Fake Journalists are the real problem

h/t to Charles the moderator at WUWT

In the latest Pew survey of 6,000 Americans 50% see made-up news as a “very big problem” — on a par with violent crime and income inequality. Sadly 46% don’t realize “climate change” is fake news.

Not surprisingly more Republicans than Democrats worry about fake news.  In the “starkest” difference — while many people think the fake news comes from politicans —  60% of Republicans blame the journalists themselves, whereas only 20% of Democrats did.

Many Americans Say Made-Up News Is a Critical Problem That Needs To Be Fixed

Pew Research  (Google cache link because the proper link wasn’t working).

A solid majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (62%) say made-up news is a very big problem in the country today, compared with fewer than half of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (40%). Republicans also register greater exposure to made-up news. About half of Republicans (49%) say they come across it often, 19 percentage points higher than Democrats (30%).

One of the starkest differences, though, is in assigning blame for creating made-up news and information. Republicans are nearly three times as likely as Democrats to say journalists create a lot of it (58% vs. 20%).

Republicans also place more blame on activist groups, with about three-quarters (73%) saying these groups create a lot, close to twice the rate of Democrats (38%).

Pew Survey, trust in media. 2019

News is so fake people are checking the facts themselves and cancelling subscriptions

Fake news means nearly 90% of  politically aware people are checking the facts of news stories themselves (compared to 70% of people who are not so into politics). But half of the people who are not interested in politics are just switching off the news. Most people will also stop getting news from a specific outlet. Trust in American media has been falling for years– especially with Republicans.

Here’s a slightly unnerving stat:

In addition, about eight-in-ten U.S. adults (79%) believe steps should be taken to restrict made-up news, as opposed to 20% who see it as protected communication.

The good news is that only 12% think the government should be fixing this. (Phew). A bit more than half of Americans think journalists should.

For the record, the biggest concerns of US citizens were drug addiction (70%) and affordability of Heath Care (67%).

 

9.8 out of 10 based on 51 ratings

75 comments to Fake Journalists are the real problem

  • #
    TdeF

    Made up news is appalling. However before that we had extreme journalist and editorial opinions dressed up as frong page news. There was a fatal police car chase of a stolen car in Melbourne and the Age ran a full page rant against the police blaming the police, stating the chase had not been called off and it was all the fault of the police. In the populist Sun, they had the times, the locations, what was said over the radio, what happened exactly, interviews with the parents and bystanders, all the facts and it was clear there was not a shred of truth in the fact free Age reporting, just opinions presented as facts. After this and many more similar rants I realised it was not a newspaper at all. The gold standard in reporting and editorials had been taken over by extremists and facts were irrelevant.

    So after 42 years of subscribing for daily delivery, I cancelled it. I missed the 9 letter word. The Australian has articles from all sides, National news and even an eleven letter word puzzle. Opinion presented as opinion, not fact. And from all sides. This is the hated Murdoch press, which seems eminently fair and balanced. Unlike left captured Fairfax and their ABC/SBS where socialist groupthink dictates all content.

    As for Global Warming. It is not mentioned in the Groupthink press. Climate Change is all the rage. Climate Crisis. Plus the urgent need for millions more giant windmills when there is no evidence that windmills make the slightest difference except to push up energy prices to unsustainable. As Margaret Thatcher said, socialism is fine until you run out of other people’s money.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      If its any consolation, I suspect most of the weenie greenies and their mates the loopy left wont survive the coming grid down scenario. They will die off first as they wont have any clue of basic survival or tech skills to keep themselves alive. Most grid down scenarios, health will be the main issue – basic things like cuts,sanitation or broken bones will kill more people than any thing else….maybe they could pray to their false green “gods” on their knees in front of their windmill “places of worship” for help that will not come….

      Reminds me of Elijah and the priests of Baal….similar story…..
      ( 1 Kings 18:16-40 )

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      • #
        James Murphy

        I wouldn’t underestimate them. The Greens only get about 10% of the vote, but look at what havoc they have wrought in Australia. Just like all top quality schoolyard bullies, they have intimidated and manipulated enough people that some actively support and encourage them, others stay silent, and few dare to stand up to them.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          That is changing – people have had enough.

          Bullies back off when you stand up to them resolutely.

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          • #
            GD

            We made a start by rejecting Labor, the Greens, and Get-Up at the recent election.

            Scott Morrison’s ‘quiet Australians’.

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            • #
              WXcycles

              Just as long as he remembers that they are not “Scott Morrison’s” either.

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              • #
                GD

                Agreed, I’d be more inclined to be called one of John Howard’s battlers or Tony Abbott’s supporters.

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        • #

          Don’t believe that. There are many who stick it up the Greens every day in every walk of life. I personally stick it up then at every opportunity and I live in a small community that has all too many warming worriers demonstrating their hypocrisy on a daily basis.

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    • #

      Indeed. It’s not just a matter of the MSM making up stories, it’s about them distorting or omitting facts, giving misleading headlines etc. I have numerous examples of where the likes of the Age and Their ABC write stories that make it appear that one thing is happening, but if you don’t read the entire article, you wouldn’t know that the issue is something completely different (the media doesn’t expect the majority of people to read past the first paragraph). This is almost always the case when it comes to any news about Trump.

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    • #
      ivan

      TdeF, all of the leftist MSM are doing it.

      https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2019/05/18/guardian-hacks-told-to-use-scary-language-to-describe-climate-change/

      The scarier they can make it the better they think they are – in other words news made to order of the UN Church of Climatology.

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    • #
      Reed Coray

      I think almost as important as “making up stories” and/or “distorting or emitting facts” is the issue of “What news to report.” When possible I listen to Rush Limbaugh (he’s on for three hours each weekday). At the half-hour and hour his show is interrupted for “news” (two-to-five minute interuptions). Even if the news that’s reported is accurate (and I’m not saying it is), there’s definitely a bias to report stories that are favorable to democrats and/or harmful to republicans.

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    • #
      Vladimir

      In 1979 when we came here, the biggest surprise to me was number of different radio stations in Melbourne.
      A reasonably educated 30-year old man, an anti-Sovietchik from the kindergarten age, I had never wondered why nation of 250 million people was happy with a single one.

      Then I understood that the purpose of this institution was to deliver the news, at times very practical ones, so the stations must be local, cater for different people views and tastes in jokes. Taught me English too. I was my best friend on my long way to work and back.

      In 1982 the Victorians changed the government. Some very sharp government critics “mellowed” overnight – I wonder why?

      Then I read (correct me if I am wrong…) that some prominent journalists went to work for Victorian government, so that opened my eye a little.

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  • #
    TdeF

    Then there are groupthink words. Yesterday it was reported that bleaching of parts of the Great Barrier Reef was ‘literally Climate Change’. What does that mean? We are now past facts, past logic and into the world of prescribed wording. Who writes this stuff?

    Obviously a Climate Catastrophe is coming and we need to import and erect more windmills and more transmission lines. And why is the world trying to get Western democracies to cripple their manufacturing, the essential engine of their wealth? Or is that a silly question?

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    • #
      Curious George

      It is not just facts, but how “they” report them. An old Soviet joke: President Carter and Secretary General Brezhnev competed in a 100 m run, and Carter won. The Party newspaper Pravda reports the next day: At the 100 m race, Comrade Secretary General Brezhnev won an honorable second place, while the American President Carter finished next to last.

      Fake news can be totally true.

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      • #
        GD

        Fake news can be totally true.

        The ABC and Fairfax/Channel 9 aren’t that clever. They’re just fake through and through.

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    • #
      sophocles

      Gullibles in full flight …

      20

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    The sign of a dictatorship , or any other failing form of “govt” is an open recognition that most delivered information is propaganda…..

    As the Russians used to say in the Soviet era : “They pretend to give us news, and we pretend to believe them.”

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    • #
      el gordo

      Or as they used to say about Pravda, you had to read between the lines to find out the truth.

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  • #
    graham dunton

    Yes, it is frightening, that so much distortion of the truth/facts, can be orchestrated by so few, wielding so much power.
    The revelations emerging, from hopefully the demolition of the deep state in Washington and its nefarious links worldwide. Are still not being vigorously reported in our media.and yes, Australia has been politically involved.

    New platforms such as Crowd Source the Truth-Jason Goodman.
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Cl9QaRtuW9CNjP7pP4BBQ

    This will provide a rapid incite

    Sunday with Charles – UNAMERICAN HUSTLE

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySsY9BiKlzU

    when into the presentation, show more Will open a menu, it will provide for the download (this is the slide show that matches this presentation )

    Download Charles’ Presentation – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SK87

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  • #
    Dave in the States

    Goes to show that Democrats are more gullible than Republicans.

    Of course MSM journalists and Democrats are essentially the same. Journalists have become political activists themselves.

    It used to be that if a journalist became an advocate he/she would be exposed by another journalist. Such a knock to their credibility could be fatal to their career. That would be how a free press worked or should work. Instead they protect each other’s corruption.

    I think the ultimate blame lay with the universities. Journalists do as they do because the have become encouraged to be lefty activists by their corrupt lefty professors. Why do k-12 science teachers indoctrinate kids? Because they have been indoctrinated themselves.

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    • #
      el gordo

      ‘I think the ultimate blame lay with the universities.’

      I agree totally, the Communication schools have a Marxist bent and need to be purged of Trots.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Goes to show that Democrats are more gullible than Republicans.

      Top story in Breitbart ATM proves this. Biden is promising to cure cancer if elected.

      But will he save kittens from a burning building?

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      • #
        Reed Coray

        No. But he’ll sniff them out from women’s hair.

        20

      • #
        sophocles

        … so he is promising to rid the planet of cosmic rays, just one of the sources of some cancers. Will he try to rid the planet of uranium, radium, radon, and other radioactive materials, also contributors to some other cancers …

        Will we see an anti-cosmic ray tax levied against the galaxy? Will the radioactive elements be forbidden (banned) from being mined and used?

        Stay tuned while the pseudo-scientists and their economists (pseudo-economists?) discuss and debate this, formulating their plans.

        I’m picking it will be a market oriented cure, of course … 🙂

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  • #
    Another Ian

    Would this be called “Unfaking”?

    “Tinyhouse Prepper Does A Nice Summary Of Global Warming BS”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/06/11/tinyhouse-prepper-does-a-nice-summary-of-global-warming-bs/

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  • #
    Drapetomania

    My girlfriend was a journalist.
    She showed me a journalist chat group that she belonged to where they were stating that since “global warming is real we dont need to inform readers about any criticism of it”
    When she pointed out that their jobs were to objectively report a story and stick to facts..she was mocked.
    The Age and The Herald are utter rags.
    I had a biff with the Age years ago and had to drag them screaming to do a correction.
    Their sub editor wrote me a surly response that looked like it was written by an angry school girl and actually claimed that I had only spotted one tiny error in a large article.
    I politely pointed out I had only looked at one article and mentioned i had done the unpaid work they should have by just using a way back machine to prove their claims were wrong.
    There “retraction” was done after months of idiocy ..with the govt dept who is supposed to force newspapers to stick to make corrections ..actually trying badly to side with them..”because global warming is real”..Huh..
    So..months later..they corrected it with a Url string so long..that they knew no one on earth would ever see it…
    Pure orwellian idiocy at its finest

    220

  • #
    John

    Jo, I watched a program run by Sky News UK on Donald Trump’s D Day visit. More than fake, it was pure sarcasm and smear and bore no resemblance to what I was seeing. No mention of his very impressive speech at Normandy which he did without notes.
    Some journalists want to create the news in their own image of the world rather than report it.
    Problem is some people lap it up.

    200

  • #
    Another Ian

    Stand by for likely exploding heads

    “President Trump Renewable Energy Policy Speech – Council Bluffs, Iowa – 4:20pm EST Livestream…”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/06/11/president-trump-renewable-energy-policy-speech-council-bluffs-iowa-420pm-est-livestream/

    And considerable discussion here (and in comments) re the “cheapness of ephemeral energy”

    “PG&E wins court case allowing it to renegotiate $34 billion in renewable energy contracts”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/06/11/pge-wins-court-case-allowing-it-to-renegotiate-34-billion-in-renewable-energy-contracts/

    50

  • #
    el gordo

    The destruction of journalism began with the development of the interwebs and the flight of advertisers to new platforms.

    Looking to the future I see a Renaissance in journalism and the accolades will go to those individuals and organisations which are balanced in news and opinion. In this way the readers can make up their own minds on the evidence available.

    The op-ed scribe who can literally draw a correct picture of the future will be considered part of the intelligentsia, which is a long way from where we are now, below the status of garbage men.

    My hypothesis needs a critique to sharpen the details.

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    • #
      sophocles

      that will severely annoy the Guardian! 🙂
      Tough.

      00

    • #
      WXcycles

      Remember when people were saying that spam in emails was such a problem that no one would use emails longer? The ISPs and tech biggies finally got the message and did something about it. It’s actually been a while since I got a fake spam email. When Telstra was my ISP I’d get 500 spam emails a day, so I virtually stopped using email and stopped using Telstra (worst telco ever to exist).

      Now I don’t read go to and actually a news site, or most blogs. I come to this blog and a few others and read selective news stories because I know people in here and Jo herself will not stand for fakery and lies.

      i.e. Integrety

      I still visit fake-news blogs sometimes just to laugh at how ridiculous they are, but when I do that I disturbingly glimpse the horrifying reality that a significant portion of the population really are that stupid.

      Can you imagine if Australian Schools and Universities actually had integrity?

      At present it’s currently quite unimaginable.

      20

      • #
        WXcycles

        “Now I don’t read go to and actually a news site, or most blogs.”

        Somehow that got scrambled, it was supposed to say:

        “Now I don’t go to nor read any actually NEWS websites, or to most blogs.

        00

  • #
    Hanrahan

    This rightfully belongs in Unthreaded but it shouldn’t wait.

    Jon Steward sounds off on congress.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQkMJgaHAkY

    Stay to the end to see the response.

    30

  • #
    Greg Cavanagh

    And this is exactly what Jo has been saying for years “The media is the problem”.

    80

  • #
    Lance

    Fake Journalists are a symptom of a much larger issue. Fake/Yellow Journalism has existed for a century or more.

    The larger issue is the attempt to create an artificial reality that supports politically and financially motivated schemes of social control over entire populations.

    Journalist is obsolete and inaccurate as a descriptor. Presstitute is more currently realistic and accurate.

    Politics, academia, and journalism have turned Orwell’s “1984” into reality. People are now taught “what to think” instead of “how to think”. This isn’t an accident. It is the natural result of politically motivated ideological usurpation of education and information for the purposes of power and control.

    What was once unthinkable is now mainstreamed by all forms of media. Woe be to those who challenge “our more enlightened betters”. Challengers are mocked, deplatformed, sued, attacked, destroyed, and snubbed, if they dare deviate from the media or political orthodoxy.

    It appears things may have gone too far and the “normals” are pushing back. See: Brexit, Trump, etc.

    Baseless fantasy can only endure so long as economic, military, and actual, reality, can be obscured. That time is past. No amount of “spin” can overcome the vagaries of economics, immigration, disease, debt, etc, beyond a certain point. Methinks that tipping point has arrived, at least in a nascent sense.

    Reality is a harsh teacher. And teach, she will. The Nutters, Poofs, Soothsayers, and such are about to get crushed by economic and practical reality. ‘Tis time to grow up and put away childish things.

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  • #
    James Murphy

    A slightly out of context Ocasio-Cortez summed it up best with “…I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about [me] being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right…”
    Then there is Bill Maher “…I don’t need the Mueller report to know Trump is a traitor. I have a TV…”

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    • #
      Lance

      Al Gore said some things similar.

      “it is appropriate to have an over representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.”

      Translation: Lying is OK if it leads to acceptance of our ideas. Others call it “taqiyya”.

      90

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    For the last three years I’ve watched no TV at home and read only occasional newspapers at the local library.

    On Saturdays I buy Tele and Austie and find them, in many ways, to be duplicates.
    The length of opinion pieces seems to indicate that the journalists or editors have the idea that long is better regardless of the amount of actual content.

    There’s also a weird trend in journalism which requires the writer to create a catchy heading with one word sounding like the word that should be there but importantly, to the writer, making you stop and think.

    One day in the not so distant future, when the drought breaks, we’ll probably see something like:
    “Heavy Dark Crowds Descend on the Hunter Pryor to Massive Downpour”.

    Call it alliteration or onomatopeia or cute, the question for me now becomes;

    Where is The News?

    Meanwhile, the real problems are hidden behind a wall of green verbiage that’s effectively impenetrable to those born in more recent times.

    KK

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    • #
      Greg Cavanagh

      Welcome to the crew KK. It’s well over 10 years for me. These days I never even think of it of a weekend. Occasionally around Christmas I wander what’s on TV, only to regret looking.

      I used to time the movie segments and count the adds. When the time it took to play the commercials took longer than the bit of movie they played, I quit. 10 to 12 adds, 7 minutes of adds and 5 minutes of movie, rinse repeat.

      Between the interweb and a large movie collection, I don’t need commercial TV. (well named – commercial).

      20

      • #
        sophocles

        I watch some of the daily evening news on TVNZ 1 — towards the end when it’s extolling and worshipping … um … someone, in the Sports part. But it’s not interesting.

        I’m there for tomorrow’s Weather Forecast. I don’t believe it, once I’ve got it, so I check it against other sources 🙂

        30

  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    “em> the biggest concerns of US citizens were drug addiction ”

    The U.S. news is filled with accounts of death from opioids and companies and doctors have been sued.
    Meanwhile, regulators are restricting the prescription of such drugs and medical practices have posted notices in every exam room.

    Opiates and opioids (heroin, morphine, OxyContin, Fentanyl) are depressants, meaning the drugs slow down your breathing and heart rate. As such, the most significant risk of an overdose is the lack of oxygen.” [..to the brain..]

    One’s brain doesn’t like that.

    Some First-aid and “first responders” carry naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose.
    The person coming out of an overdose often is aggressive and needs restrained – they are dangerous.
    Thus, some first-aid types will use CPR actions, only, while awaiting a police presence.

    These sorts of issues appear to be raising the awareness of people, thus drug addiction (70%) – with addiction not quite the right word – get high into the survey results.

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  • #
    Kinky Keith

    Thanks Lance @13.

    All wrapped up in a nice little bundle.

    Here in 2019 we know what we are told and that puts us in deep doo doo if those telling us the story have another agenda.

    I predict that by 2020 our governments will be controlled completely by the green slime.

    KK

    40

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Even quoting Trump as saying “The media is the enemy of the people” is a media beat-up. He actually said “Fake news is not only my enemy but the enemy of the people”. He no longer tries to differentiate and uses the shorter version himself.

    50

  • #
    Simon

    Sadly 46% don’t realize “climate change” is fake news.

    Come on Jo, climate change is real and it is happening.

    02

    • #
      el gordo

      Sadly 46% don’t realise global warming is fake news.

      50

    • #
      sophocles

      Define “Climate Change” first!

      10

    • #
      Ted O'Brien

      The real news is that there is still no hard evidence that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is harmful.

      There is hard evidence that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      Climate is always changing.

      There is absolutely no empirical proof that humans can or have affected the global climate in any way whatsoever.

      Be VERY glad for the small and highly beneficial warming since the LIA, the coldest period in 10,000 years.

      00

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Fake news can cut both ways , I once believed the CAGW hype and read or watched every program or Doco I came across until I seen something I knew wasn’t right which made me do my own research .
    What I discovered was a litany of frordulent malarkey dressed up as science and the wilder the claim the more exposure it seemed to get .
    It’s also what led me to find sites like this and WUWT ,no doubt many others will eventually realise the con but the force is strong with the MSM and like in a war the first casualty is truth .

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    • #
      Serp

      Not only us but many of the leading “sceptical” scientists have made the same confession that they had taken the IPCC statements on board in good faith until the eye scales fell away and were then kicking themselves for neglecting due diligence. Nir Shaviv is one who comes to mind immediately and there are a host of others whose names escape me at this time.

      And let’s not forget that behind this scam sits a crew of seasoned fiscal scoundrels glorying in the gullibility of the general public of which nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence (P.T. Barnum). Certain Australian seasoned scoundrels have been mentioned on this site before and don’t need airing here now.

      00

  • #
    Roy Hogue

    If you have ever watched a little of prime time MSNBC and seen Rachael “Mad Cow” Madddow raving her way trough an hour straight out of her imagination or watched Chris “thrill up the leg” Matthews you would have no trouble recognizing 2 people totally divorced from the truth. The divorce could not be more final if a judge had signed the papers personally. I always thought Matthews would be better served by putting on dry underwear than by talking about it. But some people cannot do better than make fools of themselves no matter how they try.

    MSNBC is possibly the worst fake news outlet in existence. They can’t even make it sound good most of the time. By the way, if you didn’t know it before now MS stands for Microsoft and NBC for the well known network that we thought we could trust to be at least intending to get it right and be honest. That Microsoft and NBC got together should tell you what the politics of Bill Gates is all about if you haven’t noticed him before now.

    These are the most obvious offenders. Then we have everyone else except Fox news Channel and One America News Network. And somewhere in there is the truth, something I would dearly like to know. Unfortunately the only way short of reading everyone’s mind is to wait and see what actually gets done. Then I know. Otherwise I’m guessing like everyone else.

    Deplorable seems inadequate to describe the situation. If you can come up with a better word I’d like to know what it is.

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  • #
    Zane

    Most teachers, librarians, and the like are leftists who have swallowed the Greens propaganda 100%. Children have a habit of believing what adults in authority tell them, and their young minds cannot distinguish fact from lies. It is not their fault. That lies with universities and Education departments who are thinly disguised propaganda outlets for Big Green and the UN globalists representing third world kleptocrats. The big oil and gas corporates were happy enough to put the boot into coal. Enron started much of the propaganda war, and GE took over its windmill business after Enron collapsed. Miners like BHP and Rio have also bought into the sustainability hoohah for PR purposes and downplayed their coal interests or even divested them. Now BHP runs ads about how steel build hospitals and cities in overcrowded countries. Right you are. China and Pakistan must have their new ports and bridges. Steel is also used in Chinese warships. The ads don’t mention that.

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    • #
      WXcycles

      Zane people who have never started a business and become independent and accountable to their own efforts rarely seem to break out of the employee, or worse still, government employee mindset. My very first job started the day I turned 15 and it was a government job, I left it when I turned 18 and worked for partially for myself and partially in private business as an employee, then went to UNI, left and started a business and worked only for my self for years after that. People who only experience being an employee never fully develop an independent spirit and are prone to being leftish. While people who never work anywhere but in government are practically guaranteed to become severely affected by socialist world views.

      I suspect this is at heart of the antipathy the left and greens have towards business and free thinking independent minded people, as it’s the means for a person to become more-or-less free and independent of controllers and fear-mongers, and to develop into a person who wont ever buy into their crap, and who will always point out what fakes and scammers they really are.

      And that’s why they, despite reservations, tend to vote (political) Conservative, because the left variety can never be taken seriously by such independent people.

      So collective consensus myths and lies is the only thing the left want taught at universities, or from government-funded (socialist populated) sources.

      Else they’re toast, the useless parasites can’t run their scams any more.

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  • #
    MudCrab

    The problem here is people forget what media is.

    A business.

    The collect things people are interested in knowing about and provide them, not out of the goodness of their little hearts, but because they are a business. If people want then people will pay for, either directly or via advertisement.

    Now somewhere along the lines there came some assumption that media was required to tell (shudder) THE TRUTH!

    Really? Why? With the exception of state owned media who SHOULD be operating under a charter, media does not have to tell the truth. They have to provide for their audience. If the audience just wants to be entertained, then give them what you think they are willing to pay for. You only have to tell the truth if you believe your market will leave you if they decide your ‘facts’ are dodgy. If your audience WANTS to hear and pay for you telling them that the moon is made of cheese, then science be damned and diary products should fill your headlines.

    On the flip side, if your audience is astroluna-lactose untolerant then they will stop paying for your publication and go and read something else. It is then up to the editors and owners of this section of media to decide if they want to retain this audience – and hence start talking about the latest research in moon rocks – or if they can still make a profit without them and hence continue writing about the cheese.

    Yes there are limits to how much you bend the truth from a legal point of view. Slander et al. But if you believe you have a business model to talk about moon cheese, then go for it.

    The other problem with media is they came to believe their own importance in society. Fourth Estate. They cast themselves in the role of protectors of the truth who would hold the ruling classes to task. To some extent they were probably, at various times in history, correct.

    The fault lays in the fact that they started to become quite powerful and honestly believed the vertical model for news distribution (ie the people with the printing presses passed information DOWN) was the one true and correct model. Spreading news was their right because only they had the skills to do so.

    (side point – why is journalism a degree course? Why is it no longer a trade you learn at the knee of a chain smoking sub editor? Because journalism is important and hence only the educated elite are allowed to enter their exclusive team.)

    Now this vertical model worked fine when owning the printing press (or radio station or whatever) was something only a few people could do. They were the single source of information across the market and to capture your market share you needed a business model that would match your audience. The problems for them began once nu-media started to allow everyone to discuss and share information. This is described as a flat model and the old guard media are horrified that it is allowed to exist. When ANYONE can share media not only do they share the WRONG media, but they do so without the guiding hand of their elite moral superiors. Their importance in political power as the Fourth Estate was being bypassed by people not only reporting for themselves, but searching for themselves and (horror) thinking for themselves. Having established themselves as the people who would tell you what you should think because they controlled the market (remember – news is a business), they were now discovering the market were happy to shop elsewhere.

    So how has the MSM reacted to this?

    The smarter ones have changed their business models. If they can’t report, they should at least try and entertain, or at least convince you that you want to be entertained (cough, clickbait). Some evolved into more rolling opinion centres, unwilling to commit to ‘this is the truth and this is what you need to think’ but becoming more a centre for debate. Others however seemed to double down. Unwilling to admit media was in a state of rapid evolution and unwilling to give up their long established positions of power they have decided that everyone who no longer comes to them for information is clearly WRONG. It is not so much that what they are trying to report is slanted to their target audience, but the fact that they now act like their non target audience is now the enemy.

    The claim that Media is at war with the people is actually very close to the truth. Media has evolved. The once closed shop controlled by a relative few is now open to all who have internet access. The public can now shop around, debate and challenge and all without buying a single newspaper or subscribing to a single news service and the establishment despise them for it.

    Or something 😀

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    John

    Yeah, I finally cancelled my SMH subscription because of this.

    I’ve also recently cancelled my New Scientist subscription as they too have gone down the PC gurglar. Endless articles about the partriarchy, about diversity and inclusivity, and of course sanctimonious Al Gore style climate change articles.

    Anyone have any recommendations for an unbiased science magazine?

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      sophocles

      Nat Geo is just as guilty … and Scientific American deserves the label Socialist American

      If you haven’t already discovered them, Suspicious Observers with Ben Davidson is pretty good …

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    Pauly

    Jo,
    As an interesting sidebar to fake news, have you looked at the list of authors who have been editing your Wikipedia page:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanne_Nova?wprov=sfti1

    Of course, who bothers using Wikipedia as a reference source these days?

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    Michael262

    Sadly, when some republicans hear negative press about the unfallible Trump, they automatically call it fake.
    I see that just as with science, rather than sticking with the facts, the deniers call it all fake when they don’t like what they hear.

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      Kinky Keith

      That’s fake, do you have a link for that.

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      Pauly

      Michael, fortunately all that negative press is balanced by those MSM who support Trump, based on the actual results he has achieved. Lowest unemployment ever; wages growing; record stock market levels; middle class wealth increasing.

      Just kidding! Wouldn’t wasn’t to confuse the MSM with facts and actual journalism!

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      AndyG55

      You have NEVER produced and actual FACTS.

      I doubt you even know what the term means!

      You live in a fantasy AGW bent miasma.

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      AndyG55

      “the deniers call it all fake “

      What do we deny , that you have any actual empirical proof for?

      WAITING !!

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    robert rosicka

    Fresh from fake news central , sea level rise in Australia only a problem for those on the south coast .

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-12/climate-change-hazards-global-peace-index-report/11198144

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    Drapetomania

    Speaking of fake news..where do old Herald Journalists go?
    To here
    This is what happens when left wing journalists brains fall out and they cannot do a search for the real price of renewables..the idiocy in one article after another..is beyond hilarious..

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    Reasonable Skeptic

    Here is a great example of how fake news industry works:

    Outcome: June 10th, 2019 Justin Trudeau, PM of Canada announces a ban on “harmful single use plastics” in 2021. The goal is to reduce the amount of plastics in the oceans.
    Reality: 0.9% of ocean plastics come from North America, thus the ban will have no measurable change in the level of plastics in oceans.

    How did this happen? Activists worry. Activists lie. Activists protest. Journalists repeat lies. Liberal Politicians virtue signal. Taxpayers pay for lies.

    Every time an activist opens their mouths, they are lying and we end up paying for their lies.

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    Republicans live only to bully girls, ban birth control and plant leaves and have their minions shoot dogs and teenagers over plant leaves (while bombing the other side of the planet). The only reason Americans don’t string them up is that the Dems live only to ban electric power and freon and tax the air we breathe. It’s like a competition to see who can be the more obnoxious threat and frighten bleating voters into the arms of the competing looter faction. Only the hockey-stick increase in Libertarian Party vote share gives us the strength to keep going.

    [Too funny to leave in moderation. Hank this is humor right?] ED

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