ABCNNBCBSFOXNYTLATAJCWSJ.................................THERE IT IS! I SPOTTED IT!......................
If this was an unbiased course with no hidden agenda it would be a good course to offer.
But what are the chances of that happening at a major, left leaning. establishment school?
Stanford University had a pair of researchers who studied the issue of fake news....finishing the report in late January.
So, they came to two conclusions. Only 15-percent of society were viewing sites which might be identified as fake news sites. That’s it....only 15-percent.
But they also came to realize as people read or watched the fake news sites...few were able to memorize or remember the fake news days or weeks later. They didn’t put down some pattern or number of days....but it made one think that at best...you might remember some fake news for twenty-four hours. Maybe a few big episodes might last longer. But most folks just couldn’t remember things long-term.
So you have to sit there and wonder....all this fake hype over fake news...is simply fake? It would be interesting to register a fake student in this fake U-M course, and have him pose questions to the professor...making the rest of the class wonder if the professor was fake or not.
Like they count on their fingers and toes.
Disgraceful university. But that’s what they’ve become.
Not a fake university, just a fake university course.
They can start with See-BS as their first case study.
The stated principles are spot-on. But that is only window-dressing.
Because, in spite of the caveat of assessing one’s own biases, there is simply no way to cancel out the interference created by the pervasive influence of the pro-marx, anti-Christian university-cultural worldview window. Hence, the general by-product of having taken the course will result in the exact same pro-marx, anti-Christian graduates. Why? Becuse people with that worldview are incapable of calling their worldview a bias at all.
“Learn how to find trusted sources of statistics.”
What a joke.
If you can’t do the math, you will forever be swayed by those abusing statistics to manipulate you.
You don’t “trust” someone else’s math and presumptions. You verify.
If you have to rely on trust, by definition, you neither understand statistics, nor how they are abused.
Another worthless university course for the unemployable generation.
OTOH, for a crib course I preferred Underwater Basket Weaving.
U of M, 1954 home to National Educational Television, predecessor to PBS. The beginning of socialist propaganda TV in America; aimed at children. Trust U of M as you would a rabid pit bull.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Educational_Television
Why some new, special class to spot fake news? When I was in school 35 years ago, one course we had to take was called “Language and Logic” which has served me well.
Fake news is not as much of a problem as bias reporting.
The five “W” once ruled journalism -
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
Kipling
What happened?
Who is involved?
Where did it take place?
When did it take place?
Why did that happen?
The bias was kept to the editorial page.
Today’s newspaper treat every page as if it was the editorial page. Front page, sport page, social page, even entertainment and cartoons.
No one killed newspapers, they committed suicide.
You want to know how I teach my children to spot fake news? I have them spend a few hours each week on Freerepublic!