Free Republic

Apple has announced a new “midterms election” feature for its official News app, which will feed users election content from a cherry-picked group of left-leaning and establishment news outlets that the tech giants considers “trusted sources.” Instead of letting users decide what news they want to see on their phones, Apple confirmed that it intends to deliver exclusive news and opinion to their users that have been “curated by Apple News editors from trusted publishers.” “Today more than ever people want information from reliable sources, especially when it comes to making voting decisions,” said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News....

One of the course designers, Doreen Bradley, director of learning programs and initiatives at the U-M Library, says misinformation, disinformation, half-truths and propaganda have always been around, but are these days so readily sharable that students encounter a much greater volume than ever before. Students taking the class will: •Learn how to find trusted sources of statistics. •Be challenged to confront their own biases. •Consider how their opinions, and the opinions of others, can affect the interpretation of news items. •Practice dissecting a news graph in order to understand the message that graph is trying to convey. •Assess how their...

ALL the ingredients for a spy thriller involving prostitutes, poker, a congressman called Randy and parties at the legendary Watergate complex may lie behind the sudden resignation of Porter Goss as director of the CIA last Friday. The saga has already been named “Hookergate” and the CIA is buzzing with rumours that there is more to Goss’s departure than meets the eye. The timing is certainly curious, coming hard on the heels of the CIA’s confirmation last week that Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the number three in the nation’s spy centre who was hand-picked by Goss, had attended poker games at...