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Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

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Re: Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

#81

Post by textgel »

doublesCs wrote: post #18
oceanbreeze83 wrote: post #5

For any news junkies heres, I've built https://maagnit.com which gathers both Left and Right leaning sources for any story and displays them altogether on one page. My approach has been, if we can't get neutral/objective coverage, getting comprehensive, 360 desgree coverage is a good alternative. These days, news bias is not only in the way a story is covered, but also which stories are covered. So, maagnit automatic…

Seems like a terrible idea to me. The two sides are at war, and if the way you sample them is by going 50-50, that encourages them to be more extreme because that will skew the average in their direction. We already see this in the media. You have the host and two people. Lets hear what person A says, lets hear what person B says. Who's right? Impossible to tell, otherwise you must be biased. And no mention that pers…

Seems like a perfectly good idea to me; I doubt one website permitting comparison is going to suddenly instigate a dialogue extremism arms-race (more than normal). In fact if anything it's bringing us closer to the original idea of debate rather than echo chambers.

And it seems like your argument falls under plenty of its own fallacies.

Perfect solution fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy

And some might argue straw-man fallacy given that op never suggested that truth would lie 5050 between the two.

Debate allows us to see two opposing views and draw our own conclusions; not perfect but a whole lot better than nothing.

Re: Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

#82

Post by foobarbecue »

jeegsy wrote: post #61
doublesCs wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a terrible idea to me. The two sides are at war, and if the way you sample them is by going 50-50, that encourages them to be more extreme because that will skew the average in their direction. We already see this in the media. You have the host and two people. Lets hear what person A says, lets hear what person B says. Who's right? Impossible to tell, otherwise you must be biased. And no mention that pers…

This reminds me, how does a fallacy get discovered or made official? I mean, I followed the link above and saw it has a latin name and everything but yet feels very new and contemporary. Not that I disagree except that to avoid this fallacy, the 'verifiable facts' have to be known by all in advance

Traditionally, they come from ancient Greek philosophers. This one seems to be a modern variant of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox so I guess it's not "official".

Re: Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

#83

Post by SoylentOrange »

oceanbreeze83 wrote: post #5

For any news junkies heres, I've built https://maagnit.com which gathers both Left and Right leaning sources for any story and displays them altogether on one page. My approach has been, if we can't get neutral/objective coverage, getting comprehensive, 360 desgree coverage is a good alternative. These days, news bias is not only in the way a story is covered, but also which stories are covered. So, maagnit automatic…

When I was a kid CNN used to do this: they would invite a single climate scientist and a single climate change skeptic and have them make their points on equal time. CNN would then say “who’s right? You decide.” And the program would end.

This was extremely harmful to the overall mission of informing people and created a false balance between sides which are not equally valid. Today, this is almost universally seen as a failure of journalism.

Given the lessons learned, I wouldn’t be so quick to replicate that experience with a website.

Re: Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

#84

Post by yomly »

doublesCs wrote: post #76
yomly wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest I don't find "verifiable fact" to be worth much these days. If coronavirus has done anything it has highlighted how easy it is to do wrong. Journalists and politicians alike getting drawing incorrect insights from data. Meanwhile so little of the data surrounding coronavirus is comparable. You have countries only recording cases if the patient was hospitalised (not if they tested positive) and cause of d…

You say that verifiable facts don't count for much and then as an example point to a model? A model isn't a fact. That someone made assumptions and drew conclusions might be a fact. But the assumptions might or might not be facts, and the conclusions certainly aren't facts. As a general rule, if it's in the future, it's not a fact.

You're completely right - but I guess my point is that anything that has a number attached to it is often treated as fact in the media.

In the very strictest sense of verifiable fact - boolean true/false statements with irrefutable proof, then yes I think fact trumps all.

Unfortunately I think that in reality, very little of what we think of as fact falls under that very narrow definition. And my example was merely trying to illustrate that the entire field of medical statistics and epidemiology is filled with pitfalls, given that many of the numbers that are reported themselves have a tonne of nuance and context baked into them.

And I suppose any discussion which focuses solely on the numbers associated with the current pandemic are going to be extremely lossy as the numbers are a very low fidelity expression of the "truth" (in the idealistic sense).

What does this have to do with facts? I guess I feel that culturally we attribute the trust to things we consider "facts" at quite a superficial level without digging deeper.

Re: Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

#85

Post by darwinwhy »

kizy25 wrote: post #10
permanent wrote: post #6

Hi looks interesting and useful! What's the differences between newscatcher (python) vs. newscatcherapi.com? Is there any limit on using newscatcher (python) as shown in the pricing pages? Also, I was looking at https://newsapi.org . How does your python API compare? I see that in newsapi, it also get old articles; do you implement similar features?

Hey. Newscatcher (python) is an open-sourced package that we developed for users' side projects. There are no limits. You can even modify it for your own needs. Newscatcher API is a product that allows you not only get the latest articles but also search by keywords, topic, country etc. Basically, the main feature is that you search for articles that contain a specific word or phrase. This can have an added value for…

Do you guys have any plans to create webhooks that let you know when a feed/search is updated with a new article in real time?

Re: Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

#86

Post by eeZah7Ux »

heisenzombie wrote: post #11
oceanbreeze83 wrote: post #5

For any news junkies heres, I've built https://maagnit.com which gathers both Left and Right leaning sources for any story and displays them altogether on one page. My approach has been, if we can't get neutral/objective coverage, getting comprehensive, 360 desgree coverage is a good alternative. These days, news bias is not only in the way a story is covered, but also which stories are covered. So, maagnit automatic…

I’m sure this is not an original comment, but it’s interesting to see what you’ve classified as left/right. It must be difficult given that there is not really one axis of left/right and that “the centre” is highly relative. To me, seeing the BBC and Euronews in the “left” section is pretty funny, but I guess it’s true relative to US politics. Is there anything you’ve learned about “the left media” and “the right med…

You are describing the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window - and in the US it is very narrow and entirely shifted into the authoritarian right side.

Re: Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

#87

Post by oblio »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #27
sabertoothed wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US really needs to change their political system so that it's no longer "the winner takes it all" politics where only two parties can effectively rival. This is so poisonous for everything. No nuances in the discussion. Truth comes under the wheels. Stupid slogans win. No chance for larger green/ecological movements besides the overwhelming topic of economics. Ridiculous gerrymandering. It's just very sad to see.

So something like the super-dysfunctional political systems of Israel or Belgium or Italy or South Africa? Fixing first past the post voting is not some magic cure-all.

It's better than what you've got.

Re: Show HN: Python package to collect normalized news from almost any website

#88

Post by artembugara »

0x006A wrote: post #75

Why did you choose to ship the list of RSS feeds as an SQL database? This makes it hard to keep it up to date and submit pull requests with additional sources. Would it not be better to keep that info in a json file or a dict / list in a python module?

Hey. Yes. You are right. We will change that!
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