Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#31

Post by Hadjimina » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 11:57 AM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #26

Hadjimina wrote: post #2

Hi all, I have the feeling that in the last few years all political discussions have become more extreme. People from the left think that all the people from the right are evil and vice versa. Our filter bubbles don't help with this issue. That's why I built "Their news". With "Their News" you discover news from the entire political spectrum without any filter bubbles. My recommendation is that you try out different…

So you're using outlet/organization level bias ratings to assign bias ratings to individual articles on a specific topic? Can't it vary by topic, author, or even what facts are represented (used, excluded, or wrong)? For example, when I looked at the articles in the middle of the slider, it seemed that they were more of a mix of left and right leaning articles, not necessarily middle ground articles (and seemed to be…

There is still a bug where you get news from all sites the first time you search for a topic. Just adjust the slider slightly and you should see the correct results.

The bias definetly varies by topic, but I just simplified it so that all articles from one specific outlet have the same bias. Big oversimplification but should (roughly) work.

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#32

Post by pessimizer » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:00 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #27

hnhg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been fun playing around with it, thanks for putting this together, it's nice work. I have a couple of observations: firstly, it's interesting that the Guardian is considered to be dead-centre, while most in the UK would say that it's quite on the left. I found that surprising. Also, I guess this analysis is taken from the perspective of the USA, given the chart on adfontesmedia. The definition of left and right…

> I have a couple of observations: firstly, it's interesting that the Guardian is considered to be dead-centre, while most in the UK would say that it's quite on the left. I found that surprising. Who? Both Ad Fontes and AllSides say that The Guardian merely skews to the left, and Ad Fontes' analysis concludes that it's one of the "most reliable". (Ad Fontes' analysis here: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/the-guardian-…

Tory UK tends to characterize the Guardian as raving lefty lunatics, just as the right characterizes the NYT in the US.

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#33

Post by pessimizer » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:02 PM UTC

jefurii wrote: post #10

This reminds me of a 1980s magazine called World Press Review. WPR would take a number of topics every month. For each topic they would print a number of editorials from various points of view. Each editorial was accompanied by the source's masthead and a short note about the source's political perspective. For the most part they used the labels each source used to describe itself (conservative, libertarian, socialis…

That might be a brand to look into purchasing for the OP.

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#34

Post by chrisseaton » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:02 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #27

hnhg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been fun playing around with it, thanks for putting this together, it's nice work. I have a couple of observations: firstly, it's interesting that the Guardian is considered to be dead-centre, while most in the UK would say that it's quite on the left. I found that surprising. Also, I guess this analysis is taken from the perspective of the USA, given the chart on adfontesmedia. The definition of left and right…

> I have a couple of observations: firstly, it's interesting that the Guardian is considered to be dead-centre, while most in the UK would say that it's quite on the left. I found that surprising. Who? Both Ad Fontes and AllSides say that The Guardian merely skews to the left, and Ad Fontes' analysis concludes that it's one of the "most reliable". (Ad Fontes' analysis here: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/the-guardian-…

People aren’t great at distinguishing comment and editorial from the news.

It’s probably true that the Guardian’s news is centre-left, as you say. However their comment and editorial is usually pretty far left (Seumas Milne, Owen Jones, etc), and that’s what gets noticed and gives them this reputation.

https://somuchguardian.tumblr.com/

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#35

Post by makomk » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:03 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #27

hnhg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been fun playing around with it, thanks for putting this together, it's nice work. I have a couple of observations: firstly, it's interesting that the Guardian is considered to be dead-centre, while most in the UK would say that it's quite on the left. I found that surprising. Also, I guess this analysis is taken from the perspective of the USA, given the chart on adfontesmedia. The definition of left and right…

> I have a couple of observations: firstly, it's interesting that the Guardian is considered to be dead-centre, while most in the UK would say that it's quite on the left. I found that surprising. Who? Both Ad Fontes and AllSides say that The Guardian merely skews to the left, and Ad Fontes' analysis concludes that it's one of the "most reliable". (Ad Fontes' analysis here: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/the-guardian-…

I think that mostly shows the limits of their analysis. The Guardian is basically the left-wing paper in the UK; I don't think there's anything to the left of them outside of fairly fringe, niche, and very fragmented publications. Internal disputes within the left play out within their comment section, whilst the news section often seems to attacking the right wing as its main goal.

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#36

Post by jefurii » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:05 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #26

Hadjimina wrote: post #2

Hi all, I have the feeling that in the last few years all political discussions have become more extreme. People from the left think that all the people from the right are evil and vice versa. Our filter bubbles don't help with this issue. That's why I built "Their news". With "Their News" you discover news from the entire political spectrum without any filter bubbles. My recommendation is that you try out different…

So you're using outlet/organization level bias ratings to assign bias ratings to individual articles on a specific topic? Can't it vary by topic, author, or even what facts are represented (used, excluded, or wrong)? For example, when I looked at the articles in the middle of the slider, it seemed that they were more of a mix of left and right leaning articles, not necessarily middle ground articles (and seemed to be…

> Can't it vary by topic, author, or even what facts are represented (used, excluded, or wrong)?

That'd be great but would require someone to review each article, which is probably out of scope for this one-person project.

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#37

Post by gremlinsinc » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:06 PM UTC

wffurr wrote: post #9

Hadjimina wrote: post #2

Hi all, I have the feeling that in the last few years all political discussions have become more extreme. People from the left think that all the people from the right are evil and vice versa. Our filter bubbles don't help with this issue. That's why I built "Their news". With "Their News" you discover news from the entire political spectrum without any filter bubbles. My recommendation is that you try out different…

Reading “their” news makes me scared and angry that people actually read this crap on purpose and presumably agree with much of it. How is that supposed to help pop filter bubbles?

I lean left but outside the Dem party I hangout /r/politics and lurk in /r/conservative and also checkout many socialist anarcho{communist|syndicalist|capitalist} and libertarian subs...

I know what I feel is "right" and I feel confident I can tell B.S. I mean when the obvious goal is ...basically to make the op/commenter feel better about their "view" of the world then to me it's obviously something to take w/ a very small grain of salt, because real-world facts/figures/news isn't always pleasant it is what it is...

Generally though I just like to get a "feel" for what others "think" so if I ever do start some non-profit or PAC or something (it's a goal eventually), then I can reach more people by being sympathetic to at least why they think they way they do.

Sometimes I do chime in if I feel someone is clueless and maybe I could nudge them towards at least stretching their world view a little in a different direction.

Something like this seems helpful, although as another commenter brought my attention to allsides.com which reminds me of alltop but for news, it seems a prettier implementation of this concept, would be nice though if there were story by story ratings... and people could declare their "views" and some ai scoring too...etc...

TLDR: there's value in knowing how the "other side" thinks, feels, forms opinions - especially if you EVER hope to change those opinions. Ex-cultists are some of the best people to help others get out of said cult because they know what those people think and how the cognizant dissonance works.

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#38

Post by d--b » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:09 PM UTC

I hoped that this would put side by side articles about the same subjects but with different spins. I find myself comparing breitbart/foxnews/nytimes/guardian quite often.

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#39

Post by vehemenz » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:10 PM UTC

I appreciate the idea, but there are various conceptual problems when presenting political bias this way.

1. "Left" and "right" on their own are too vague to be useful.

2. There is a difference between party affiliation/apologism and political views.

3. "Left" and "right" news sources, as conventionally understood, would show a wildly asymmetrical data plot.

4. There are multiple dimensions to political views.

Re: Show HN: Compare news from the political left and right

#40

Post by barry-cotter » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 12:10 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #27

hnhg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been fun playing around with it, thanks for putting this together, it's nice work. I have a couple of observations: firstly, it's interesting that the Guardian is considered to be dead-centre, while most in the UK would say that it's quite on the left. I found that surprising. Also, I guess this analysis is taken from the perspective of the USA, given the chart on adfontesmedia. The definition of left and right…

> I have a couple of observations: firstly, it's interesting that the Guardian is considered to be dead-centre, while most in the UK would say that it's quite on the left. I found that surprising. Who? Both Ad Fontes and AllSides say that The Guardian merely skews to the left, and Ad Fontes' analysis concludes that it's one of the "most reliable". (Ad Fontes' analysis here: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/the-guardian-…

I’m impressed. This really shows the utility of lying often, loudly, publicly and repeatedly in shaping public opinion and perception. I stopped reading any British newspaper but the Guardian in the early 2000s but the idea that it’s any less partisan than the Fabian Society...