Washington Post gives up fight to debunk fake news

Maxinquaye · Dec 18, 2015

Washington Post has had a column trying to debunk fake, viral news. The author of it now has wearily thrown in the towel with the following motivation:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ernet-this-week-why-this-is-the-final-column/

Needless to say, there are also more complicated, non-economic reasons for the change on the Internet hoax beat. For evidence, just look at some of the viral stories we’ve debunked in recent weeks: American Muslims rallying for ISIS, for instance, or Syrians invading New Orleans. Those items didn’t even come from outright fake-news sites: They originated with partisan bloggers who know how easy it is to profit off fear-mongering.

Frankly, this column wasn’t designed to address the current environment. This format doesn’t make sense. I’ve spoken to several researchers and academics about this lately, because it’s started to feel a little pointless. Walter Quattrociocchi, the head of the Laboratory of Computational Social Science at IMT Lucca in Italy, has spent several years studying how conspiracy theories and misinformation spread online, and he confirmed some of my fears: Essentially, he explained, institutional distrust is so high right now, and cognitive bias so strong always, that the people who fall for hoax news stories are frequently only interested in consuming information that conforms with their views — even when it’s demonstrably fake.

I've bolded the part which I think sounds true. I guess everyone suffers from this to a larger or smaller extent. The Internet isn't proving to be the funt of all human knowledge, if it ever was. The Internet is proving to be the comfortable blinders that allow us to see only what we want to see. The things which challenge our views, is deselected. We won't see it again.

LittlePinto · Dec 18, 2015

I feel the writer's despair.

Quite frankly, I'd be satisfied if the media just fact-checked their articles and also noted when people interviewed were saying something inaccurate.

Diana Hignutt · Dec 18, 2015

Here's a conspiracy that's not a secret: giant multinational corporations have bought the Governments and Media of the West, and everyone knows it. Some people therefore will believe the most ridiculous things as a result of the system/s earned distrust. When the official channels spread lies and propaganda how do they find the moral high ground to complain when others start doing the same for agendas and money?

This is the bed the current system has made, now we all must lie in it.

People only want the echo chamber now. We don't want our "beliefs" challenged. We're all perfect little ego-maniacs now and we want our beliefs (whether challenging the official view or accepting it) confirmed. Any source that doesn't do this is the "liberal media" or their rightwing counterparts at FOX News and talk radio.

It's an f-ing mess. I spent a few years doing research on CT forums and some of those people believe some crazy shit. But folks who believe the "MSM" with no salt are eating a bit of whacky doodie as well.

Magdalen · Dec 18, 2015

Diana Hignutt said:
Here's a conspiracy that's not a secret: giant multinational corporations have bought the Governments and Media of the West, and everyone knows it. . . .

It's an f-ing mess. I spent a few years doing research on CT forums and some of those people believe some crazy shit. But folks who believe the "MSM" with no salt are eating a bit of whacky doodie as well.

Agree - where is Monty Python when you need him?

Seriously, it does seem rather grim out there - I read a Wide Variety of sources and still dither in my understanding of various issues due to doubt and distrust. I hope to replace the void currently filled with war-mongering & hate and fill it with music&poetry. I continue to hope because I sense a shrinking in the Force!!!

Alessandra Kelley · Dec 18, 2015

I'm really sorry they're so discouraged. They did good work.

Rufus Coppertop · Dec 18, 2015

Cognitive bias is one of those annoying little aspects of human nature.

Conspiracy theories and all sorts of silliness proliferate because of it.

And in other news......

http://nypost.com/2015/12/15/vladamir-putin-is-immortal-and-related-to-count-dracula-internet-says/

Romantic Heretic · Dec 22, 2015

Why human beings suck at democracy.

shakeysix · Dec 22, 2015

Schools shy away from classes that force students to formulate and defend their own ideas, to investigate popular beliefs. Schools offer classes like debate, logic, foreign languages, hard sciences, but don't require them because some parents are so against their children learning a different life view that they resort to legal measures or spread noisy misinformation via public media if they disagree with the curriculum. Can't say I blame the schools. Of course the students grow up to be just as belligerently ill informed as their parents. And that is where we are now.

Not my kids. They are not afraid of education and different life views. They are well educated, well informed, well read and hold down jobs. If one of my kids wanted to do something really extreme, like support Trump, fly a Confederate flag or be as stupid as their cousins, I would probably scream, bluster, threaten, fake a heart attack, but we would all still sit down to table together without recriminations and accusations. Isn't that what democracy is all about? --s6

Don · Dec 22, 2015

Romantic Heretic said:
Why human beings suck at democracy.

