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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

#251

Post by evgen »

bifrost wrote: post #128

I initially thought Snopes was a great idea, and in the early days it seemed quite handy. Now its only really minorly credible. My personal experience was finding an article that talked about something I was directly involved in, and it was clearly wrong. I basically lost most trust in its ratings however it does seem to basically cover the issue in text. My main quibbles are with when the article covers something su…

I hate to be the one to tell you, but just because you were 'directly involved' in something does not mean you know what was going on. Every day courts are filled with people who witness an event and present their own personal viewpoint upon the events; when the viewpoints differ it is not always because someone among them is being deceitful, sometimes two people can see the exact same set of events and walk away with completely different narratives.

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

#252

Post by samstave »

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…

FUCK SNOPES

---

They are literally FAKE NEWS and they are actively paid to push narratives.

Utter douchebags.

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

#253

Post by ArthurChive »

ramraj07 wrote: post #13
danso wrote: post #5

> Marchionni is reevaluating decisions Mikkelson made years earlier to not allow Snopes stories to be archived on the Wayback Machine and is empowered to make any changes necessary. Not the most immediate important thing, but hiding content from the Wayback Machine that is purported to be factual record is very problematic, to say the least

I’m still struggling to understand why they’d want to block that. Edit: on re-reading I realize it’s so that they don’t get caught for this plagiarism since their modus operandi was plagiarize first rewrite slowly.

Archive links are used to bypass paywalls and direct traffic away from the site. (The moderator of this site encourages it [1], and archive links for most paywalled articles are in the comments.)

This could be a legitimate reason they were doing it (nefarious ones are easily imagined as well).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989

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

#254

Post by klipklop »

tablespoon wrote: post #161
readthenotes1 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Case in point: On Jan 6, NPR published an article with a 10AM headline and timestamp about the upcoming Trump rally. Later in the day, they changed the headline to be something like "Insurgents invade Capital building", but did not change the 10AM timestamp up top. One had to read the article to find the update timestamp. Newsmaxx, and thus many if its viewers looked at the headline and headline timestamp and trumpet…

> Later in the day, they changed the headline to be something like "Insurgents invade Capital building", but did not change the 10AM timestamp up top. One had to read the article to find the update timestamp. News websites really need to stop continuously rewriting their articles. It's a PITA if you want to cite them as a source, then all the sudden what you cited isn't there. I've had NY Times articles get completel…

Maybe Journalists need to be better at their jobs and just more honest in general? Major publications should have revision history links as articles are changed. If anything some of them are clearly going out of their way to cover their tracks as the narrative changes.

I understand mistakes happen, but you should be always very clear on your corrections and if you are a web publication, have revision history links.

Source: Journalism degree holder that is tired of the MSM. I advise all the people I know to stop reading/watching it. So tired of the outrage driven news cycle that is often highly misleading.

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

#255

Post by kstrauser »

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.

I have no idea when or why they changed it. Every few years I'd get a bee in my bonnet to check, and this is the first time I remember not seeing the incorrect fact being there.

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

#256

Post by kstrauser »

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.

Yep. I mean, obviously you don't want that to happen, but it's something you can make a complete recovery from.

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

#257

Post by TeeMassive »

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…

Snopes' fact checking is a meme at this point.

They fact-check opinions they have re-framed in their own language as opposed to fact-checking the facts the opinion is based on. (Claim: the economy is way better: Truth: no, it's only 5%)

They often reframe the claims to add a detail the author never said. (Did John ate ice cream on Sunday? No, he ate it at Saturday 23:35).

The worst is when they rely on cherry-picked experts or anonymous sources: (we asked an ex-CIA analyst if the leaks are true, he said it's most likely not, trust us as we trust him)

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

#258

Post by busymom0 »

farp wrote: post #191
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.

Parent comment is just a rehashing of a Fox News article. Seeing this more often on HN. https://www.foxnews.com/media/realclearpolitics-fact-checker...

Good lord. I barely made a short 3 sentence long observational comment. What does it have to do with fox? You are basically doing an hominem attack.

And for what it's worth, no, I haven't followed corporate media (including cnn, msnbc, fox, nytimes, washington post etc). I pay for independent journalists on substack and locals instead.

Also the link which you provided is referring to RealClearPolitics being the real source, not fox. fox is doing an opinion piece on what RealClearPolitics reported. Exact same stuff which other left leaning sources do.

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

#259

Post by TeeMassive »

bifrost wrote: post #128

I initially thought Snopes was a great idea, and in the early days it seemed quite handy. Now its only really minorly credible. My personal experience was finding an article that talked about something I was directly involved in, and it was clearly wrong. I basically lost most trust in its ratings however it does seem to basically cover the issue in text. My main quibbles are with when the article covers something su…

Good on you for remembering their credibility, but most people suffer from Gell-Mann Amnesia:

> “Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

> In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/

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

#260

Post by kstrauser »

samstave wrote: post #252
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…

FUCK SNOPES --- They are literally FAKE NEWS and they are actively paid to push narratives. Utter douchebags.

Now that's an extraordinary claim. My story was meant to explain why I think they're fallible, but I also believe they have good intentions and are trying to do an accurate job of it. I don't see any reason to think they're getting paid to lie about stuff.
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