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Why are we talking about fake news now? Would we be talking about it if Clinton had won?
by nsxwolf 10y ago
Why are we talking about fake news now? Would we be talking about it if Clinton had won?
- gaius 10y ago"Social Media" in general is another scapegoat, but don't you remember when everyone was changing their profile pics to be that "Hope" meme that Obama did? Why was social media good then but evil now? No-one seems to be able to explain it.
- untog 10y agoHow on earth are those things connected? Changing your profile picture is nothing like disseminating factually untrue news stories to an audience of millions.
- gaius 10y agoThey are connected by being scapegoated, in a display of cognitive dissonance to avoid a real root cause analysis. No piece of "fake" news changed anyone's mind, simply reinforced beliefs they already had. Same reason people subscribe to newspapers that reflect their existing worldview or value system.
- mwfunk 10y agoIf enough people were concerned that Clinton had won because of fake stories that circulated throughout the campaign, and there was incontrovertible evidence that Clinton benefitted from it, then yes. Of course. Duh.
- astrodust 10y agoYes we would because if Clinton won there would be way, way more of it.
- JohnTHaller 10y agoWhile Clinton cronies definitely were on the fake news bandwagon (BlueNationReview et al), fake news shared virally is far more popular with the right (85% of the top 20 fake news stories were pro-Trump/anti-Hillary).
- astrodust 10y agoI'm not even sure what Blue Nation Review is, but it looks like pure sewage, the sort of thing that Digg was like in its dark days.
- JohnTHaller 10y agoBlue Nation Review was a progressive news website. At the end of 2015, it was bought by Clinton surrogate David Brock (of writing The Real Anita Hill, the character assassination book to discredit Anita Hill so Clarence could become a justice of the Supreme Court). Staff of BNR were fired and it was turned into a Clinton propaganda machine with mostly pro-Hillary, anti-Bernie, and anti-Trump stores. BNR's 1 million subscribers on social media had no idea that this happened.
- astrodust 10y agoWhatever it is, it has the look and smell of a tabloid and probably the credibility of one. Sites like that are part of the problem.