That's basically the Cracked version of The Myth of the Rational Voter, which most people who preach about the importance of voting and the value of the state discount heavily. It also ties in very nicely with Public Choice Theory and the libertarian perspective that a severely limited government and maximum personal freedom is a more logical way to structure a society than the centralization of much decision-making in the hands of a small group of people selected by the majority of a poorly-informed and highly-biased populace every few years.

Nice link.

MaeZe · Feb 25, 2017

We have always been at war with the continent of Newsmedia.

I was looking for the thread to put that in given current events and was surprised, though I shouldn't have been, to find this thread from 2015.

Max Vaehling · Feb 26, 2017

Good thing you pointed that out - could have been written yesterday.

I can see where the WP people are coming from, though - I used to be into conspiracy theories way back when they were cool and on the X Files. After 9/11, they seem to have taken a sharp turn to the right (or maybe the right-wing CP just became more visible because message boards) and stopped being innocent fun.

And it's clear that mere debunking doesn't work, at least not on the believers. We've heard a lot about the Backfire Effect since the election. Debunking is fine when you're talking to open-minded people about closed-off worldviews. Now, with Breitbart and Infowars alumni and fans actually running the US, it's not something we can poke fun at anymore, even less so than two years ago; taking these strains seriously (as a phenomenon, obviously, not as news) has become a necessity.

Roxxsmom · Feb 26, 2017

[EDIT]

Whoops--read most of the thread without seeing the original dates or that it had been bumped.

Indeed, some things never change.

MaeZe · May 10, 2017

Another interesting chapter in the fake news front:

Guardian: The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked

There are three strands to this story. How the foundations of an authoritarian surveillance state are being laid in the US. How British democracy was subverted through a covert, far-reaching plan of coordination enabled by a US billionaire. And how we are in the midst of a massive land grab for power by billionaires via our data. Data which is being silently amassed, harvested and stored. Whoever owns this data owns the future....

Moore contributed to an LSE report published in April that concluded UK’s electoral laws were “weak and helpless” in the face of new forms of digital campaigning. Offshore companies, money poured into databases, unfettered third parties… the caps on spending had come off. The laws that had always underpinned Britain’s electoral laws were no longer fit for purpose. Laws, the report said, that needed “urgently reviewing by parliament”.

AggregateIQ holds the key to unravelling another complicated network of influence that Mercer has created.

Mercer is the billionaire who supported Trump's campaign and is said to think cats have more value than welfare recipients.

AggregateIQ holds the key to unravelling another complicated network of influence that Mercer has created. A source emailed me to say he had found that AggregateIQ’s address and telephone number corresponded to a company listed on Cambridge Analytica’s website as its overseas office: “SCL Canada”. A day later, that online reference vanished.

There had to be a connection between the two companies. Between the various Leave campaigns. Between the referendum and Mercer. It was too big a coincidence. But everyone – AggregateIQ, Cambridge Analytica, Leave.EU, Vote Leave – denied it. AggregateIQ had just been a short-term “contractor” to Cambridge Analytica. There was nothing to disprove this. We published the known facts. On 29 March, article 50 was triggered....

There wasn’t just a relationship between Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ, Paul told me. They were intimately entwined, key nodes in Robert Mercer’s distributed empire. “The Canadians were our back office. They built our software for us. They held our database. If AggregateIQ is involved then Cambridge Analytica is involved. And if Cambridge Analytica is involved, then Robert Mercer and Steve Bannon are involved.

The punchline, because it's a very long article:

This is not just a story about social psychology and data analytics. It has to be understood in terms of a military contractor using military strategies on a civilian population. ... It should be clear to voters where information is coming from, and if it’s not transparent or open where it’s coming from, it raises the question of whether we are actually living in a democracy or not.”...

“We are in an information war and billionaires are buying up these companies, which are then employed to go to work in the heart of government. That’s a very worrying situation.”

AW Admin · May 10, 2017

MaeZe said:
Another interesting chapter in the fake news front:

Guardian: The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijackedMercer is the billionaire who supported Trump's campaign and is said to think cats have more value than welfare recipients.

Wow. This article makes the connections completely clear.

shakeysix · May 10, 2017

I beg to differ! Welfare recipients have never pissed on my porch furniture. They have never picnicked on baby bunnies and left the bloody remains on my glider. They have never defecated in my newly turned garden soil! And a couple live right across the street from me! (Welfare Recips, not cats.) By the way, wonder what Don is up to, these days. I kind of miss him. --s6

Washington Post gives up fight to debunk fake news

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

LittlePinto

Perpetually confused

Diana Hignutt

Very Tired

Magdalen

Petulantly Penitent

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Rufus Coppertop

Romantic Heretic

uncoerced

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy

Don

All Living is Local

MaeZe

Max Vaehling

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

MaeZe

AW Admin

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy