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Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

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Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#111

Post by ceilingcorner »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #104
ceilingcorner wrote: post #87

Outsourcing reality checks to private organizations is a serious problem with 21st century America. The Southern Poverty Law Center is another similar org that is treated as authoritative yet has zero safeguards or unbiased processes.

PayPal recently partnered with the ADL to ban accounts and prevent the wrong people from making transactions. Should be beyond concerning that not only they did that, but celebrated themselves for it. The ADL has ever widening definition of “problematic“ that extends to political topics far outside of their mission statement. I would really have to think about who is less biased, the SPLC or the ADL.

PayPal is pretty embedded in the institutional power matrix, so it’s not really that surprising. They want to be a bank, if they aren’t already one.

Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#112

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

dragonwriter wrote: post #91
1over137 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An example being SPLC labeling ex-muslims as hateful "islamophobes".

> An example being SPLC labeling ex-muslims as hateful "islamophobes". Why is that an example? Plenty of ex-whatever-religion (or even ex-particular-denomination) people turn right into the most extreme and hateful bigots against the group they departed. It’s a frequently commented on phenomenon among religious people, often not focussing on betrayal by departing members (where the bias of attachment to their own ide…

Perhaps the phobia suffix in this case is being used as a political tool?

Do you really think that ex-Muslims are irrationally fearful of Muslims? Or, perhaps is handwaving away as "phobia" a cop out to any criticism at all?

EDIT: Seems like it still works, just call someone a phobe or an ist and instantly shut down any criticism. There are no ex-Muslims with valid issues against Islam because they're just bigoted, obviously. Use whatever word games you need in order to shut down conversation. Pretty interesting coming from the same people that say they care about women, gay, and minority rights.

Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#113

Post by ceilingcorner »

rootusrootus wrote: post #110
ceilingcorner wrote: post #87

Outsourcing reality checks to private organizations is a serious problem with 21st century America. The Southern Poverty Law Center is another similar org that is treated as authoritative yet has zero safeguards or unbiased processes.

What is your solution? Every single source of news, every last one, will have perhaps 1/3 or more of the population calling it fake news.

Anything that isn’t a large donor-funded private organization would be an improvement.

The wiki model seems alright to me. It just needs a better way to view changes.

Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#114

Post by strangeattractr »

revolvingocelot wrote: post #69
Veen wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which of those are Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Maajid Nawaz?

According to the SPLC, their addition was a mistake, and the retraction seems honest and reasonable. [0] Now, me, I like my organizations to never admit-- uh, I mean make mistakes. [0] https://www.splcenter.org/splc-statement-video

They made a list of 'Anti-Muslim extremists' and included both a victim of extremism and a former islamic extremist on it. Because their views which are informed by first hand experience are different from those held by the SPLC. Their entry on Nawaz also seemed to imply he was not a true muslim because he went to a strip club as well.

Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#115

Post by spiderice »

qkqk wrote: post #109
busymom0 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all these “fact checkers” exposed themselves on the lab leak theory which they had to redact after 1.5 years. Relying on any of them as a source of “truth” is asking for trouble. They are more of a narrative check.

Snopes didn't, they reference a medical journal article from 1.5 years ago as evidence. Which presumably you agree with...oops! [1] Back on topic: why didn't they omit those references and reasoning regarding the Capitol?! https://www.snopes.com/news/2021/06/02/covid-19-why-the-lab-...

> why didn't they omit those references and reasoning regarding the Capitol?!

Your argument seems to be: Because Snopes didn't omit references in this one case, they don't omit references ever.

I've got no dog in this fight, but please, the logical fallacies are hurting my brain.

Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#116

Post by paulpauper »

It's amazing how sleuths are able to uncover even subtle plagiarism from many years ago. If you take shortcuts , you will be found out eventually if someone is determined enough to find out. Eventually a few seemingly unrelated piece are arranged and shortly thereafter the full picture emerges.

Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#117

Post by jollybean »

namdnay wrote: post #37
eplanit wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a sadly similar story. They're downright extreme nowadays.

people were saying the same thing about the SPLC when they were founded

This unfortunately doesn't work as an argument, because times change.

Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#118

Post by denton-scratch »

goatforce5 wrote: post #89
jethro_tell wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when we had small town journalism, you'd get AP or Reuters as a service to be your world/national news department. The service was that they would give you a whole news department and you could copy paste the article and have your tiny news room writing about the basketball win and the bake sale. That was the deal, but it's a subscription service for one. Secondly, the AP or Reuters got the by line in your paper…

I think it's fairly common to take a wire article and change/update it with original reporting. For example, the current main article on The Guardian's website is: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/13/taliban-seize-... which has a byline of: "Luke Harding and agencies"

Oh, Luke Harding.

His journalistic ethics are very much open to question. This is the guy that published a book containing the secret password to Assange's encrypted document dump. While he was supposedly cooperating with Assange on behalf of the Guardian.

Re: Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

#120

Post by jyounker »

h_anna_h wrote: post #46
CDRdude wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide an example of an article that you feel has a clear political slant?

What about these? https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/blm-terrorist-rosenberg/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-vaccine-passport/

The core of their argument for the first is in the following section, and it rings pretty true for the mixed label:

However, prosecutors dropped those charges in 1990 as part of a plea deal involving other suspects in the bombings. As a result, Rosenberg was never tried or convicted on any charges relating to the 1983-1985 bombing campaign. The claim, made in @asdomke’s tweet, that Rosenberg was “convicted of” several 1983 bombings, was therefore false. The claim in the headline of an article on Wayne Dupree’s website that Rosenberg “carried out” the bombings stands in contrast to the fact that she was never tried or convicted in relation to those incidents.

During her 16-year incarceration, Rosenberg renounced the use of political violence, though her political beliefs appear not to have changed significantly. In a radio interview shortly after her release in January 2001, she said she “rejects” the “potential for violence in my past actions,” saying her view of violence as a strategic tool had undergone an “enormous change,” but that she retained “a political view that is certainly progressive and radical in a certain sense.”

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