Media Bias

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Re: Media Bias

Post by JimC » Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:54 pm

Brian Peacock wrote:
Wed Apr 27, 2022 4:19 pm
Amazon attack Meta. Pictures at eleven. :tea:

Validating people's frustrations, anger, and hatred primes them for the next advert.
...particularly if it's for an AR-15...
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Re: Media Bias

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Fri Apr 29, 2022 7:11 am

The US right wing media world is alarmed about a new element of the US Department of Homeland Security that is tasked with combating disinformation. I don't think it is cynical to think that they would have a very different take if it had been instituted under a Republican administration. Then again, would a Republican administration consider disinformation something that needs to be addressed?

The new 'Disinformation Governance Board' appears to be focused on international disinformation, but Breitbart, Fox News, etc. are certain this is about brainwashing the US public.

From Associated Press--

'Disinformation board to tackle Russia, migrant smugglers'
The Department of Homeland Security is stepping up an effort to counter disinformation coming from Russia as well as misleading information that human smugglers circulate to target migrants hoping to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The spread of disinformation can affect border security, Americans’ safety during disasters, and public trust in our democratic institutions,” the department said in a statement Wednesday. It declined The Associated Press’ request for an interview.

A newly formed Disinformation Governance Board announced Wednesday will immediately begin focusing on misinformation aimed at migrants, a problem that has helped to fuel sudden surges at the U.S. southern border in recent years. Human smugglers often spread misinformation around border policies to drum up business.

Last September, for example, confusion around President Joe Biden’s immigration policies combined with messages shared widely across the Haitian community on Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp platforms led some of the 14,000 migrants to the border town of Del Rio, Texas, where they set up camp. Some were ultimately expelled and were flown out of the U.S.

“We are very concerned that Haitians who are taking the irregular migration path are receiving misinformation that the border is open,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the time.

The new board also will monitor and prepare for Russian disinformation threats as this year’s midterm elections near and the Kremlin continues an aggressive disinformation campaign around the war in Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly waged misinformation campaigns aimed at U.S. audiences to further divisions around election time and spread conspiracy theories around U.S. COVID-19 vaccines. Most recently, Russian state media outlets, social media accounts and officials have used the internet to call photographs, reporting and videos of dead bodies and bombed buildings in Ukraine fake.
On the other hand--

'Fox News Hosts Rage Against New Government Disinformation Board'
Fox News hosts were up in arms on Thursday over the Department of Homeland Security’s announcement of a newly formed Disinformation Governance Board.

The board will address disinformation and misinformation surrounding migrants and the southern border wall, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and COVID-19 vaccines, among other things, DHS says. Or, as Tucker Carlson characterized it, referencing George Orwell’s 1984, the “Ministry of Truth” will be “giving law enforcement power to punish people who think the wrong things.”

Such rhetoric was plentiful throughout the primetime hours. President Joe Biden “needs to make certain that nobody else can talk because if you were to hear the truth, you might not obey,” Carlson ranted while a chyron blared: “Disinformation Is Anything The Left Disagrees With.”

Brian Kilmeade and Sean Hannity also referenced Orwell’s dystopian novel.

“Orwell’s book was meant as a warning to the world that this kind of society could become reality… if the wrong people were in charge,” Kilmeade began his monologue while filling in for Jesse Watters during the 7 p.m. time slot. “But it looks like the Biden administration is taking Orwell's work not as a warning but as their own manual.”

Kilmeade, like Carlson throughout the week, argued that Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has liberals very concerned.

Democrats “have lost their grip over the one thing that helped them win in 2020 more than anything else, perhaps: control over Big Tech,” Kilmeade said. “So now they’re desperate and they’re willing to do anything to hold on to this power… even if it means creating a state-led censorship division.”

Hannity also called the disinformation board the “Ministry of Truth.”

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Re: Media Bias

Post by Brian Peacock » Fri Apr 29, 2022 7:36 am

The primary function of a ministry (the office of a religious votary) of truth is not to point out when something is wrong but to never be wrong itself. The real ministry of truth has aiready told us that Jan 6 was just a few tourists taking a tour and that a livestock wormer cured COVID.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Media Bias

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:11 am

Having said that, is the disinformation board going to be looking at what the government puts out? It strikes me that the impulse here is for the govt to act in the same way as a social media platform: blue-ticking trustworthy &/or authentic sources, degrading or down-voting info or opinions which could run contrary to its interests, cancelling and perhaps even banning ideas or people that violate its ideals or terms and conditions - and to do this for the same reason Twitter, Google or Facebook would: to protect its capital interests. Social capital and electoral capital are still capital - and to a great extent they both depend on good old fashioned financial capital of course. In that sense, of the state seeking to secure its power through servicing its capital interests, the Biden administration is literally instituting something that has always applied informally as a kind of gentleman's agreement between the State and Capital.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Media Bias

Post by rasetsu » Sat Apr 30, 2022 1:37 pm

At this point what exactly this board is going to do and how it is going to do it are largely undefined. It's been noted that there was a similar agency during the Trump administration and it didn't result in the opening of a rift between our current reality and the seven planes of hell.

