As IF Times

Source: Europe wants to crack down on fake news. But one person’s fake news is another’s democratic dissent. – The Washington Post

Of all ironies, a story about addressing fake news by the Washington Post.  In Trump’s post election era, the staggering imbalance of biased news has made itself starkly evident by the daily breathless headlines of The Donald’s latest transgressions.  But it’s not just the Post; it’s been a tag team cage event with the majority of the big media outlets on one side brandishing the folding chairs.  By now, the public has been made aware of the slant of reported events which can range from subtle innuendos to outright knee slappers which sometimes have to be later withdrawn with an apology on page 125 in 2 point font.

Donald Trump’s election only served to pull back the façade of the news purveyors and expose just how biased the industry can be.  People in the political racket are going to lie.  This self evident fact is like fat people and buffet tables; they naturally occur together.  During the previous administration however, the outright lies and duplicity were passed over as if they were minor incidents of nose picking.

One of the most egregious claims, still imposed upon people to this day, has to do with the gigantic industry of global warming. While there are cracks beginning to show in the entire charade, the constant indoctrination over the last decade has created a worldview that many people accept as being true, or as Al Gore likes to put it;  it’s like gravity, it just is.

The linked article opines that some sort of government oversight should be implemented to sort out fake news.

Right.

In the U.S., there already is a mechanism to sort out fake news; it is by the collapsing ratings and fortunes of the fake news purveyors.  Eventually, people are going to believe their own lyin’ eyes.  These outlets may never get shamed out of existence, since there’s always a partisan crowd to pander to, but they will lose their mantle of being legitimate news organizations.

Again, ironically, it’s the Washington Post which has a Pinocchio rating score for news events.  Imagine if this system could  be adopted by all news outlets, like Yelp ratings, we could more readily sort out the news from the propaganda.  If the outlet gets enough Pinocchio’s,  it then gets relegated to the birdcage liner department.

Source: When Silicon Valley Took Over the New Republic – The Atlantic

We seldom get to see the kind of naked honesty about the present state of journalism discussed in such candor as in the linked article.  Of course this will be a shock to those that have their worldview shaped by Facebook news or for that matter, many of the popular news outlets.  In the parlance of phone email services, the trends are all about push news, not pull news.  In other words, you don’t look for news; news is pushed onto you.

I have extensively pointed out the sinister creep of push news for years, starting with of course, my favorite, Climate Change, tactfully re- branded from Global Warming.  Given the recent inconvenient publicity that Al Gore has received once again by the supportive media, we are expected to believe that his discredited bleats are in the forefront of the average person’s consciousness.  The first fantasy movie that he produced was such a success, that apparently, people are waiting in rapt anticipation for his newly released sequel…well, at least those that didn’t sell everything and are hunkered in the mountains waiting for high tide Armageddon.

That Gore continues to attract the media spotlight is amazing until you consider all of the other annoying spam that gets media exposure…like a staph infection that won’t go away. I refer to regular revelations of the Kardashian Clan, the Jenners, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, etc etc.  On a too often basis, we get the most recent Michael Moore utterance.  If you believe the media, at this very moment, the life of Diana has suddenly attained must know status for people.  Diana.  She’s been dead for 20 years!  Yet the entire media are splashing headlines about her as if she just had breakfast.  You know the tabloids are running out of ideas if they revive a long dead story to get clicks.  Next in line; is JFK really dead?

Most people don’t even know that they are the victims of push news.  The effectiveness of modern push media is such that confirmation bias is rampant among much of the populace. If your peer group confirms the same worldview based on their sources of news, then an entire fake reality becomes real…without anyone knowing why.  They’ve become parrots who regurgitate what’s been repeatedly heard.  Let me say this: if climate change is really the number one concern among your peer group, you may have been co-opted by push news.  If you think transgender bathroom issues are at the top of society’s concerns, you may need to expand your news sources.  Do people really think Russia, Russia, Russia is a valid news thread?  The linked article confirms what many have known for years and perhaps many more are awakening to:  News is no longer news. It’s structured to get the most clicks.  It’s a business…with a world of unwitting customers.