How can you know what news is real? • Hacker News Board

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#41

Post by lm28469 » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:38 PM UTC

The real question is why are people following the news anyway? It's pure entertainment at that point. "Hey Karen have you seen that a girl was raped and murdered 1000 miles away from you ? Have you heard what _unknown politician of a third world country you couldn't even place on a map_ said ! that's outrageous. A cop killed an innocent man today #thoughtsAndPrayers".

The world would be a much better place if everybody only checked what's happening around them instead of the other side of the country / world. 99% of the "news" have 0 impact on you and you have 0 power (direct and indirect) on 99% of what's happening, why even bother ?

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#42

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:40 PM UTC

krapp wrote: post #32

ra120271 wrote: post #7

I've always felt news organisations should be legally required to be non-for-profit and wages capped at some sensible multiple of the national average wage (e.g 6x)

The likely result of that would be news organizations being primarily influenced by governments, corporate donors and religious organizations.

[deleted]

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#43

Post by jajag » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:40 PM UTC

jdironman wrote: post #40

cm2187 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it is hard to dial down bias in reporting to an absolute zero (which Jean-Luc Godard provocatively referred to “50% time for the jews 50% time for Hitler”). But there is still a scale. And right now, in the heat of a political campaign in the US and the UK, it is dialled up to 11. The reporting could be a lot more balanced, presenting both sides, not using provocating headlines, etc. It would probably be…

News shouldn't have a political agenda it should have a factual agenda. It's raining in Florida would be a fact. Trump is campaigning in Florida is a fact (I dont know if he is, just an example). Trump is winning over the Floridan people with his exciting rallie displays a political agenda.

That's an unachievable ideal, particularly and especially for complex stories (e.g. just about any political story) where there are too many facts to report, to much backstory to fill in, and an editor has to make a decision about what to leave in and what to omit.

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#44

Post by empath75 » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:42 PM UTC

jajag wrote: post #25

I find the idea that there can be an unbiased news source deeply problematic. All reporting of an event has to be from a perspective, and has to make decisions about what to report, what to leave out; what to emphasise, what to play down. An honest news source should be one that is one that is honest about its own biases.

There’s a difference between bias and just making shit up. I think people are capable of dealing with biased reporting of actual events. Up until recently, most reporting in the us was done by Americans working for American companies who generally were trying to tell the truth the way they saw it even if the way they saw it was biased.

What changed in the 2016 election is the torrent of foreign governments who were spreading outright lies in the interest of harming the country, and Americans who gleefully cooperated with them.

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#45

Post by schalab » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:42 PM UTC

I dont think ownership is the main problem.

The larger problem seems to be global.

The ability to be expressive comes with it certain biological traits and dispositions. These traits may determine your viewpoints on matters.

So, if I hire journalists purely based on their writing ability, I may find most of them have very similar political views. If I create an industry of the best actors/musicians, again I may find them to have similar traits and views.

So, you can have a situation where some view has 50% support in the larger population, but almost no support in the press, academia, entertainment industry etc.

In a society based on free speech and no violence, the views supported by expressive people have an overwhelming advantage. The problem is just because you are very good at communication, doesnt mean your viewpoint is always correct. That is the reason some brilliant professors dont make it in the private sector, while someone who cant string a sentence together becomes a billionaire.

But when people see, supposedly neutral organizations have an overwhelming slant to one side of a viewpoint, the organization loses credibility. They are in a bubble.

When you no longer have institutions of fairness everyone can agree upon, you create the problem of fake news.

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#46

Post by vinniejames » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:43 PM UTC

By reading different news sources and forming your own opinion. The truth is out there

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#47

Post by dredmorbius » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:45 PM UTC

otalp wrote: post #20

sojmq wrote: post #16

This image in the middle of the article is just disgusting: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZMSk_xidOwA/XXga6ujjZrI/AAAAAAAAF...

Where's that in the article?

It's not.

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#48

Post by mc32 » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:46 PM UTC

One attempt could be forming professional associations where members get disbarred for violating principles for reporting.

It wouldn’t be perfect but could be better than what we have where there is no responsibility or accountability for misrepresenting news events.

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#49

Post by entropy_ » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:46 PM UTC

schalab wrote: post #45

I dont think ownership is the main problem. The larger problem seems to be global. The ability to be expressive comes with it certain biological traits and dispositions. These traits may determine your viewpoints on matters. So, if I hire journalists purely based on their writing ability, I may find most of them have very similar political views. If I create an industry of the best actors/musicians, again I may find…

"The ability to be expressive comes with it certain biological traits and dispositions. These traits may determine your viewpoints on matters."

This is an extremely hand-wavy assumption that you're basing your arguments on. Any evidence to back that up? It would seem to me that the ability to express one's views would be orthogonal to one's viewpoints on various matters.

Re: How can you know what news is real?

#50

Post by frankbreetz » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:47 PM UTC

lm28469 wrote: post #41

The real question is why are people following the news anyway? It's pure entertainment at that point. "Hey Karen have you seen that a girl was raped and murdered 1000 miles away from you ? Have you heard what _unknown politician of a third world country you couldn't even place on a map_ said ! that's outrageous. A cop killed an innocent man today #thoughtsAndPrayers". The world would be a much better place if everybo…

News also includes what laws are passed, what court decisions were made, it's a citizen's responsibility to be an informed citizen.