4 ms·

It's a shame this has happened. It used to that aggregated news was the best news because it wasn't opinionated. It also didn't need to focus on the big ticket

It's a shame this has happened. It used to that aggregated news was the best news because it wasn't opinionated. It also didn't need to focus on the big ticket items (murder, sex, drugs) like newspapers, as sales weren't a concern, so you have science, tech, and I kid you not, actual good news to read about! But now with the pay-to-get-upvotes scams going on, we get utterly biased and even ridiculous stories constantly on the front page. And how to even start on the comments, which just read like blurbs to the title. A great example on the front page at the moment: "Donald Trump's war on media is 'biggest threat to democracy' says Navy Seal who brought down Osama Bin Laden". I almost feel like this stuff is AI generated at this point, just throwing together keywords that get clicks. As someone across the pond looking in, the bias is laughable obvious. I just hope that more people realise that manipulation is present, and remember not to believe everything they read.

vostok 10y ago
> "Donald Trump's war on media is 'biggest threat to democracy' says Navy Seal who brought down Osama Bin Laden". What is this an example of? This sounds like exactly the kind of thing that I would expect on the front page if there was no vote manipulation.
- Drumlin 10y ago
  It comes from the politics sub, which - to put it mildly - is one of the most suspect subs for manipulation on Reddit. They let that sub appear on the homepage, yet they ban a lot of other similar subs that are on the other side of the spectrum. It's one of those issues where I look at Reddit and think... something isn't right.
  - edgarvaldes 10y ago
    >something isn't right. Is that a pun? Because obviously reddit has a leftist bias.
    - accountface 10y ago
      According to the right, basic concepts like logic have leftist bias
    - Drumlin 10y ago
      It was an accidental pun. I noticed it before posting the comment and almost rewrote it. I'm not one of those people who say "no pun intended", so I just let the pun go free for others to discover.
  - vostok 10y ago
    > They let that sub appear on the homepage, yet they ban a lot of other similar subs that are on the other side of the spectrum. Perhaps I'm not familiar with the situation. What similar subs have been banned?
    - perardi 10y ago
      The very large Donald Trump subreddit. (I dare not link to it. It is quite toxic.)
      - allemagne 10y ago
        That has not been banned (yet)
      - vostok 10y ago
        I just took a quick glance at it and it doesn't seem to be similar. Here's an item from its from page. https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5vx3af/ https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5vx3af/ (NSFW) I don't think I've ever seen anything like that on the politics subreddit.
    - cadlin 10y ago
      r/The_Donald is banned from being a default subreddit while /r/politics is not. That matters because users without accounts or who aren't logged in will see content from r/politics if an article is trending but not an equally trending(?) article from r/The_Donald. The reasoning behind this is that r/politics doesn't ban people or articles that the mods disagree with. It's the community itself that downvotes pro-Trump stuff. r/The_Donald, on the other hand, bans people who make comments critical of Trump and people who submit anti-Trump articles. Similarly, r/enoughtrumpspam or r/communism should also be banned from making it to the default front page (I don't know if they actually are).
- gmarx 10y ago
  I think he means the headline seems generated to get clicks and the underlying implied article isn't expected to contain any news.
  - Retra 10y ago
    Seems to me like the headline is generated to convey a message without requiring clicks, not to get them. The article doesn't add anything because the headline is the content.
- vinhboy 10y ago
  Spot on. It's like going to a vegetarian restaurant and being upset there's no meat on the menu. I don't understand all these people complaining that reddit does not have enough differing opinions. What the hell? Do you expect users of a site to conform to your beliefs? Why don't you go find a different site that reflects your beliefs. I don't go on HN and complain there's not enough discussion about camping.
- olalonde 10y ago
  Because being an elite soldier does not make your opinion on democracy particularly newsworthy? It's obviously a clickbait headline. I would also add to that those "Pope says [insert political commentary]" articles.
TheCapn 10y ago
The political subreddits are almost a weird case study of trends and tactics right now. If you pay close enough attention to /r/politics over the last month or so you saw general tones of the stories being raised to the top: "Trump is being manipulated like a puppet", "Trump is too stupid to be president", "Trump is sabotaging ____". And neither title is all that surprising withing the context of the echo chamber that exists there, but for a little while you'd see the same types of posts just circulating the page for days when suddenly the entire direction went to the next phase or tactic, there was actually quite little variety in my opinion.
- dmix 10y ago
  This might just be a reflection of the media echo chamber? Reddit is largely regurgitated news stories. The news entities are all famously easy to manipulate and care more about speed and quantity over quality. A lot of news organizations are shamelessly partisan too, more so than ever. I avoid the political subreddits even when they align with my political ideology because they are mostly filled with controversy driven stories rather than any useful political debate. You can't fill 24hr news cycles without filling it up with useless drama, so it's better to not get caught in that trap and just wait for the actually good stories float to the top.
MisterBastahrd 10y ago
... this is a former Navy Seal who oversaw the operation that lead to the killing of Osama Bin Laden AND he said that Trump's sentiment about the media being the enemy of the people is the greatest threat to democracy in his lifetime. The article backs it up with video footage of a portion of his speech. Every single part of the title is true.
guelo 10y ago
Just because you don't like a headline is not evidence that it was paid for. The main organic bias in crowdsourced news sites are clickbait headlines and it affects all political view points.

vostok 10y ago

> "Donald Trump's war on media is 'biggest threat to democracy' says Navy Seal who brought down Osama Bin Laden". What is this an example of? This sounds like exactly the kind of thing that I would expect on the front page if there was no vote manipulation.

