Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Hillary Clinton: It’s now clear that “fake news” can have real-world consequences
Hotair ^ | 12/09/2016 | AllahPundit

Posted on 12/09/2016 8:24:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind

There’s no way to watch this clip and not detect the taste of sour grapes, just as there’s no way to watch the recent media/left hand-wringing over “fake news” and not see an attempt to explain away Trump’s shocking upset as some sort of grand scam. It must be a comfort to believe that a key reason you lost 300+ electoral votes to a guy who got caught on tape talking about grabbing women by the p***y was because someone in Macedonia wrote a story on Facebook about you eating babies or whatever. I agree that “fake news” has real-world consequences. You know what else has real-world consequences? Not running ads in Wisconsin. Or not running ads anywhere for six months about what you plan to do for the average blue-collar voter.

To be fair, though, I don’t think she means this as a commentary (or mainly as a commentary) on the election. She’s obviously talking about the guy who gorged himself on “Pizzagate” material then thought it’d be a good idea to grab his rifle and head down to Comet Ping Pong to liberate the many child sex slaves supposedly held captive inside. Imagine his surprise when he found no captives there. (“The intel on this wasn’t 100 percent.”) As with all political and media stories now, reaction to the “fake news” panic splits pretty reliably along partisan lines, with the left overly credulous because it wants to believe Trump could only have won because right-wingers are paranoid dupes and the right overly skeptical because it wants to use “fake news” as a cudgel against big media. (Virtually every conservative reflection on “fake news” has boiled down to the idea that mainstream media is the real fake news.) I think the influence of “fake news” is overstated — if you’re inclined to believe a story that Hillary Clinton eats babies, chances are you weren’t voting for her in the first place — but if you missed this piece a few weeks ago, have a look now. There are in fact people out there who are making things up whole cloth, just like The Onion does except without the laughs, because they can make bank on it. One amazing example:

[T]he most successful post BuzzFeed News found from a Macedonian site is based on a story from a fake news website. The headline on the story from ConservativeState.com was “Hillary Clinton In 2013: ‘I Would Like To See People Like Donald Trump Run For Office; They’re Honest And Can’t Be Bought.’” The post is a week old and has racked up an astounding 480,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook. (To put that into perspective, the New York Times’ exclusive story that revealed Donald Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns generated a little more than 175,000 Facebook interactions in a month.)

The viral Clinton story was sourced from TheRightists.com, a site that admits it publishes both real and fake content. According to emails released by WikiLeaks, Clinton said in a private speech to Goldman Sachs that she would like to see more successful business people enter politics. But she did not mention Donald Trump in any way. The quote used in the headline is false.

Some fake-news writers have written pieces for mainstream outlets since the election boasting about how easy it was invent a story and have it catch on online, especially on the right. There’s been enough attention to the phenomenon by now that Sheryl Sandberg had to formally deny responsibility for swinging the election to Trump in an interview on the “Today” show this morning because Facebook hasn’t figured out a way to filter out “fake news” yet. I think you can simultaneously believe that (a) the media sucks, by and large, and (b) people should be far more skeptical about what they read online, especially when what they’re reading flatters their political prejudices. Whether or not “fake news” is really a thing, motivated reasoning is definitely a thing.

If you’re looking for a piece on how our terrible media softens up the public for “fake news,” here’s the best one I’ve read. Exit question: Hillary suggests here that Congress should take action against “fake news,” specifically foreign propaganda. What sort of action?

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016issues; blamegame; clinton; fakenews; hillary; hillary2016
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-103 next last
To: SeekAndFind

Imagine the slander if she had won and Trump made the same statement?


81 posted on 12/09/2016 10:16:58 AM PST by capydick (“Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

“She’s obviously talking about the guy who gorged himself on “Pizzagate” material then thought it’d be a good idea to grab his rifle and head down to Comet Ping Pong...”

Are we sure she isn’t talking about that guy that shot the water tower in Grover’s Mill?


82 posted on 12/09/2016 10:21:30 AM PST by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

New York......

The guests in Plaza Hotel room 4012 were awakened by loud beating on their door. On answering the door, they discovered an irate Hillary Clinton demanding to be let in. She was extremely angry in her obscsne insistance that they leave her suite immediately.

The door was closed and security notified. The security team calmed Mrs Clinton the recent unsuccessful candidate for President and directed her to her actual suite 4212 two floors above. Mrs Clinton apparently got off the elevator on the wrong floor.

