Posted on 11/24/2016 6:12:28 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
Fake news on social media has gotten so bad that it threatens democracy itself, according to President Obama and a host of other deep thinkers. Why, a recent study by Buzzfeed concludes that fake news beat out real news during the past three months of the election. And we all know how that turned out.
There are at least two problems with this. First, the epidemic of fake news is overstated. Second, fake news is far from new.
The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney took the trouble to look beyond the headline about the Buzzfeed analysis. Turns out the "analysis" was not at all rigorous. It compared only the Facebook engagement metrics—the number of shares, reactions, and comments—for a small handful of stories.
The top fake story—about Pope Francis endorsing Donald Trump—got 960,000 engagements. The top real story, comparing Trump's level of corruption to Clinton's, got 849,000 engagements. If Facebook were the only source for news, that could be alarming—although it's worth noting that engagement does not equal acceptance. How many of the comments on the Pope Francis story amounted to "Yeah, right!"?
But Facebook isn't the only source of news. Consider: The pope story comes from EndtheFed.org. According to Alexa, which monitors internet traffic, EndtheFed.org is the 2,488,992nd most popular website in the world. In the U.S. alone, more than 363,000 websites are more popular. Compare that to the Washington Post, which is the source for Facebook's second-most-engaged story. It ranks 195th in the world and 40th in the United States. In one month, the Post can rack up 770 million page views. Last October it had seven stories that topped more than 1 million page views each.
So: "Fake News Beats Real News" turns out to be... fake news.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
114 Debunked Trump-Inspired Hate Crimes
by S. Noble • November 24, 2016
http://www.independentsentinel.com/114-debunked-trump-inspired-hate-crimes/
This article qualifies as fake news.
Fake news about fake news by the dishonest media.
“You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” – William Randolph Hearst, January 25, 1898
If FB has such “fake news”, then be a damn adult and just get a 2nd source!
I guess most of us here have been doing that for 25 years, so this is the most bizarre non-issue of the year.
I didn’t even know that FB even HAD news on it.
The “fake news” mantra is there to create an artificial “crisis.” The crisis is needed so that the internet distribution of information can be controlled to align with the leftist allowed band of thought.
It is progressing as the internet control has now passed to outsiders who can be manipulated. The leftist social media can then be aligned in this control process for fake vetting purposes.
The crisis of “fake news” is then created to mandate control of such sites that don’t agree with the leftist thought band.
TRUMP won, the political ruling elites, the MSM and its journalists lost, were exposed, discredited and proven to be utterly corrupt by alternative media and alternative sources of news.
They are foisting this "False News" narrative in the vain attempt to try and regain their CONTROL.
In this day, why would anyone expect to be able to rely on such a second-or-third gateway called "social media" source for trustworthy and appropriately reported news about their world?
Oh, well, given the propagandists who have "dumbed them down" in what passes for "public education" in America, it's to be expected, one supposes.
Networks have gave fake news for fifty years why give up now.
What’s the frequency Kennith
What about suppressed news? Way too many news stories are suppressed to protect certain people or groups.
Unless I missed it, only a few of the “anti-Trump” fake hate-crimes that were listed had anything specifically to do with Trump.
The Beast couldn’t have lost without fake news! The need to explain the unexplaiable is laughable.
The Beast couldn’t have lost without fake news! The need to explain the unexplainable is laughable.
“fake news beat out real news” HAHAHA There IS no REAL NEWS! Thanks to FAKE NEWS for pointing that out. http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/the-surge-of-pro-trump-fake-news-is-coming-from-macedonia/8003094
Trump should have accused the Bush cousin who sprang that tape of “private” banter of being Russian. If what he thought was a private conversation is fair game, what was wrong with Wikileaks???“Half the truth is often a great lie. - Benjamin Franklin
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