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Pointing out that Fox News is not actually a reputable news source is simply stating a fact. It was germane because the other news sources are mostly regarded a

Pointing out that Fox News is not actually a reputable news source is simply stating a fact. It was germane because the other news sources are mostly regarded as legitimate news organizations. Pointing out that Fox News is not and yet is very popular is an important point and completely related to this discussion.

MBCook 10y ago
To me it seemed like your point was that they were including sources across the spectrum. Simply noting Fox is in there serves that point. If you had editorialized about the quality of the other sources then the commentary on the quality of Fox would have fit in. your comment seems like two disparate things in one. On the one hand it notes that Facebook appeared to try to balance things. On the other hand it felt like a slam at Fox News couched in the form of a comment that might fit in. Clearly you can't write "Fox sucks" as a comment because it wouldn't be in topic. But if you weave it in... It just distracted me from what I took to be your point, harming the force/usefulness of your comment.
- MaysonL 10y ago
  Have you heard of the concept of "false equivalence"? Seems like that is what you are asking for.
  - forgottenpass 10y ago
    I think you're missing the parent's point. He's not saying that FOX News isn't uniquely bad, or that he wanted to see MSNBC there too. But that adding commentary on the quality of sources in the first place distracted from the already-established point of the post. Secondly, I too won't claim that FOX News isn't uniquely bad. But the criticism of it that people toss around always feels kneejerk rather than pointing out they're leading the pack of disastrous "news" programming. After a decade of Jon Stewart vilifying FOX News, he didn't get actually people to think critically about news sources - just FOX. And it's not even critical thinking, he just managed to demonize the outlet away from being taken seriously. What is the purpose of pointing out FOX is a bad news org to a left-leaning crowd? Or a mixed crowd that is smart enough to already know of the well-established criticism of the network? I can't help but see it as perpetuating demonization rather than elevating critical thinking applied to all news sources. In either scenario FOX News is trash, but only one scenario are you actually helping people become better news consumers.

MBCook 10y ago

To me it seemed like your point was that they were including sources across the spectrum. Simply noting Fox is in there serves that point. If you had editorialized about the quality of the other sources then the commentary on the quality of Fox would have fit in. your comment seems like two disparate things in one. On the one hand it notes that Facebook appeared to try to balance things. On the other hand it felt like a slam at Fox News couched in the form of a comment that might fit in. Clearly you can't write "Fox sucks" as a comment because it wouldn't be in topic. But if you weave it in... It just distracted me from what I took to be your point, harming the force/usefulness of your comment.

MaysonL 10y ago
Have you heard of the concept of "false equivalence"? Seems like that is what you are asking for.
- forgottenpass 10y ago
  I think you're missing the parent's point. He's not saying that FOX News isn't uniquely bad, or that he wanted to see MSNBC there too. But that adding commentary on the quality of sources in the first place distracted from the already-established point of the post. Secondly, I too won't claim that FOX News isn't uniquely bad. But the criticism of it that people toss around always feels kneejerk rather than pointing out they're leading the pack of disastrous "news" programming. After a decade of Jon Stewart vilifying FOX News, he didn't get actually people to think critically about news sources - just FOX. And it's not even critical thinking, he just managed to demonize the outlet away from being taken seriously. What is the purpose of pointing out FOX is a bad news org to a left-leaning crowd? Or a mixed crowd that is smart enough to already know of the well-established criticism of the network? I can't help but see it as perpetuating demonization rather than elevating critical thinking applied to all news sources. In either scenario FOX News is trash, but only one scenario are you actually helping people become better news consumers.