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Re: Media Bias

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Sat Apr 30, 2022 3:24 pm

Confirming rasetsu's information:

'The uproar over Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board'
[T]here are few details on what the board will actually do. DHS hasn’t issued many specifics — including whether and how much it might monitor disinformation from “our own citizens” and whether what it would do would amount to “policing.” (The Washington Post contacted the department more information Friday; the department previously declined the Associated Press’s request for an interview on the subject.) Despite Republicans’ expressed concern, they didn’t press Mayorkas in much detail at hearings Wednesday and Thursday. And the DHS does have a history of tackling disinformation, including during the Trump administration.

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Re: Media Bias

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Sat Apr 30, 2022 9:34 pm

Those dirty rotten fact checkers. Worse than the rest of the mainstream press.

There is plenty of data to show just how far up his own arse Musk is on this, not that it matters.

'"Sounds Just Like Trump": Elon Musk Blasted for Tweeting Demonstrably False Meme Supporting Conservatives'


Why is Musk’s erroneous tweet divisive? Because it’s false, yet feeding the already non-reality-based right wing — which is the exact concern many have about what the social media platform that shapes public opinion and legislation will become under Musk’s ownership.

Alexander Howard, the Director of the Digital Democracy Project, also pushed back on Musk’s claim. Pointing to a piece in The Economist, Howard tweets: “The GOP has shifted to the far-right since the 1990s, embracing illiberalism & anti-democratic views. The Democratic Party has not shifted far-left.”

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Re: Media Bias

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:42 pm

Deeply conservative people who like to believe they're actually a bit edgy and cool will gravitate together - from where they will no doubt relentlessly express their frustration at being ignored, sidelined, vilified, excluded, threatened or attacked by people they secretly know are cooler and edgier than they are. :whistle:
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Media Bias

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Wed May 11, 2022 2:09 am

Brian Peacock wrote:
Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:42 pm
Deeply conservative people who like to believe they're actually a bit edgy and cool will gravitate together - from where they will no doubt relentlessly express their frustration at being ignored, sidelined, vilified, excluded, threatened or attacked by people they secretly know are cooler and edgier than they are. :whistle:
:biggrin: Succinctly describes the 'Intellectual Dark Web.' :smoke:




Oh, dear friends it was horrible and dismaying to see such a beacon of Liberty and Truth degrading and abasing itself to the leftist conspiracy. Those nasty women stole votes from the rightful winner and it was recorded on video, yet the Deep State judge ruled in their favor. Image

'OAN acknowledges "no widespread voter fraud" by Georgia election workers'
Conservative cable outlet One America News ran a segment this week acknowledging there had been no widespread voter fraud committed by a pair of 2020 election workers in Georgia following a settlement between the workers and the network reached last month.

“The results of this investigation indicate that Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct while working at State Farm Arena on election night,” Monday’s report on OAN said. “A legal matter with this network and the two election workers has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties through a fair and reasonable settlement.”

Freeman and Moss, two election workers in the key battleground state during the 2020 elections, sued OAN for defamation last year over false claims on the network suggesting they engaged in fraud. Specifically, the network alleged that Freeman and Moss used suitcases to cast illegal ballots and had taken other measures to commit fraud.

The workers last month reached a settlement with the network, The Associated Press reported, after they met with OAN representatives for a “successful one-day mediation” and “agreed upon and signed a binding set of settlement terms that they anticipate memorializing in a formal settlement agreement,” according to a status report last month.

The workers have also sued former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and conservative website The Gateway Pundit over similar claims. Those cases are still pending.

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Re: Media Bias

Post by JimC » Wed May 11, 2022 2:37 am

Hope it was millions...
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Re: Media Bias

Post by Tero » Thu May 26, 2022 11:24 am

Musk: If he were American, he would be a Trump
Increasingly, it appears Elon Musk is cut from similar cloth, and gaining similarly outsized influence. He constantly claims to prize free speech, but seems to misunderstand what it is – and has repeatedly proven himself a hypocrite when it comes to upholding it.

