Don’t believe everything you read • Hacker News Board

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#21

Post by nawariata » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:07 PM UTC

frendiversity wrote: post #15

Pfft. Any game site worth their salt would have negotiated the embargo period on releasing the "news" before providing this free advertising in exchange for those addicted fanboy clicks. Real journalism is the advertising industry now. "Real" journalism (old-fashioned "journalistic integrity") is a good way to get squeezed out and blacklisted from the industry. Keep in mind this isn't "real" news or journalism, it is…

“You kid come into this business thinking you’re going to make a difference. Pretty soon you find out, you’re just filling the space around the ads.”

Source http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2666870

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#22

Post by ntsh » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:07 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #3

I like the site that said "but we ran a prominent disclaimer at the end of the article!", as if that made up for a lede and a series of breathless grafs reporting the contents of an anonymous mail as fact.

And if the actual product released in the future has similar specs, they will be the first to say - "As we had reported earlier..."

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#23

Post by swang » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:08 PM UTC

It's not as though brick & mortar journalists are any better nowadays either. See: Manti Teo

Even though one "journalist" couldn't find any evidence of the girl existing: no birth certificate, no death certificate, no records of her existence, they essentially let Manti Teo off the hook when he essentially told the guy to not further into it.

Then look at ESPN. They supposedly sat on the story for under a week because they were trying to land an sit-down TV interview with Manti Teo. ESPN the Sports Entertainment Network, won out over ESPN the Journalistic Sports Network.

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#24

Post by aba_sababa » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:10 PM UTC

This validates most of what Ryan Holiday says in "Trust Me, I'm Lying." Was wondering what extent his account of the media is actually true.

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#25

Post by Roelven » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:12 PM UTC

This is hilarious, thank you.

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#26

Post by danielweber » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:21 PM UTC

msy wrote: post #13

Every time I hear someone say that democracy won't suffer as professional news orgs fold and that bloggers will fill the void I think of stories like this.

How much faith do people put in blogs? I'd hope it wasn't as much as mainstream sources, who can rely on their brand. Bloggers (usually) need to produce primary documents to justify their claims.

A few year ago on April 1st, a bunch of bloggers got together and did this entire chain of a fake news story, each linking to the next one in the ring as "proof" of their story, no one actually ever leaving the ring. I thought it was amazingly self-insightful of them.

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#27

Post by InclinedPlane » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:22 PM UTC

msy wrote: post #13

Every time I hear someone say that democracy won't suffer as professional news orgs fold and that bloggers will fill the void I think of stories like this.

The conceit here is the idea that the traditional news organizations are reliable, honest, expert, and doggedly pursue the truth. This just isn't true. Some of them do, certainly, but in the average case they're just another bunch of lazy, self-interested folks who are looking for the easiest ways to get attention and generate ad revenue.

There's nothing special about blogging, it's just a medium. Organizations build up trust through their track record, the same as in any medium. There exists tabloids and authoritative news outlets in the print world too.

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#28

Post by danielweber » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:25 PM UTC

mpclark wrote: post #2

You get what you pay for. When a site's only revenue source is ads paying a couple of bucks per thousand impressions, this is the inevitable result.

Newspapers have a similar model. The subscription fee just helps establish their customers as bona fide.

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#29

Post by h2s » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:27 PM UTC

kordless wrote: post #4

In summary, author blames gaming sites for lack of journalistic integrity at the same time he fails to notice he is a liar and a snark. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Agreed. This is the second such story in recent memory, the first being the fake leak of the "Sony Nexus X" in late 2012[1]. At this point I can't remember the last "real" fake leak.

To me this format all just seems like so much anonymous attention-seeking. The little tumblr-based "How I did it" blog posts are always absolutely dripping with poorly concealed pride about how successful the hoax was.

[1] http://anatomyofahoax.tumblr.com/

Re: Don’t believe everything you read

#30

Post by mitchty » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:28 PM UTC

jcbrand wrote: post #19

msy wrote: post #13

Every time I hear someone say that democracy won't suffer as professional news orgs fold and that bloggers will fill the void I think of stories like this.

You mean the same professional news orgs that publish 14 stories on Pussy Riot's plight but only a brief bit of wire copy from AP concerning Bradley Manning's first week of testimony? http://t.co/dCsfOEsf

Exactly, expecting that "professional" news reporters and journalists don't operate under other biases is also naive.

Bloggers have their flaws, but so does mainstream news.