Posted on 03/12/2017 11:21:43 AM PDT by drewh
A few conservative critics predicted early on that the recent obsession with fake news would lead eventually to right-of-center newsrooms being lumped with the bad actors.
It looks increasingly likely that those critics were onto something.
Harvard University's library website currently features a page titled, "Fake News, Misinformation, and Propaganda."
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This portion of the library's website, which can be found in the "research guides" section, is intended to give students, "a brief introduction to the spread of misinformation of all kinds and tools for identifying it, and reading the news with a more informed eye," according to the site.
The "fake news" page includes the aptly titled subsection: "False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical 'News' Sources (Huge list of fake news sites)."
That subsection links to a massive online database, which lists nearly every legitimate conservative-leaning news groups alongside actual hoax websites.
The Washington Free Beacon, Independent Journal Review, the Daily Caller and the Washington Examiner are all on the list. Each is tagged with derogatory labels, including "clickbait," "bias," "unreliable," "political" or a combination of the four.
The list also includes conservative commentary sites like TheBlaze, RedState and the Weekly Standard.
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Fox News is not included on the database.
Legacy media organizations, including the Washington Post and the New York Times, are also excluded from the list, despite that they've bungled several recent Trump-related "scoops."
The online database linked by Harvard's library features a handful of well-known left-leaning news sites, including Raw Story and Think Progress. However, several notable left-of-center newsrooms, including Mother Jones, Vox.com, Media Matters and the Huffington Post are conspicuously absent. Several well-known liberal commentary sites, including Salon, Slate and the New Republic, are likewise missing from the list.
The database of "fake, false, or regularly misleading websites," is not a Harvard creation. It was compiled last year by Merrimack College assistant professor Melissa Zimdars, who maintains it is being misrepresented by the press and others.
"[I]t's not a fake news database," she told the Examiner, adding that the project was intended originally for just her students.
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Zimdars defended the database, saying, "there are quite a few left-of-center and far-left websites including in my resources, and I'm not sure why they are continually and purposefully disregarded to make points about my 'bias' (maybe you're just unfamiliar with the websites, which may point to some of your own biases?)."
She said she has done her best to include websites from both the left and right side of the aisle, because she is concerned most about "informational integrity."
"That being said," she explained, "there are more conservative or right of center websites included in my resource partially because there are more of them (and partially because, perhaps, more of them have been submitted to me for analysis)."
"They've done a better job of constructing an alternative and robust mediasphere," Zimdars added.
Along with clearly fake websites, her project, which was taken offline temporarily but is available now for viewing, features sites she claims, "may circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information" or "sometimes use clickbait-y headlines and social media descriptions."
The Washington Free Beacon, which is listed under "bias," has won kudos from even left-of-center critics for its dogged reporting. Three years ago, for example, the Free Beacon obtained and published a list of donor pledges to the progressive group Democracy Alliance. After that, it unearthed and published rare audio of Hillary Clinton discussing how she defended an accused child rapist as his court-appointed attorney.
Independent Journal Review, which is labeled both "bias" and "unreliable," most recently scooped everyone with a report confirming that Trump's Supreme Court justice nominee would be Judge Neil Gorsuch.
The Daily Caller, which scored a hat-trick by being labeled "political," "clickbait" and "unreliable," is responsible for uncovering the bombshell story that Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser, was paid more than $500,000 to represent Turkey's government even as he campaigned with the then-GOP nominee.
The Washington Examiner, which earned the titles "political" and "unreliable," has been at the forefront of uncovering the secret service's many scandals, ethical lapses and professional missteps.
Zimdars defended her system of classification, telling the Examiner, "not every website is labeled as fake news. The tags political, unreliable, and even clickbait actually describe generally credible and verifiable content that supports a particular political perspective (tag: political), but that sometimes uses sensational/emotionally charged headlines or language (tag: clickbait) and should be read in conjunction with other sources (tag: unreliable)."
It's worth noting there's a difference between "fake news" and biased or sloppy journalism. There's a difference between a "report" claiming Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump, which has no basis in reality, and journalists botching the details of a breaking news event or injecting political bias into their stories.
One problem with her database is that it groups 100 percent false stories, which are knowingly fabricated from thin air, with coverage she deems either too political, too clickbait-y or generally unreliable. There's an obvious difference, however, between what the Daily Caller does and what a group of fake news teens in Macedonia do. Perhaps separate lists would help.
