4 ms·
I disagree that education is a cop-out. Telling people what is credible and what is not is part if the mess that we're in now. If I can stand up a fancy looking
by peterlk 9y ago
I disagree that education is a cop-out. Telling people what is credible and what is not is part if the mess that we're in now. If I can stand up a fancy looking "news" site, write my opinion as fact, and have people believe me, that is a problem of our education system.
That principle of freedom of information is what the internet is built on. A large number of retweets does not make something factual.
- kbenson 9y agoIt's not about telling people what's credible and what's not, it's about telling them who has been caught being factually incorrect more than others, linking to additional info, and letting people use that to help them make their own choices. A centralized authority is less likely to be partisan, and whatever shortcomings it has will be widely publicized. Think of it like a credit bureau or a sock/bond ratings company, but without some of the perverse incentives that apply there, and kept from getting too partisan by government oversight. We investigate and prosecute people that commit fraud. I don't see why we can't at least note where news agencies are failing in a way that's harmful to the populace. It's not perfect, and it may fail, but it might also give us another useful tool to signal the quality of an information source.