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The US Government Funds A War On Online Fake News (bangordailynews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post:
Congressional negotiators on Wednesday approved an initiative to track and combat foreign propaganda amid growing concerns that Russian efforts to spread "fake news" and disinformation threaten U.S. national security. The measure, part of the National Defense Authorization Act approved by a conference committee, calls on the State Department to lead government-wide efforts to identify propaganda and counter its effects. The authorization is for $160 million over two years...
The Senate Intelligence Committee, meanwhile, has approved language in the fiscal year 2017 intelligence authorization bill calling for new executive branch efforts to combat what it characterized as "active measures" by Russia to manipulate people and governments through front groups, covert broadcasting or "media manipulation." "There is definitely bipartisan concern about the Russian government engaging in covert influence activities of this nature," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "If you read section 501 of this year's intelligence authorization bill, it directs the President to set up an interagency committee to 'counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence over peoples and governments.'"
Several senators on the intelligence committee also asked President Obama to declassify any information relating to the Russian government and the U.S. election.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, meanwhile, has approved language in the fiscal year 2017 intelligence authorization bill calling for new executive branch efforts to combat what it characterized as "active measures" by Russia to manipulate people and governments through front groups, covert broadcasting or "media manipulation." "There is definitely bipartisan concern about the Russian government engaging in covert influence activities of this nature," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "If you read section 501 of this year's intelligence authorization bill, it directs the President to set up an interagency committee to 'counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence over peoples and governments.'"
Several senators on the intelligence committee also asked President Obama to declassify any information relating to the Russian government and the U.S. election.
What part about freedom of the press and "congress shall make no law" don't they understand
Shit, they might as well name the new effort the Ministry of Truth so that it can be crystal clear what they are trying to accomplish.
What, the US mainstream media didn't work hard enough disparaging Donald Trump for the last year? Let's dredge up the Russia boogeyman again and say Russian propaganda is a threat to US propaganda. We need to install a new government branch called the Department of Propaganda to counter such danger to national security. Citizens and countrymen, it's time to double, nay triple our propaganda efforts this time, so that it doesn't fail again!
The current state of affairs is too complicated for an AC analysis in a single post but I will say a few things. The two main political parties are closer to each other than we realize. If you look at Europe and elsewhere, you find greater differences and more parties. Because they are so similar, they have spent decades attempting to distinguish themselves and their supports from the each other. They have played the people against each other through sensationalist rhetoric, attack campaigns (good ol' muckraking as it used to be called), lies and incessant fear that the other party is trying to destroy your life and family. We've dug a 3 mile deep trench in a 10 foot wide field and convinced everyone that the people on the other side are monsters. Incidentally, this sort of dehumanizing psychology is what allowed so many soldiers to view the enemy as animals and treat them accordingly. When we no longer see people, we are no longer bound by any empathy.
So how is this relevant to fake news? The connection is simple imo. If you believe that the other side is a manipulative, pathological liar, then everything they say and everything that agrees with their viewpoint must be wrong. It can't be considered or even analyzed. So what do you do? You seek out views that reflect your own side and you end up in an echo chamber.
While I believe that the internet has the greatest potential we have ever seen to bring us together and unite us as a species on a path to a better future, that potential is not being realized. We may be here together on this site right now, collectively considering the consequences of fake news, the recent election, the growing surveillance across the globe, and we may share the same shock and dismay and even fear, but this is yet another echo chamber. All forms of social media seem to reinforce this and the potential of the itnernet is lost in groupthink.
We have reached a point where the American government is going to start policing media for fake news in the interest of national security. This is the motivation of China with their great firewall. That was the motivation of the old Soviet governments. Censorship and control are not the answer. Meaningful dialogue and a critical eye are. We need to stop with the vehement rhetoric and the everpresent need to prove the other side wrong or scream about how the sky is falling. We need to calmly start asking for citations and weigh the evidence presented. We need to remember that most issues are finely nuanced and that sometimes both sides are partially right and partially wrong. We need to stop seeking out spurious information that confirms our own worldview and re-inforces our comfy bubble, but rather seek out contrary information and evaluate it.
If we can do that then all the BS in the world from foreign state agents won't make a difference. We are only susceptible to it now because of all the ridiculous infighting. Decades of that have left us uncritical, petulantly defensive, blind to facts, and obstinate to an impossible degree.
If your response to this is to just blow it off as "yeah, people are stupid, you can't do anything about it" or make more sarcastic comments then you are part of the problem. This can be changed. Shitty government can be changed. Shitty news agencencies can be run out of business. It just won't happen if we're all sitting around mouthing off about how bad everything is on the internet instead of discussing ways to fix it.
Of course, the pessimistic cynic in me says that this won't even show up on the page. Prove that voice wrong.
