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Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

nytimes.com

371–380 of 468 posts

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#371

I signed up for NYT and canceled the next day. After becoming a paying customer they do not remove the ads from apps, pop ups on the website, etc etc. I was annoyed so I decided to cancel. The cancellation process was also quite annoying. Couldn't just do it through a form, I had to chat or call. I was on hold in the chat room for 35 minutes before someone got on and asked me what I wanted. At that point I was quite…

This cancellation via phone seems to be a common practice with all subscription newspapers.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are credible scientists who disagree with the climate change narrative. Just because you don't agree with them doesn't make them "nut jobs" or "deniers" or any other label you care to attach. Equating folks who don't agree with a lot of climate change assertions with flat earthers is not productive in any way. And I agree with you're analysis; legacy media typically trot out straw men only to signal how superio…

It almost doesn't matter what a few credible scientists think about climate change--it maters what the overall consensus agree is and what most climate scientists believe. A huge part of science as a field is consensus.

>A huge part of science as a field is consensus.

How many were against Einstein for decades? Appeal to consensus among experts is still a fallacy.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#373
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And what makes you so sure that the BBC's handling of those stories isn't the correct one? Your personal bias, of course. Well, actual verified accounts and statistics for one. BBC loves nothing more than highlighting USA shootings - despite near historic record lows of gun violence and definitely lows of gun ownership to crime ratios. BBC does this because they want to “prove” how much better they are not being all…

In my country all school and mass shootings that have occurred have been top news for days, if not weeks. Now look at this list of only school shootings in America and tell me again that the BBC is unfairly reporting on too many of them: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_... What percentage have they reported on, anyway? Low single digit? Your "near historic record lows" are how many orders…

That list of school shootings includes someone firing a gun near a school, and someone shooting a cat a 3am, as well as an officer discharging his gun negligently. Nice list, not hyperbolic at all.

You’ll be happy to know there are less school shootings today than the 90s. [0]

As opposed to other countries, where guns are available they are used... shocker! The fact is that where guns are in the USA, our rural areas have violence rates as near European rural rates. We have a lot of metropolitan areas with populations of 250k+ where our crime is, those are areas with illegal guns, that go with the drug, gang, poverty, inequality of social mobility, and gang problems. We have issues in the cities - but it’s not because of guns. That violence committed with guns is falling, despite record gun availability. The CDC found that where we have 10k homicides including all the drug and gang violence per year, we have 500,000 to 3,000,000 successful and legal defensive gun uses. And... to wrap up the “but other countries” argument, I don’t care what other countries to, in the USA we have a fundemental freedom to defend ourselves with the lost effective means of personal protection ever invented, it’s a natural right enumerated as a civil right.

[0] https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/02/26/schools-are-still-o...

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#374
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reporting on this reporting: https://www.indy100.com/article/sweden-trip-crowdfunded-righ... The question is, has he remained independent from his decidedly partial funder?

Do you have any proof that he didn't remain independent, or you just want to stir the pot? All I can see in that link is a newspaper saying "this guy got donations by someone we don't like, so he must be lying". I see it's all video in that investigation, do the videos look like they've been manipulated?

Well, he did say, "Chicago has about 750 murders each year." This seems off to me based on the facts.

Murders in Chicago the last 10 years:

2009 - 463

2010 - 456

2011 - 449

2012 - 514

2013 - 455

2014 - 464

2015 - 512

2016 - 808

2017 - 683

2018 - 588

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#375

I find it interesting how Fake News has two definitions depending on which of the two culture bubbles it comes from. On one side it refers to all out fabrication by a source that exists purely to spam social media feeds. The other side refers to more of a lugenpresse - legitimate news organizations that technically use facts, but cherry pick them in a way that presents a pre-determined narrative. Ironically, to this…

Yeah, popularizing the term "fake news" was a an impressively epic own-goal by traditional media.

And while I do agree that MSM fakeness mostly comes in the form of "technically facts, mischaracterized and cherry-picked," there is also a lot of just straight untruths as well, but laundered through anonymous sources. The effect is the same, in that you come away believing untrue things.

E.g., this is fake.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-hel...

And this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/08/world/threats-responses-i...

Another form of fakeness is "honest" mistakes (that always seem to coincidentally play into some popular narrative) that are hyped in headlines, but then only quietly corrected later, e.g., stuff like this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russi...

So the casual reader will be left believing lots of untrue things, as they catch the headlines and miss the corrections.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#376
post #351

I signed up for NYT and canceled the next day. After becoming a paying customer they do not remove the ads from apps, pop ups on the website, etc etc. I was annoyed so I decided to cancel. The cancellation process was also quite annoying. Couldn't just do it through a form, I had to chat or call. I was on hold in the chat room for 35 minutes before someone got on and asked me what I wanted. At that point I was quite…

I have a NYT digital sub and I never see any ads or anything. I think uBlock Origin is required, when using any website, even for websites you pay for.

I had the same setup (uBlock Origin) and I just cancelled my subscription over ads. Not because I saw any, but because every NYT web page had a static (did not scroll) gray banner telling me to disable my ad blocker.

And then when I couldn't take it anymore and went to cancel, their retention department had the gall to suggest the message was not from them and maybe was from my browser.

Fuck you, New York Times. Paying subscribers should not see ads or be hassled to be tracked by the ad industrial complex. Raise your prices if you have to.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#378
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why BuzzFeed chose to use the same brand to cover such different sites is beyond me. Every time a quality article is linked here, almost without fail there is someone who will comment along the lines of "BuzzFeed is trash, I'm not clicking that" I don't blame them. It's not their fault that the news site decided to share their name with a trash clickbait site.

Isn't it precisely their fault for choosing that name and branding? They are not blameless for the title they chose.

Yep. Especially since communicating clearly is exactly their job.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#379

NYT hasn't done quality journalism in a while. They exclude stories, twist facts in very obvious ways, and have become obsessed with Trump-hatred to the point that the Trump-haters need their own newspaper.

This is just incorrect,they have many fantastic stories. If you think they're obsessed with trump hatred, you probably need to step back and think historically. Whatever your thoughts on the man, there is no question he is a historically unique and extremely polarizing figure, could you expect any left of center outlet to not get triggered by his behaviors? Their readers crave this content, it drives readership, it drives subscriptions, it's just logical that they cover him negatively so often.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#380
post #375

I find it interesting how Fake News has two definitions depending on which of the two culture bubbles it comes from. On one side it refers to all out fabrication by a source that exists purely to spam social media feeds. The other side refers to more of a lugenpresse - legitimate news organizations that technically use facts, but cherry pick them in a way that presents a pre-determined narrative. Ironically, to this…

Yeah, popularizing the term "fake news" was a an impressively epic own-goal by traditional media. And while I do agree that MSM fakeness mostly comes in the form of "technically facts, mischaracterized and cherry-picked," there is also a lot of just straight untruths as well, but laundered through anonymous sources. The effect is the same, in that you come away believing untrue things. E.g., this is fake. https://www…

Even after corrections the fake stories from mainstream media still "stick" if they have the proper political value. There are people in this thread still insisting that the Covington High School kids surrounded and intimidated a native elder even though that story was retracted and the media that pushed it is now being sued for libel.
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