Alcohol was said th be involved in the incident


83 posted on 12/09/2016 10:24:27 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Macroagression melts snowflakes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Opinionated Blowhard

“Hillary is still talking about how “fake news” derailed her presidential candidacy”

Me too - Trump will win again!


84 posted on 12/09/2016 10:24:39 AM PST by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: jerod

Read again. NY TIMES is saying she is not those things.


85 posted on 12/09/2016 10:30:37 AM PST by doug from upland (Hillary, get the hell off the stage!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

She obviously can’t trade presidential favors for high priced “speeches,” so she’s on to her next scam. She’ll talk about fake news for 300k per; there’s certainly a market on the left for it.


86 posted on 12/09/2016 10:45:35 AM PST by DPMD (o)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DannyTN

Or a VIDEO caused the deaths of Stevens and crew in BenGhazi??

HATE THE WITCH!


87 posted on 12/09/2016 10:47:49 AM PST by HypatiaTaught (Trump saved the Republic)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: dsc

Nothing in there that I can find to disagree with you on.


88 posted on 12/09/2016 10:49:52 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

This meme is old and tired just like her.


89 posted on 12/09/2016 1:37:44 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sacajaweau

So shameful. Even Fox News was off by 3%.


90 posted on 12/09/2016 1:42:33 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DannyTN

I thought I would really enjoy this wailing and gnashing of teeth by Hilary and company, but now it is starting to piss me off.


91 posted on 12/09/2016 1:44:22 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Engedi

What is the significance of the purple gang color suit?


92 posted on 12/09/2016 1:47:50 PM PST by SoftballMominVA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: SoftballMominVA

The mainstream media says its the color of the suffragates (white,purple and gold) and also the LGBT anti- bullying group. It also refers to the purple states aka swing states.

However, many of us see it as a color to fight the Trump election. She didn’t wear purple when she dropped out of race against Obama so I really don’t believe its because of women’s suffrage or LGBT anti bullying group.

She and Bill both wore purple- it is a message probably to Soros, Stein and others to fight the election of Trump by any means.


93 posted on 12/09/2016 2:05:07 PM PST by Engedi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

This coming from the same witch that said she took sniper fire in Bosnia.

Yet she wants to lecture the world about fake news.


94 posted on 12/09/2016 2:10:49 PM PST by Enlightened1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Trying to censor people over so called fake news. Like climate change its all a govt conspiracy.


95 posted on 12/09/2016 6:18:59 PM PST by Carry me back (Cut the feds by 90%)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sacajaweau

def. fake news: Obama, Clinton or pretty much any Dem opening their mouths. The MSM and the Dems ARE America’s fake news.....i.e. Obama’s 4.5% unemployment rate endless announced while 100 million working age Americans have no job and 20% of families have no one employed.

We need a “No politician shall lie” law.


96 posted on 12/09/2016 6:40:47 PM PST by OldArmy52 (All change is progress.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Grimmy
It’s the only way they can hope to stay out of prison.

Stay out of prison for:

A personal, illegal mail server handling classified information?

Destroying emails (evidence) that was subpoenaed?

Selling favors for contributions to the Clinton Foundation?

Paying staff out of the Clinton Foundation money

Trafficking children as part of PIZZAGATE?

And there's probably more.

Jake Trapper is just an email away.

Jake Trapper and Podesta emails

97 posted on 12/09/2016 6:41:40 PM PST by politicianslie (What would a terrorist do if he were made POTUS? : Exactly what Hussein Obama is doing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I think that one of the reasons for the “fake” news meme is for the purpose of censoring the internet and any other source of information that might not be the leftist government approved narrative.


98 posted on 12/09/2016 10:30:54 PM PST by greeneyes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KC_Lion

That concerns me too, because Donald is so very easy to bait with any slight remark. The difference in today’s world is that we have the Internet, Twitter, Gab, Fox, One America, and some radio shows available to the average person. We have easy methods to learn more about our candidate and ways to see them discuss something other than ‘gotcha’ questions.

It’s easier to find your candidate in various situations now, compared to 20 years ago. You may find your candidate showing a full, complex personality vs having to accept the flat unpleasant caricature the left always tries to serve up. Also, I get the feeling that Trump will make live rallies an ongoing occurrance of his presidency, at least for a while. This presents yet another way to see , to experience your preferred politician in a setting different than via three second sound bites.


99 posted on 12/10/2016 12:04:12 AM PST by lee martell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Who cares what Hillary the has-been says?


100 posted on 12/10/2016 1:27:51 AM PST by Crucial
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-103 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson