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Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

nytimes.com

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Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#71

Post by kwertyoowiyop »

helen___keller wrote: post #35
tester34 wrote: post #4

Ehh, I don't like current state of the Internet In last months I've started wondering why do I even pay my internet bills 60% of the reason I still do it is that I need internet for my job the rest is HN, two or three subreddits, music and some video games, wiki/google/maps and the fact that I still need to learn a lot in order to advance in career. It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrit…

> It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrities, dramas, dramas, dramas and $bad_stuff/propaganda) that affects the mood, even when I don't use "normal" social medias. an annoying trend is that, over time, almost every webpage or program controlled by corporate interests will come to include a "feed" that tries to lure you back into the modern news/outrage cycle e.g. opening a tab in microso…

It’s time to release my Taboola plug-in for VS Code.

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#72

Post by prof-dr-ir »

bad_username wrote: post #24

I have a hard time to take seriously any disinformation talk from the political and media establishment after the lab leak theory twist, where it had been shameful disinformation, until it suddenly wasn't. I have to be doubting publications even from reputable sources, after "The Lancet" fiasco, where the organizer of the open letter that condemned the lab leak theory was discovered to have ties with the lab in quest…

If you are on the fence then it might be worth re-reading what the NY times wrote about it back then.

For example, I could not find much wrong with this from February 2020:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/business/media/coronaviru...

It does (correctly, IMO) focus on the 'bioweapon' conspiracies rather than the 'lab leak' theory and mentions how the senator ended up distancing himself from the former.

And actually, the original letter in The Lancet might also not be entirely unreasonable? I cannot find fault with it, provided one interprets the phrase 'not have a natural origin' as 'engineered' (rather than 'leaked'). See here:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

You should of course feel free to disagree, but it might be worth reading these sources before continuing the discussion? And maybe there are other articles I missed?

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#73

Post by shrubble »

Pot, kettle, etc.

'The new disclosure revealed that the Post and the Journal each received more than $100,000 per month to run print versions of Chinese propaganda articles. The Times received $50,000 in 2018 to place the propaganda on its website, presumably a small fraction of the revenue it made selling print space to China Daily. The new disclosures also showed that China Daily paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Houston Chronicle, and other large regional newspapers to print copies of the China Daily for local distribution.'

https://freebeacon.com/media/nyt-quietly-scrubs-chinese-prop...

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#74

Post by WaitWaitWha »

MisterTea wrote: post #8
tester34 wrote: post #4

Ehh, I don't like current state of the Internet In last months I've started wondering why do I even pay my internet bills 60% of the reason I still do it is that I need internet for my job the rest is HN, two or three subreddits, music and some video games, wiki/google/maps and the fact that I still need to learn a lot in order to advance in career. It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrit…

Internet is just a big IP network. I use it to talk to certain servers like email, my vps, or my personal home server. The other servers I talk to I dont own so I spend as little time sending them requests as possible. If you stop sending strange servers requests for unwanted data you'll feel much better :-)

Love to, except as OP stated it is often hard to do so. There are government and business sites that will refuse to load or function unless I permit third party stuff, including the unwanted ones.

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#75

Post by soco »

me_me_me wrote: post #61
jancsika wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People would be less susceptible to disinformation if they could actually trust mainstream sources like the NYT. What is the relationship between more trust in a mainstream source and susceptibility to disinformation you are implying here? For example, IIRC Rush Limbaugh's audience gave him a lot of credibility and was less informed because of that.

If you want to learn about news about your country read papers of other countries about you. Though you still need some critical thinking to filter out BS. For example Russian Today is often a great source for all non-russian news. But its a propaganda tube for russian news.

Without actually reading it, I somehow think RT will select convenient non-russian news as well. Like, underlining Le Pen or AfD declarations or the post-Brexit downsides... there's room for disinformation also when doing a simple selection.

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#76

Post by fallingknife »

Cybotron5000 wrote: post #38
bad_username wrote: post #24

I have a hard time to take seriously any disinformation talk from the political and media establishment after the lab leak theory twist, where it had been shameful disinformation, until it suddenly wasn't. I have to be doubting publications even from reputable sources, after "The Lancet" fiasco, where the organizer of the open letter that condemned the lab leak theory was discovered to have ties with the lab in quest…

"When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do, sir?" ― John Maynard Keynes

In this case what facts changed?

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#77

Post by Covzire »

afpx wrote: post #20
ameminator wrote: post #2

Ironic that this is from the New York Times, which has (in)famously had several years of poor or biased reporting.

The NYT reporting seems pretty reliable to me. Could you give a few notable examples at least to support that claim?

One way outlets like the NYT slant their credibility into the ground is by always giving Democrats the benefit of any doubt, and never giving it to anyone else. Everything that could be good for Democrats is amplified to 11, everything that could be a bad look for everyone else is amplified to 11 in the other direction. They appear to be a lot more reliable than they actually are.

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#78

Post by LocalChapter »

Lendal wrote: post #64
ameminator wrote: post #2

Ironic that this is from the New York Times, which has (in)famously had several years of poor or biased reporting.

This story is about shady companies funded by government propaganda agencies around the world, and which cease operating as soon as you start investigating them. The New York Times has been doing business continuously since 1851, is one of the cornerstones of democracy, a recognized leader in journalism schools across the globe, and to this day regularly fires journalists who are caught lying in a story. Anyone is fr…

Sorry I don't care how long they have been in business. Generally, "You are as good as your last performance."

The New York Times (along with many other news outlets) has been known in recent years to be biased and untrustworthy to anyone that has been paying attention.

So while it is nice they have been around since the mid-19th century they should not be bestowed trust just because in the past they have may have had good reporting.

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#79

Post by sandworm101 »

tester34 wrote: post #4

Ehh, I don't like current state of the Internet In last months I've started wondering why do I even pay my internet bills 60% of the reason I still do it is that I need internet for my job the rest is HN, two or three subreddits, music and some video games, wiki/google/maps and the fact that I still need to learn a lot in order to advance in career. It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrit…

>> It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content

Really? I spend a not-small amount of time online. I'm typing this at work right now. But I don't feel any pull to celeb culture whatsoever. Then again, I do not use facebook/twitter/Instagram. I watch YouTube but haven't ever commented or liked a video. The only real internet "drama" I am following currently is the Blizzard-Activision thing, and then only because NerdCubed put out a video about it. But I haven't really played let alone purchased a AAA title in a long while. (I think the latest game I bought was Subnautica 2.)

The internet is as bad/good as you want it to be. If you don't like the content you are exposed to stop exposing yourself to it. Go read something else. There are lots of horrible books in this world, far more bad than good, but few people talk about abandoning reading.

Short answer: Until a celebrity or pop culture story hits the BBC New front page, it isn't worth my time.

Re: Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

#80

Post by justanotherguy0 »

shrubble wrote: post #73

Pot, kettle, etc. 'The new disclosure revealed that the Post and the Journal each received more than $100,000 per month to run print versions of Chinese propaganda articles. The Times received $50,000 in 2018 to place the propaganda on its website, presumably a small fraction of the revenue it made selling print space to China Daily. The new disclosures also showed that China Daily paid hundreds of thousands of dolla…

Roasted. Media is broken.
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