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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

#241

Post by betwixthewires »

krapp wrote: post #230
betwixthewires wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how ever single reply to the parent mentions Trump, as if anyone that thinks snopes is full of shit must be a Trump supporter. It's almost as if there's a group of people out there who all think exactly alike and knee jerk to defend these organizations out of some strange sense of loyalty.

>I love how ever single reply to the parent mentions Trump, as if anyone that thinks snopes is full of shit must be a Trump supporter. Because there was no widespread vocal opposition to Snopes until Trump supporters started calling it "fake news" for debunking his claims about his inauguration turnout. Now they come out of the woodwork with every mention of the site to call it liberal propaganda and whatnot. No one…

The thread they're replying to said nothing about liberal anything, although I would understand jumping to that conclusion if they had.

The widespread vocal opposition to Snopes is not simply from Trump calling it fake news, if anything his was a response just like the rest of us, a response to that organization plainly and blatantly lying to their readers repeatedly.

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

#242

Post by z3ncyberpunk »

kstrauser wrote: post #210

I really want to like Snopes, but I'm not convinced that they weigh evidence correctly. For example, they debunked the myth that Marilyn Monroe had 6 toes. First, I don't believe that she did . Or even care, for that matter. But at the time, one of their "facts" was that if she'd had a toe removed, she'd basically have to learn to walk all over again because it would throw her balance completely off. (Note: the artic…

No post body was provided.

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

#243

Post by colpabar »

tablespoon wrote: post #229
kortilla wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but they need to be clear that they aren’t committed to it being an accurate story at the time of publish (expectation of a newspaper). If they want to be an encyclopedia then be one.

> Sure, but they need to be clear that they aren’t committed to it being an accurate story at the time of publish (expectation of a newspaper). You're misreading the situation. The media doesn't have a crystal ball any more than you or I do. They can be "committed to it being an accurate story at the time of publish," but then new stuff happens after that time, or they have the time to go into more depth. The news is…

>The media doesn't have a crystal ball any more than you or I do.

Sure, but the media is not writing encyclopedia entries. They make hyperbolic claims about how they break stories before anyone else, and how accurate they are.

But since they are human, sometimes mistakes are made, and I think it's pretty dishonest to quietly change an article after it's been published. Publishing a story should mean that you back its content 100%, and it's the best, most accurate story you could have written with all available information. If new information comes out later that changes things, write a new article that references the mistakes of the original. There were still decisions made to include the content that was later shown to be incorrect, and I would _much_ rather see a follow up explaining what they got wrong than "correcting" the article after publication.

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

#244

Post by krapp »

pram wrote: post #212
encoderer wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth remembering that the term “fake news” did not exist in the mainstream until 6 years ago. It used to be called “liberal bias in the media” but fake news is a political slogan like Death Tax or Cancel Culture and like political slogans of previous generations I am optimistic we will not be stuck here forever.

“Fake news” emerged literally minutes after Trump won the election, in a seemingly coordinated way on most cable news. They were saying it in their most serious journalist voice, to imply that Trump voters were duped into voting for him. Then shortly after it was appropriated by Trump himself, and everyone wanted to disavow the phrase, which was deeply hilarious.

>Fake news” emerged literally minutes after Trump won the election, in a seemingly coordinated way on most cable news.

No, it didn't. the term became popular during his campaign to describe fake Facebook and other social media posts presenting themselves as legitimate news, but spreading false information. The term itself predates Trump's campaign entirely, though.

>They were saying it in their most serious journalist voice, to imply that Trump voters were duped into voting for him.

You expect to be taken seriously with juvenile caricatures like this?

>Then shortly after it was appropriated by Trump himself, and everyone wanted to disavow the phrase, which was deeply hilarious.

Trump used it all the time to describe any media coverage he didn't like, and later Trump claimed he invented the term (he didn't.) He probably wants royalties.

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

#245

Post by Scoundreller »

aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA wrote: post #223
kstrauser wrote: post #210

I really want to like Snopes, but I'm not convinced that they weigh evidence correctly. For example, they debunked the myth that Marilyn Monroe had 6 toes. First, I don't believe that she did . Or even care, for that matter. But at the time, one of their "facts" was that if she'd had a toe removed, she'd basically have to learn to walk all over again because it would throw her balance completely off. (Note: the artic…

A coworker of mine had his big toe amputated after it was crushed while moving a refrigerator. Afterwards he had no problems and remained very athletic.

