though, this whole issue could be completely resolved if people just took the five fucking minutes to google whatever they are finding out about and getting familiar with the tactics used by propagandists.

Works sometimes, but that can also work against them, because often other outlets pick up the same story, and often people simply can't be bothered investigating every single story in-depth.

Like fair enough when it's a major matter like, say, the Kavanaugh nomination, but when it's the latest generic complaint from BLM or the alt-right, it's understandable that it's just too much effort to investigate every single one.
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DarkTransient posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

Really, though, this whole issue could be completely resolved if people just took the five fucking minutes to google whatever they are finding out about and getting familiar with the tactics used by propagandists.

Works sometimes, but that can also work against them, because often other outlets pick up the same story, and often people simply can't be bothered investigating every single story in-depth.

Like fair enough when it's a major matter like, say, the Kavanaugh nomination, but when it's the latest generic complaint from BLM or the alt-right, it's understandable that it's just too much effort to investigate every single one.

It's still really fucking simple though. Is the issue important? Then it's important enough to do some research. Is it not worth your time? Then don't go around spouting off about it and sharing the story on every social media platform you can get your hands on.

lol okay bro
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Dash_Harber posted...

DarkTransient posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

Really, though, this whole issue could be completely resolved if people just took the five fucking minutes to google whatever they are finding out about and getting familiar with the tactics used by propagandists.

Works sometimes, but that can also work against them, because often other outlets pick up the same story, and often people simply can't be bothered investigating every single story in-depth.

Like fair enough when it's a major matter like, say, the Kavanaugh nomination, but when it's the latest generic complaint from BLM or the alt-right, it's understandable that it's just too much effort to investigate every single one.

It's still really fucking simple though. Is the issue important? Then it's important enough to do some research. Is it not worth your time? Then don't go around spouting off about it and sharing the story on every social media platform you can get your hands on.

The problem there is when a single incident isn't a big issue, but repeated stories make it out to be one.
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DarkTransient posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

DarkTransient posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

Really, though, this whole issue could be completely resolved if people just took the five fucking minutes to google whatever they are finding out about and getting familiar with the tactics used by propagandists.

Works sometimes, but that can also work against them, because often other outlets pick up the same story, and often people simply can't be bothered investigating every single story in-depth.

Like fair enough when it's a major matter like, say, the Kavanaugh nomination, but when it's the latest generic complaint from BLM or the alt-right, it's understandable that it's just too much effort to investigate every single one.

It's still really fucking simple though. Is the issue important? Then it's important enough to do some research. Is it not worth your time? Then don't go around spouting off about it and sharing the story on every social media platform you can get your hands on.

The problem there is when a single incident isn't a big issue, but repeated stories make it out to be one.

So now the issue is that the media has an agenda to spread unimportant events? You do realize that they are businesses, right? They only put out what sells. If you want to really blame someone for modern news content, hold up a mirror.

Either way, though, you are getting completely off topic. First it was that fake stories have a grain of truth and we should remember that, and now it's that the media spreads unimportant, made up stories so people are helpless and can't help but argue about it without doing their research because it's equally to important and too unimportant for basic fucking fact checking.

You do realize you sound paranoid as fuck, right?

Dash_Harber posted...

First it was that fake stories have a grain of truth and we should remember that,

It's that they're often made by distorting the truth, rather than outright lying. Not that they have a grain of truth.

And this isn't "paranoia", this is literally something you can figure out by looking at fake news articles and how they convince people they're real.
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DarkTransient posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

First it was that fake stories have a grain of truth and we should remember that,

It's that they're often made by distorting the truth, rather than outright lying. Not that they have a grain of truth.

... That's literally the same thing.

Anyway, you are ignoring everything I say to try and twist this, so I can only assume that you are trolling and I'll leave it at that. It looks like I'm the only one who bit, so I guess we'll just watch this die now.

Dash_Harber posted...

DarkTransient posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

First it was that fake stories have a grain of truth and we should remember that,

It's that they're often made by distorting the truth, rather than outright lying. Not that they have a grain of truth.

... That's literally the same thing.

Anyway, you are ignoring everything I say to try and twist this, so I can only assume that you are trolling and I'll leave it at that. It looks like I'm the only one who bit, so I guess we'll just watch this die now.

I mean, in a literal sense yes, but there's a bit of a difference between "look into them because there is a bit of truth to find in there" vs "be aware of them using small bits of truth to try and make their false claims more believable".
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