This is not about being too stupid or not. This is an attempt to only validate news sources that certain parties want them to listen to as a valid new source. In other words a step towards government sponsored censorship. Of course they want to push this through as quickly as possible to ensure this is enacted in time for the 2020 election. They want to ensure that there is no interference in their next election (as they believe there was, because all those smart, qualified people who predicted the outcome were WAY off target).
The current state of the US public education system (e.g "leave no one behind") is a bit questionable. This did nothing but normalize all public education to the lowest common denominator. This will hopefully be addressed this presidential term as promised. However this is a huge undertaking and whether it happens or not is to be seen. But remember, in order to maintain control of the masses, you must keep them happy, but ignorant. So education revamp may not happen.
It's yet another government waste of money. Fake news is effective because all the major news outlets have lost their credibility by not even trying to hide their bias. I know that CNN usually doesn't tell outright lies though, even if sometimes they report things with a certain slant or ignore some stories. I know that 99 percent of what I see on twitter is bogus. Still, the fact that the MSM has become so obviously pro left has pretty much enabled all these crazy stories. Now, having the government chime in is only going to make people double-down on the fake stuff. If there is any organization less trusted than the media it's the government.
Remember all those years where Sarah Palin was the effective leader of the GOP base? Remember the absolute gong show of the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary with the parade of ridiculous not-Romneys?
2016 isn't the first time the GOP has gone off the deep-end, if media coverage seems skewed it's because it's difficult to give an intellectually honest defence of the US right when it regularly rallies around conspiracy theories.
If anything the media helped Trump with constant coverage of Clinton's emails and controversies around her foundation, while paying no attention to the actual policies being discussed.
I stole this Sig
Is to fix the credibility of the so called real news, in this election they basically burned all their goodwill as fast as a gamegear plow thru batteries.
Let's see who the snowflakes are. In the past week or so, Trump supporters have been triggered by:
1. A Broadway play.
2. Starbucks
3. cornflakes
The main Trump, Donald even tweeted a demand for a safe space at the theater:
https://twitter.com/realDonald...
There is nobody more sensitive and thin-skinned than a Donald Trump supporter.
You are welcome on my lawn.
That's an interesting take. I guess that means that when Obama won two elections and leaves office with a higher popularity than Ronald Reagan, during those eight years climate change was real?
Or are Trump voters kind of stupid people? I heard Ann Coulter today complaining that Donald Trump is betraying his supporters. She remarked, "It's not my fault".
Despite the fact that she wrote a book titled, "In Trump We Trust". Yes, it appears that Trump supporters make up most of the ass end of the Bell Curve. I assume you've joined their brilliant #DumpKellogs boycott in which they buy Kellogs products and then post selfies of them dumping out those products. That they just bought. Before that, they held a boycott of Starbucks in which they went to Starbucks, bought a $6 coffee and then forced the girl at the counter to write "Trump" on their cup. Not quite clear on the whole, "boycott" concept, but they sure are enthusiastic.
Here are some more enthusiastic Trump supporters:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11...
So here what: Trump and his supporters will not be normalized. There will be no point over the next two years when Donald Trump is accepted as President in any normal sense. And when it comes right down to it, there are 3 million more people who voted for someone everybody hated instead of Trump. He's going to have a hard time claiming any mandate or legitimacy. He's the second Republican president in a row who got fewer people to vote for him than the losing candidate, and he has to make sure to stop any effort to actually count all the votes and audit the election process in order to hold on to power. He's already a lame duck and he hasn't been sworn in yet.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'd like to see that report, 97% is way too high to be believable. I don't think you could get 97% of people to self-identify as human.
I see you're still in "denial". Wake me when you make it past "anger" and get to "bargaining". But don't rush - if the left can keep its echo chamber intact for 4 more years, Trump get re-elected. Delay introspection all you like.
I'm in denial of what?
I know Trump won the election. I knew that was a very real possibility for at least a month beforehand.
I also know that he's ridiculously unprepared and still doesn't really understand what the job entails.
I know that he's moderating some of his positions as he talks to the Obama administration during the transition.
At the same time he's filling his administration with some of the most extreme characters from the right, so that moderation may be gone by February when the extremists are back in charge.
The guy isn't even in office and he's already caused 1 potential corruption scandal (using his new position to get construction approvals) and two diplomatic incidents (phone calls with Pakistan and Taiwan).
Trump was supposed to learn the job and start acting presidential during the primary. He didn't.
Trump was supposed to learn the job and start acting presidential during the general. He didn't.
Trump was supposed to learn the job and start acting presidential once he became President-elect. He hasn't.
When is he supposed to grow up and learn the job? 2025?
When is the right going to stop being in denial and realize there's no brilliant statesman hiding under the hair extensions. The Trump you see is the Trump you get and he is not remotely suited for the position of US President.
I stole this Sig