Elon Musk To Fight Fake News, Rate Journalists' Credibility Via a Site Called 'Pravda'

Elon Musk took to Twitter today to announce his next project: a site called "Pravda" that ranks journalists' credibility and fights fake news. "Going to create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication," tweeted Musk. "Thinking of calling it Pravda..." Musk continued: "Even if some of the public doesn't care about the credibility score, the journalists, editors & publications will. It is how they define themselves." A subsequent Twitter poll (exposed to mostly Musk followers) reveals that most people believe "this would be good."

Accredited journalist Mark Harris replied to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO with a copy of a Statement and Designation by Foreign Corporation form that names the Pravda Corp. "Er, he's not kidding folks," Harris tweeted. "I noticed that one of Musk's agents had incorporated Pravda Corp in California back in October last year. I was wondering what it was all about..."

GeekWire has catalogued a string of replies between Musk and Twitter users who are supportive/unsupportive of his plans.

Comments

So the public rates their credibility?

[llamalad]

The same public that can't differentiate -or simply doesn't care about- the difference between fact and fake news?

Re:So the public rates their credibility?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no way this will be exploited or abused by anyone with any sort of agenda.

Re:So the public rates their credibility?

[AlanBDee]

Journalists that I know personally try very hard to have accurate facts and to not let their bias taint their work. While not all journalists are like that I believe most try to be. Editors and publications do have to care more about the bottom line and sadly getting the news out quickly is more important then accuracy.

Re:So the public rates their credibility?

[Ichijo]

Journalists that I know personally try very hard to have accurate facts and to not let their bias taint their work.

That's why nobody pays much attention to them.

While not all journalists are like that I believe most try to be.

That's why most journalists aren't famous.

Editors and publications do have to care more about the bottom line and sadly getting the news out quickly sensationalism is more important then accuracy.

FTFY.

Re:So the public rates their credibility?

[greenwow]

Since Woodward and Bernstein, too many journalists have tried to create the news rather than just objectively report on it.

The public knows

[SuperKendall]

The same public that can't differentiate -or simply doesn't care about- the difference between fact and fake news?

The public has for a long time now been calling out and correcting the media on all sorts of stories. The public, far from "not being able to differentiate" has a better track record of understanding what is real and what is not, than the press itself has for some time...

I blame Michael Moore

[willoughby]

I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 in a theater (not my idea). I'd heard of this Moore guy but never seen any of his stuff. I guess I'm more of a critical thinker than most folks but I was struck by:

Moore never makes any claims. He never stands flat-footed, looking into the camera and says, "I believe... and here's evidence of that". A clear claim can be refuted or disproven. If you make no clear, direct claims no-one can prove you wrong.

His film was all supposition, innuendo, insinuation, interspersed with quick shots of Moore looking into the camera with a "Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more..." expression.

And people left the theater really believing More had made claims and then backed them up with evidence.

So much of the "fake news" is written in s similar manner: " believes that...", "...is linked to..." (what does that one mean, anyway?), etc.

But I blame Michael Moore for conditioning people to read this crap and really believe they have been given hard facts where there are none. And the press so often write like this now. I think the "news" writers today have grown up with this and don't even realize that's not how you're meant to cover the news.

WHOOSH

[SuperKendall]

You, like many other humorless Slashdot scolds, seem to be unable to grasp that Pravda in the name is a direct reference to the Russian newspaper that is literally a mouth of the state - Musk's Pravda is a pointed reference making a dig at modern "news" which has in effect become a mouthpiece of the Deep State, which as he says is layered in lies that wish to be promoted by the elite.

There's a few other people who understand what this refers to, but alarmingly few otherwise intelligent Slashdot people seem to get the joke. The rot has gone deep indeed.

The way to fight "fake news" is education

[gotan]

Teach people to seek a broader view by comparing different accounts, to keep in mind the source of a news story and its possible motivations and biases, to analyze texts for their true information content, presented facts, rhetorical devices and omissions, and most of all teach them to think for themselves.

Also everyone should be aware, that our view of our world is incomplete and be ready to reevaluate and adapt our world view when new facts are presented.

In the end the people will build their own opinions anyways, the best we can do is give them the tools to use reason in the process.