This comment makes me queasy.

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

#246

Post by j_m_b »

kstrauser wrote: post #210

I really want to like Snopes, but I'm not convinced that they weigh evidence correctly. For example, they debunked the myth that Marilyn Monroe had 6 toes. First, I don't believe that she did . Or even care, for that matter. But at the time, one of their "facts" was that if she'd had a toe removed, she'd basically have to learn to walk all over again because it would throw her balance completely off. (Note: the artic…

At one time, Snopes was part of the fact-checking team at Facebook. This comment goes to show that having an arbiter of truth is a bad idea considering it's hard to accurately know everything. Imagine Doctors trying to debunk the official fact-checker statements and being labeled as misinformation simply due to the fact that they disagree with the fact-checker!

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

#247

Post by qkqk »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #216
smnrchrds wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I see Snopes as pure, unadulterated bias Could you please elaborate? I have never seen them described like this.

Here's an example Snopes article questioning the authenticity of the photos on Hunter's Biden Laptop. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fox-hunter-biden-porn/ They have not updated the fact check. Here's a story with a video in which Hunter Biden himself claims Russian drug dealers stole another one of his laptops for blackmail. And 'The Russians have videos of me doing crazy f**ing sex! Source with the Video: https:…

Huh, the article where they say "Trump did not explicitly tell people to 'storm' or 'breach' or 'break into' the Capitol" and instead “peacefully and patriotically” march does't fit the mold of "pure, unadulterated bias."

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-tell-supporters-stor...

I'm so confused!

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

#248

Post by qkqk »

betwixthewires wrote: post #184
stimpson_j_cat wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I see Snopes as pure, unadulterated bias Oh, they said Trump told the truth when he said "Murders this year have spiked 27% in Philadelphia." https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jul/24/donald-tru... Why didn't anyone remind them of their bias before this got published?

I love how ever single reply to the parent mentions Trump, as if anyone that thinks snopes is full of shit must be a Trump supporter. It's almost as if there's a group of people out there who all think exactly alike and knee jerk to defend these organizations out of some strange sense of loyalty.

And the reply in the other direction mentions Hunter Biden. I don't understand why! (We're still pretending we don't know that people are insinuating Snopes has a liberal bias right?)

If Trump makes a huge number of false statements during his tenure as the president he's going to get the attention of fact-checking sites...

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

#249

Post by krapp »

betwixthewires wrote: post #241
krapp wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I love how ever single reply to the parent mentions Trump, as if anyone that thinks snopes is full of shit must be a Trump supporter. Because there was no widespread vocal opposition to Snopes until Trump supporters started calling it "fake news" for debunking his claims about his inauguration turnout. Now they come out of the woodwork with every mention of the site to call it liberal propaganda and whatnot. No one…

The thread they're replying to said nothing about liberal anything, although I would understand jumping to that conclusion if they had. The widespread vocal opposition to Snopes is not simply from Trump calling it fake news, if anything his was a response just like the rest of us, a response to that organization plainly and blatantly lying to their readers repeatedly.

And yet if you ask people for a list of these blatant lies, most of the time they'll be items critical of Trump or of right-wing talking points.

I'm sure there are some people who don't like Snopes for whatever other reasons but it's obvious that much of the modern resentment against the site is driven by a political agenda.

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

#250

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

colpabar wrote: post #220
kstrauser wrote: post #210

I really want to like Snopes, but I'm not convinced that they weigh evidence correctly. For example, they debunked the myth that Marilyn Monroe had 6 toes. First, I don't believe that she did . Or even care, for that matter. But at the time, one of their "facts" was that if she'd had a toe removed, she'd basically have to learn to walk all over again because it would throw her balance completely off. (Note: the artic…

Had you checked the article after this encounter? I guess they eventually realized you were right and made the change, but I wonder when that happened. Other comments here discuss how it's odd that they don't allow their site to be archived, and it's interesting to see a real example that illustrates why they may not want that.

Silent edits seem like a huge red flag that your platform isn't trustworthy.
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