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President Obama On Fake News Problem: 'We Won't Know What To Fight For' (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader shares a TechCrunch article: President Barack Obama spoke in Berlin Thursday during a visit to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and during his remarks he addressed concerns about fake news circulating via social platforms like Facebook. On the subject of fake news, Obama noted that the ease with which we can make false information seem like genuine facts on platforms including "a Facebook page" means there's a great risk for audiences. Here's is what he said, "Because in an age where there's so much active misinformation, and it's packaged very well, and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on your television, where some overzealousness on the part of a U.S. official is equated with constant and severe repression elsewhere, if everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won't know what to protect. We won't know what to fight for. And we can lose so much of what we've gained in terms of the kind of democratic freedoms and market-based economies and prosperity that we've come to take for granted.

9 of 531 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Precisely by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes, that's what I'm stating. Stories may have been wrong in part, but the main news outlets weren't inventing news.

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  2. Re:Speaking of lies... by dgood · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's not Obama's fault that the insurance companies decided not to allow that. The ACA had provisions to grandfather existing policies but the insurance companies decided to just drop them instead.

  3. Re:Mainstream media DOES invent news by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are a couple examples. See if you can spot the trends.

    Firefighter Jailed & Suspended By Atheist Mayor For Praying At Scene of Fire
    Sounds plausible, right? I'm outraged! Christianity is under attack! I need to share this on Facebook immediately! Here's a quote:

    According to DeQuincy city attorney Paul Horner, Jones made four previous attempts to address the issue personally with Edwards, but Edwards became more defiant with each meeting.

    94-Year-Old Grandma Kills 'Knockout Game' Thug
    The poor woman! She got attacked! If she didn't have her gun, those black youths probably would have killed her! Here's a quote:

    St. Louis Police Detective Paul Horner told CNN the ‘Knockout Game’ is extremely dangerous and needs to stop before more people get killed. "How many more of our young African American youths will have to die before it clicks in their tiny little brains not to do this stupid sh*t anymore?"

    Obama Signs Executive Order Which Bans The Sale Of Assault Weapons
    What?! Just read that article about that poor 94 year old woman, we need more guns! This is an outrage! People have to hear about this! Here's a quote:

    Washington political analyst, 37-year-old Paul Horner, who has been at The Coronado Healthcare Center since early last month after getting into a severe accident in Rocky Point, told ABC News what led up to this assault gun ban on both sides of the party.

    Obama To Honor Muslim Brotherhood Leader With Statue On White House Lawn
    That goddamn Kenyan needs to go back to Kenya! All of my relatives need to hear about this! Here's a quote:

    White House spokesman Paul Horner ended the press conference by giving details to reporters about the controversial statue.

    “The statue of Azhar Azeez will be displayed on the East side of the White House lawn,” Horner said. “The marble statue will stand approximately 21 feet tall, weigh a little more than a 100 tons and is currently being built by world famous artist Tom Downey from England. The statue is expected to be completed in the next 6 months with a grand unveiling celebration for all to see. This is a great day for Muslims all over the world.”

    Donald Trump Introduces New Muslim/Refugee Badges
    It's about goddamn time! Let's make it great again! Here's a quote:

    “The German government’s policy of forcing Jews to wear identifying badges was but one of many psychological tactics aimed at isolating and dehumanizing the Jews of Europe, directly marking them as being different and inferior to everyone else,” Paul Horner of the Holocaust Center said.

    Mom Calls 911 On Masturbating Teenage Son; Boy Arrested, Charged With New ‘Self-Rape’ Alabama State Law
    Share to everyone! Here's a quote:

    An Alabama boy is behind bars tonight after his mother called 9-1-1 when she found her son in his room, watching pornography and masturbating. Montgomery Police were quick to respond, arresting 15-year-old Paul Horner, who attends Jefferson Davis High School.

    That goddamn Paul Horner gets around, doesn't he?

    Anyway, the guy who runs that site, Paul Horner, appreciates all of the page views and ad clicks on his articles baiting right-w

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    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  4. Re:Precisely by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Informative

    There were several reporters on Diane Rehm's show this morning talking about that. One of them mentioned that his efforts to correct articles that were obviously wrong, were in fact proof to the people who believed the article that he was biased and lying himself. So there you go, the effort to try to point out that an article is fake is met by its believers with a belief that you are the one lying. They'll go on believing the fake news, but now they also think you're a liar also.

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    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  5. Re:Mainstream media DOES invent news by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Informative

    Funny that, because many times Breitbart has more objectivity and ethics then oh Huffpo. Or CBS, NBC or ABC. Far more then buzzfeed for sure. Remember those DNC leaked emails? You know the ones, where reporters were sending stuff directly to the DNC for approval. Or where the DNC and reporters were so chummy that they could get things removed from articles if it would look bad. Or the media and the DNC hosting fundraisers? You don't? Well that's okay. This is only a small sample. After all, with CNN telling you that looking at wikileaks is illegal, you should listen to them right? After all, dig through those leaked emails and you find that USAToday, WAPO, NBC, CBS, NPR, ABC, NYTimes, Politico and several others have all had reporters so chummy that they could get things removed. Or they were openly publishing direct DNC talking points.

    If you don't see this whole "fake news" thing as an attempt by those who lost the election, to turn around and create media echo-chambers where only those who toe the line is allowed. You haven't paid any attention at all to what just happened.

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    Om, nomnomnom...
  6. Re:Precisely by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Informative

    No? The mainstream media is not as bad as fake news?

    You should take a bit more of a look. Start plugging those names into wikileaks clinton email and DNC databases. You're in for a wild ride son.

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    Om, nomnomnom...
  7. Re:Mainstream media DOES invent news by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    the so-called "alt-right" doesn't even exist.

    The term "alt-right" was not imposed by a leftist conspiracy. It started as a term of self-identification for people that disagreed with the economic policies of the establishment-right, while advocating even more extreme social policies. The alt-right people that I know (such as my idiot brother-in-law), wear the label with pride.

  8. Re:It's odd, isn't it? by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 5, Informative

    I mean, it's really odd. Everybody who's so fucking concerned about fake news now didn't seem to be too upset when Dan Rather was pushing fake news.

    A lot of people were upset. The mainstream media-- the same usual suspects you call left-leaning-- came down on 60 Minutes like a ton of bricks. 60 Minutes ran a correction in prime time, fired the people involved in approving the story to go on the air with inadequate fact checking, and asked Dan Rather to resign.

    That seems pretty "upset" to me.

    So, your demonstration that mainstream media does fake news is a single news story fourteen years ago that was based on documents that turned out to be forged, for which the staff of the program was fired or asked to resign.

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    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  9. Re: Mainstream media DOES invent news by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 4, Informative

    For those who actually hold a security clearance part of that is not trying to access material you are not cleared for. Sorry that doesn't fit your narrative.

    CNN's news report was not targeting the tiny segment of people with security clearances (as low as CNN's ratings are, that part of the viewing demographic is likely ZERO), they were saying that to everyone. There's a good analysis of where they were getting this (blatantly false) idea from over at Pope Hat.

    This is the SAME technique that sites like Snopes and other biased "fact checkers" use. If they want to defend someone's statement, they inject some qualifier that was NEVER included in the original statement, and then claim it was "Mostly True", or better. Nobody buys that crap but the other people in the echo chamber they are talking to.

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    "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
    --- Jerry Garcia