Zimdars concurred there is a big difference between a news group flubbing a story and websites "consistently (or purposefully) [publishing] misleading information."
"I agree that the resource should be expanded to include even more sources to demonstrate the continuum of information to misinformation and disinformation, from credible sources of information to propaganda and fake news," she concluded. "Hopefully, I will be able to do that soon."
She stressed above all else that the database is not a list of "fake news."
Someone should tell that to Harvard.
Her project first went viral last year after Hillary Clinton's stunning and historic loss to Trump. It's making a resurgence now following reports that Harvard is leaning on it as a resource.
As it turns out, Harvard isn't even the first school to do this. City University of New York and Radford University have already instructed their students that the database should be used as a tool for identifying false information online.
A spokesperson for the Harvard library did not respond to the Examiner's request for comment.
Well, thank you Harvard for my marching orders. I didn’t know Harvard was a clearing house for news. Any sweepstakes?
well done Pilot!
Harvard is a fake university offering fake education.
Cant believe Dridge is on there. They are scared!
https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/10eA5-mCZLSS4MQY5QGb5ewC3VAL6pLkT53V_81ZyitM/mobilebasic
Sung to the tune of, “A Horse With No Name”.
Fakin’ the news from a source with no name,
About the President and the swamp he will drain;
It’s all fake news from a source with no name,
Reported by democrats without any brain.
Did they note that the letter P has stature most don’t ?
P oynter
P olitico
P ew
P ulitzer
All Ps are to the left.........Just an observation bout certain groups that start with P..../sarc
How dare they, everybody knows Facebook is who decides what is fake news!
He’s a real fake news man
Sitting in his fake news land
Making all his fake news plans for nobody
Only has a point of view
Only has his tricking you
Isn’t tricking anyone at all.
Fake news Man, please listen
You don’t know what you’re hissing
Fake news Man, the world isn’t your’s to command
He’s as fake as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Fake news Man can you see the truth at all?
Fake news Man, don’t worry
Take your time, don’t hurry
Fake it all till somebody else lends you a hand
Only has a point of view
Only has his tricking you
Isn’t tricking anyone at all.
Fake news Man, please listen
You don’t know what you’re hissing
Fake news Man, the world isn’t your’s to command.
He’s a real fake news Man
Sitting in his fake news land
Making all his fake news plans for nobody
Making all his fake news plans for nobody
Making all his fake news plans for nobody
.
Good One ! I started singing immediately !
In all honesty, Harvard has been a joke for at least two decades now.
How Orwellian.
Here is my fake news list to counter theirs. To show I’m not just going against news sites with a specific bias, I have included The People’s Cube, my favorite political humor site.
http://abcnews.com.co
http://abriluno.com
http://adobochronicles.com
https://aceflashman.wordpress.com (News lifted straight from The National Reporter)
http://christwire.org
http://dailybuzzlive.com
http://dailycurrant.com
http://dailyleak.org
http://diversitychronicle.wordpress.com
http://empirenews.net
http://holyobserver.com
http://huzlers.com
http://madworldnews.com (potentially fake stories)
http://nationalreport.net
http://newsexaminer.net – mixture of real and fake news
http://News-Hound.org (maybe not satirical but a lot are definitely fake)
http://newsthump.com
http://newstoad.net
http://nymeta.co (News lifted straight from The National Reporter without checking them)
http://odgossip.com
http://righthoughts.com
http://rockcitytimes.com
http://stuppid.com (http://realorsatire.com/stuppid-com)
http://theonion.com
http://theusualroutine.com/
http://tmzhiphop.com
http://tyronetribulations.com
http://witscience.org
http://worldnewsdailyreport.com
http://wundergroundmusic.com
http://www.burrardstreetjournal.com
http://www.crystalair.com
http://www.derfmagazine.com
http://www.duffelblog.com
http://www.enduringvision.com/index.php
http://www.gomerblog.com
http://www.newsbiscuit.com
http://www.newsmutiny.com/Index.html
http://www.private-eye.co.uk
http://www.sott.net/ (seems to be a mixture of satire/real news with no obvious way to tell which is which)
http://www.sportspickle.com
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk
http://www.thenewsnerd.com
http://www.thepeoplescube.com
http://www.thespoof.com
http://www.unconfirmedsources.com
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