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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

#102
post #50
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That pink bar takes up almost half of my screen on my iphone 11 and makes the website defacto unusable. Not to be unkind, but you should fix that. Instead of being incentivized to pay you, my only instinct was to close that page asap.

How about you switch to desktop mode on your browser instead of forcing sites to be mobile friendly so you can consume it on a tiny screen. Half the web is broken because of "responsiveness".

To be fair, it's not broken — but coming up with clever viewport-dependent layout changes takes up enough of resources to consider it a low-level priority for some business cases.

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

#104

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 a…

I would prefer to be persuaded than told what to think. Otherwise, journalists can tell us whatever they want to without any accountability.

> Today, this is almost universally seen as a failure of journalism.

That is a shame.

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

#105
This is literally just a sqlite db with rss feeds and a python script with a very misleading description.

The real purpose of this post is to get traffic for their paid news api.

Also this closed issue is hilarious! https://github.com/kotartemiy/newscatcher/issues/3

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

#106

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 a…

Sorry, I have to respectfully disagree. This is the model that PBS Nightly News takes: let both sides of an issue talk and treat everyone respectfully.

Compare this to MSNBC and Fox News whose business models are really the same: cater to their viewers’ dogma/bubble and reinforce biases, and don’t try to introduce new ideas because it is bad for their business.

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

#107

This doesn't "collect" anything, it's just a python package wrapped on top of a sqlite database. If you choose an arbitrary website that doesn't have information in said database you just get "website not supported". There's not even any logic to guess a website's RSS feed URL... And in the end it's just an RSS feed reader?

What would the logic to guess the RSS feed URL look like? I suppose it is easy for wordpress sites, might not be so simple for others?

Common way is to set a link-tag in html with type rss, so others can discover the feed to the active url. If this is not set, chances are slow that there is a proper feed available. Not that you can't still try guessing and googling for it...

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

#108
post #67

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…

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…

> meanwhile Sweden just did their own thing

I'm not sure if you are just throwing this out there or if your intent is to hold up Sweden as an example that contradicted expected results with respect to models/social distancing requirements/etc.

If the later, then think Sweden is not a good example of such a contradiction: With the comparably minor-to-moderate social distancing, they have roughly about 2.5x the cases per capita as their two neighbors Finland and Norway, and roughly 6x to 7x the deaths per capita.

As you said, the data from country to country is hard to compare, but at the very least Sweden should not be the poster-child for low social-distancing mandates.

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

#109
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

I would prefer to be persuaded than told what to think. Otherwise, journalists can tell us whatever they want to without any accountability. > Today, this is almost universally seen as a failure of journalism. That is a shame.

The problem is that for many people, someone appearing persuasive is orthogonal to them actually being correct.

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

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

So they present the facts and let them speak for themselves? Sounds like they had it right. Are you saying if they don't present their opinion its a failure of journalism? I think this new way of defining journalism is a bad standard.

People don’t know what is fact and what is fiction. Giving 50/50 air time to climate scientists and climate change deniers is on one side presenting facts and on the other total bullshit and saying “hey these are both valid opinions- you decide”.
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