Drumlin 10y ago
It comes from the politics sub, which - to put it mildly - is one of the most suspect subs for manipulation on Reddit. They let that sub appear on the homepage, yet they ban a lot of other similar subs that are on the other side of the spectrum. It's one of those issues where I look at Reddit and think... something isn't right.
- edgarvaldes 10y ago
  >something isn't right. Is that a pun? Because obviously reddit has a leftist bias.
  - accountface 10y ago
    According to the right, basic concepts like logic have leftist bias
  - Drumlin 10y ago
    It was an accidental pun. I noticed it before posting the comment and almost rewrote it. I'm not one of those people who say "no pun intended", so I just let the pun go free for others to discover.
- vostok 10y ago
  > They let that sub appear on the homepage, yet they ban a lot of other similar subs that are on the other side of the spectrum. Perhaps I'm not familiar with the situation. What similar subs have been banned?
  - perardi 10y ago
    The very large Donald Trump subreddit. (I dare not link to it. It is quite toxic.)
    - allemagne 10y ago
      That has not been banned (yet)
    - vostok 10y ago
      I just took a quick glance at it and it doesn't seem to be similar. Here's an item from its from page. https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5vx3af/ https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5vx3af/ (NSFW) I don't think I've ever seen anything like that on the politics subreddit.
  - cadlin 10y ago
    r/The_Donald is banned from being a default subreddit while /r/politics is not. That matters because users without accounts or who aren't logged in will see content from r/politics if an article is trending but not an equally trending(?) article from r/The_Donald. The reasoning behind this is that r/politics doesn't ban people or articles that the mods disagree with. It's the community itself that downvotes pro-Trump stuff. r/The_Donald, on the other hand, bans people who make comments critical of Trump and people who submit anti-Trump articles. Similarly, r/enoughtrumpspam or r/communism should also be banned from making it to the default front page (I don't know if they actually are).
gmarx 10y ago
I think he means the headline seems generated to get clicks and the underlying implied article isn't expected to contain any news.
- Retra 10y ago
  Seems to me like the headline is generated to convey a message without requiring clicks, not to get them. The article doesn't add anything because the headline is the content.
vinhboy 10y ago
Spot on. It's like going to a vegetarian restaurant and being upset there's no meat on the menu. I don't understand all these people complaining that reddit does not have enough differing opinions. What the hell? Do you expect users of a site to conform to your beliefs? Why don't you go find a different site that reflects your beliefs. I don't go on HN and complain there's not enough discussion about camping.
olalonde 10y ago
Because being an elite soldier does not make your opinion on democracy particularly newsworthy? It's obviously a clickbait headline. I would also add to that those "Pope says [insert political commentary]" articles.

TheCapn 10y ago

The political subreddits are almost a weird case study of trends and tactics right now. If you pay close enough attention to /r/politics over the last month or so you saw general tones of the stories being raised to the top: "Trump is being manipulated like a puppet", "Trump is too stupid to be president", "Trump is sabotaging ____". And neither title is all that surprising withing the context of the echo chamber that exists there, but for a little while you'd see the same types of posts just circulating the page for days when suddenly the entire direction went to the next phase or tactic, there was actually quite little variety in my opinion.

dmix 10y ago
This might just be a reflection of the media echo chamber? Reddit is largely regurgitated news stories. The news entities are all famously easy to manipulate and care more about speed and quantity over quality. A lot of news organizations are shamelessly partisan too, more so than ever. I avoid the political subreddits even when they align with my political ideology because they are mostly filled with controversy driven stories rather than any useful political debate. You can't fill 24hr news cycles without filling it up with useless drama, so it's better to not get caught in that trap and just wait for the actually good stories float to the top.

MisterBastahrd 10y ago

... this is a former Navy Seal who oversaw the operation that lead to the killing of Osama Bin Laden AND he said that Trump's sentiment about the media being the enemy of the people is the greatest threat to democracy in his lifetime. The article backs it up with video footage of a portion of his speech. Every single part of the title is true.

guelo 10y ago

Just because you don't like a headline is not evidence that it was paid for. The main organic bias in crowdsourced news sites are clickbait headlines and it affects all political view points.