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Don't get the downvotes either. This is a somewhat valid point. I feel like many people, even here on HN really like to paint the world black and white in this

Don't get the downvotes either. This is a somewhat valid point. I feel like many people, even here on HN really like to paint the world black and white in this regard. Everything bad we hear about Russia & China must undoubtedly be true, because it's reported by our press, and we have freedom of press, which means that our press never lies or has an agenda. At least when it comes to foreign affairs. So your Facebook feed must've undoubtedly told the unbiased truth about your country.

anticodon 6y ago
Is it sarcasm? A bit hard to get for me. There's an old and very easy way to create a distorted image by selectively publishing the news: just ignore all the positive news and publish only negative news. Many opposition channels and blogs in Russia exploit this technique. E.g. there're some anti-Russian blogs (quite many) that publish only vivid descriptions of the most cruel crimes that happened in Russia recently. When people read mostly these blogs they get an impression that everyday life in Russia is permeated by brutal crimes and there's no escape from villains if you step outside your apartment. They're also quite popular among Russian immigrants living in Europe and USA (my guess is that because they're promoted in Google/Facebook/YouTube search results), and they always tell me in private conversations: "How can you live in such a brutal place where people are killed for no reason every day?" They don't get that crime happens in every country every day, what is important is statistics: how effective is effort for fighting the crime, how big is percent of victims, etc (btw, also a rich field for statistics manipulation). But these blogs do not publish fake news - they can publish only true facts. There's enough true facts you can use to create a distorted image if you ignore all the other information.
- fps_doug 6y ago
  Yes, that was sarcasm, sorry if that wasn't clear enough.
StreamBright 6y ago
They do and with the help of moderators.
throw2011190740 6y ago
Here's what I've been saying to my partner recently, "I hardly know what's going on up North of England, or even the other side of London (we live in London), but somehow what we hear about the other side of the world must be true". I find people who hold views whatever they hear in the media to be the absolute truth and that they are well informed because they read a lot of news to be extremely naive. This Mark Twain quote completely represents how I feel: If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.

anticodon 6y ago

Is it sarcasm? A bit hard to get for me. There's an old and very easy way to create a distorted image by selectively publishing the news: just ignore all the positive news and publish only negative news. Many opposition channels and blogs in Russia exploit this technique. E.g. there're some anti-Russian blogs (quite many) that publish only vivid descriptions of the most cruel crimes that happened in Russia recently. When people read mostly these blogs they get an impression that everyday life in Russia is permeated by brutal crimes and there's no escape from villains if you step outside your apartment. They're also quite popular among Russian immigrants living in Europe and USA (my guess is that because they're promoted in Google/Facebook/YouTube search results), and they always tell me in private conversations: "How can you live in such a brutal place where people are killed for no reason every day?" They don't get that crime happens in every country every day, what is important is statistics: how effective is effort for fighting the crime, how big is percent of victims, etc (btw, also a rich field for statistics manipulation). But these blogs do not publish fake news - they can publish only true facts. There's enough true facts you can use to create a distorted image if you ignore all the other information.

fps_doug 6y ago
Yes, that was sarcasm, sorry if that wasn't clear enough.

StreamBright 6y ago

They do and with the help of moderators.

throw2011190740 6y ago

Here's what I've been saying to my partner recently, "I hardly know what's going on up North of England, or even the other side of London (we live in London), but somehow what we hear about the other side of the world must be true". I find people who hold views whatever they hear in the media to be the absolute truth and that they are well informed because they read a lot of news to be extremely naive. This Mark Twain quote completely represents how I feel: If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.