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Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

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Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#221

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

opwieurposiu wrote: post #107
katmannthree wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that meet the standard for being an unverified conspiracy theory? It seems that the story came from a source they were keeping anonymous (fairly conventional in journalism, especially when reporting things in real time) and was promptly updated as more news came in. It's worth noting that there is fairly extensive video of an unhelmeted officer getting hit in the head with a fire extinguisher thrown during a bra…

There is plenty of evidence of voting irregularities. An irregularity only becomes fraud when it was done with criminal intent. The overarching issue with normalization of censorship is that it becomes difficult to tell when evidence does not exist and when it does exist but was censored. https://hereistheevidence.com/

All of the "evidence" here is from sources like the Washington Examiner and "The RF angle" Are you kidding me?

If you want real evidence of "irregularities" look elsewhere, its certainly not here.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#222

Post by CivBase »

jandrese wrote: post #142
CivBase wrote: post #52

> Experts have noted that the right-wing media ecosystem is “much more susceptible...to disinformation, lies, and half-truths.” Citation from the PDF: https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/o... That book does not cite any evidence for that assertion. Here's the relevant excerpt: > IN THE PRECEDING three chapters we examined the propaganda feedback loop, how it forms, and how it facilitates disinf…

> no more than 30 percent of the American population inhabits the insular, propaganda-rich right-wing media ecosystem, indicate that whatever one thinks of the result of the 2016 election, it could not have been purely the result of right-wing propaganda. 30% of the total American population could be 46% of the voting population. But this is a straw man argument, it would only take 1 counter example to disprove a sta…

> The comment about how Fox News has not spent years spewing misinformation simply because it is only talking about "Stop the Steal" nonsense is missing the forest for the trees.

I rarely watch anything from Fox News, so I wouldn't know. The point is the Vox article cited in the letter does not back up the statement made. If it's as bad as you say, surely there must be a better source to cite.

Regardless of any issues with Fox News, Newsmax, or OANN, this letter was lazily written and obviously partisan. It makes many strong statements but fails to back them up with the given sources. The way it and its sources haphazardly throws around the term "misinformation" are concerning, especially when combined with the discomforting notion that telecom companies should be worried their content isn't meeting the expectations of government officials.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#223

Post by mnouquet »

minikites wrote: post #194
bpodgursky wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the one with the presidency, house, senate, most of the media, and social media content moderation.

I just don't understand the parent post, the Democrats want MORE people to be able to vote, how is that "planning to never lose an election again"? The Republicans are the only ones who ever fight to suppress votes, most recently the attacks on absentee voting in Georgia, which are a direct result of two Democrats winning there and has absolutely nothing to do with "illegal immigrants" or election security on any lev…

> I just don't understand the parent post, the Democrats want MORE people to be able to vote

Including dead people ?

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#224

Post by Clubber »

trey-jones wrote: post #197
njharman wrote: post #35

Judging what is and is not misinformation must always be in the hands of the people. Never the hands of authorities whether those be government or corporate. Why must fight all censorship. Because once you allow "a thing" to be censored, it becomes possible to censor "any thing". Things in the past which were labeled misinformation and would have been suppressed for even longer (or forever) under current social attit…

I agree with this: > Never the hands of authorities whether those be government or corporate. But I'm not sure about this: > Judging what is and is not misinformation must always be in the hands of the people. It's definitely a very difficult problem. I like to think that I personally can distinguish decently well between information and mis/dis-information, but I look around and see plenty of people who simply canno…

People certainly aren't perfect about judging the validity of information, but the danger is just too great to have a corporation and especially a government decide what's valid information.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#225

Post by mnouquet »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #92

Scary stuff, I feel like I'm slowly watching as the U.S turns into a one party state, and enforced by the government itself. We argue about how it's okay for private companies to censor whatever they feel like, but what if it's the government pressuring them to do so? They themselves in this letter mention that 50% of Americans get their news from TV, and many American's have one choice of Cable provider, and even if…

> We argue about how it's okay for private companies to censor whatever they feel like, but what if it's the government pressuring them to do so?

Of course, make no mistake, we're about to see plenty of legislation entrenching big tech positions !

Also, it's well-know NYT and other media conspired to sell the war against Iraq. Even though it was a different administration, the same people were in power behind the scene.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#226

Post by [deleted] »

jolux wrote: post #120
arrosenberg wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the United States - the government is the public.

That's not really the case. The government is accountable to the public, but it also has the power to conceal things from the public, and take unilateral action in the case of the executive branch. What I mean by "the public" are individuals cooperating to boycott organizations they see as corrosive to democracy, which is the typical solution for problems like this. The government is expressly and pretty strongly for…

[deleted]

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#227

Post by shakezula »

kryogen1c wrote: post #143
njharman wrote: post #35

Judging what is and is not misinformation must always be in the hands of the people. Never the hands of authorities whether those be government or corporate. Why must fight all censorship. Because once you allow "a thing" to be censored, it becomes possible to censor "any thing". Things in the past which were labeled misinformation and would have been suppressed for even longer (or forever) under current social attit…

> Things in the past which were labeled misinformation I know that item-level thinking like this is necessary to gain emotional traction with people, but this issue is just so obvious at a systems-level. the idea that we, right now the instant youre reading this, have discovered 100% of what there is to learn and 0% of what we know is wrong is so painfully, horrifically, obviously stupid (we've had computers for thir…

> misinformation is combat with MORE discussion, not less!

I wholeheartedly agree, but how do you get the other side to listen?

The saying goes something like "You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into."

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#229

Post by shakezula »

specialist wrote: post #219
njharman wrote: post #35

Judging what is and is not misinformation must always be in the hands of the people. Never the hands of authorities whether those be government or corporate. Why must fight all censorship. Because once you allow "a thing" to be censored, it becomes possible to censor "any thing". Things in the past which were labeled misinformation and would have been suppressed for even longer (or forever) under current social attit…

Garbage in, garbage out. Solution is real simple: share your data, cite your sources, sign your name. Without provenance, accountability, transparency, it doesn't matter who is judging.

The problem is there's a non-trivial amount of people who consider their ignorance equal to your research, your facts, your studies, your anything.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#230

Post by helen___keller »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #4

"How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV for each of the four weeks preceding the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel ." Does this strike anyone else as a nakedly partisan move?

> Does this strike anyone else as a nakedly partisan move?

Of course, this entire letter is published by two democratic representatives from highly liberal districts (silicon valley and stockton) who want to pander to their base. There's nothing actionable or productive about this letter.

Somehow we still have reactions in this thread on the scale of "we're on our way to a one-party state". This is just Congress doing what they do most every day (setting up for reelection)

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