Tesla employees, scores of whom have alleged racism, sexism and other forms of abuse, are bound by strict limitations on what they can say about the company. Tesla hides vehicle safety information from public view (in response to past media queries about its handling of safety data, Tesla did not comment), and Musk has often sought to control what journalists and bloggers write about both himself and his companies – once even canceling a customer’s order when he discovered a blog post they’d authored that he felt was “rude.”

Elon Musk speaks during an interview with head of TED Chris Anderson (out of frame) at the TED2022: A New Era conference in Vancouver, Canada, April 14, 2022.

When a teenager tracked the progress of Musk’s private jet on Twitter using publicly available information, Musk tried to shut him down. Though he moves in a different sphere to Trump, his words also carry huge weight, moving stock markets via the most casual remarks on his Twitter feed.

In the last few months, Musk has forged an association in the public mind between his name and free speech by sheer repetition, despite regular gaffes on the subject. He’s said that people should be able to speak freely on Twitter “within the bounds of the law,” but also claims that some examples of “hate speech” are “fine,” while others are not.

In fact, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, because hate speech laws can be abused by governments to suppress critics. As commentators keep pointing out, Twitter is less the “town square” for unfettered self-expression that Musk idealizes and more like a shop, with an obligation to maintain order.

Like Trump, Musk hasn’t let his own checkered record or lack of insight get in the way of casting himself as the figurehead for a cause – and because, like Trump, he commands an enormous and attentive audience, he’s been extremely successful. His willingness to overlook or disregard facts in the pursuit of his ambitions bears a sinister resemblance to Trump, as does his flair for repeating himself ad nauseam until people accept his statements as fact.
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Re: Media Bias

Post by Brian Peacock » Thu May 26, 2022 1:18 pm

When will people realise that the multi-billionaires are on our side against the elites. :tea:
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There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Media Bias

Post by rasetsu » Thu May 26, 2022 1:31 pm

It's not his fault he's got more money than sense!

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Re: Media Bias

Post by rainbow » Sun May 29, 2022 12:27 am

rasetsu wrote:
Thu May 26, 2022 1:31 pm
It's not his fault he's got more money than sense!
Not really. Money "on paper". Shares aren't really what the trading price indicates, when volumes are thin.
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Re: Media Bias

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:11 am

Just a follow-up on the 'Disinformation Board.'

'Expert hired to run DHS' newly created disinformation board resigns'
The disinformation expert hired to run the Department of Homeland Security's newly created disinformation board has resigned after the department paused the board.

Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation expert with experience working on Ukraine and Russia issues, was tapped to helm the "Disinformation Governance Board" earlier this month. The interagency team was meant to coordinate department activities related to disinformation aimed at the US population and infrastructure.

But Jankowicz's appointment quickly drew condemnation from GOP lawmakers and right-wing media, who pointed to her past tweets and statements regarding Hunter Biden's laptop and Christopher Steele, the author of the so-called Steele Dossier. Jankowicz told CNN on Wednesday evening that she resigned because the board's future was uncertain.

...

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has asked former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and former US Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick to lead a review of the board through the Homeland Security Advisory Council. During that review, the board's work will be paused and it will not convene.

"The Board has been grossly and intentionally mischaracterized: it was never about censorship or policing speech in any manner. It was designed to ensure we fulfill our mission to protect the homeland, while protecting core Constitutional rights," the spokesperson said. "However, false attacks have become a significant distraction from the Department's vitally important work to combat disinformation that threatens the safety and security of the American people."
* * *

Meanwhile, in free speech news...

'Users of Donald Trump's Truth Social claim they were suspended after posting about Jan. 6 committee hearings'
Users of former President Donald Trump's Truth Social claimed they had been banned from the social media platform after posting about the January 6 committee hearings.

Travis Allen, a political commentator on social media and self-described information security analyst, claimed on Friday that he had been permanently suspended for talking about the hearings.

"So much for "free speech." This is censorship!" Allen tweeted.

Another Twitter user, Jack Cocchiarella, claimed he had been banned after posting about the hearings.

Several others claimed to have been censored or suspended by the platform recently, one over a video of Ivanka Trump and another stating that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

Insider could not independently verify the claims. Insider reached out to Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns and runs Truth Social, but did not receive an immediate response.

The apparent banning of users, which was first reported by Variety, contradicts the site's central promise to be a free speech platform.
They must all be lying. If they're not lying, it's some sort of mistake. If it's not a mistake, then they deserved to be banned for abusing the wonderful free speech policy of Truth Social. :bored:

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