4 ms·

This is not the type of "side". It spreads misinformation on huge scale. Those sites can be compared to some fantasy book not real news.

by pqb 5y ago

xiphias2 5y ago
I don’t think it’s so simple. I bought Bitcoin in 2013 because of Max Keiser on RT explaining its importance (and talking about the scams going on Wall Street, like silver price manipulation that Goldman Sachs was later fined for), while all the western media wrote that it will collapse to $0, and right now it gives me a comfortable life. It’s controversial here on HN whether it’s a good or bad thing, but at this point nobody denies that it didn’t collapse how famous US economists predicted.
- pqb 5y ago
  I can't speak about those two things, because I didn't find them interesting when they came out into daylight. I am against the next meetoo-like cancellation wave, but actually RT/Sputnik has done more bad than good in the last years. If they would not exist I believe other journalists will take care of those topics. There were others who spoke about manipulation in cryptocurrency world and it is not that we have only one news outlet, which is taking a look at gov/banking/corporations/... hands. As a person living in Poland, where state-sponsored media fights with opposition using a cheap propaganda, I know the RT is doing journalist job wrong, because the scheme is exactly the same. Real news mixed with fake ones or hugely skewed. The reader/watcher starts believing he gets the truth, while he got a pulp of a nonsense. I compare it to a typical slot machine algorithm (i.e. "you always win") [1]. News there looks attractive for any person with conservative way of thinking. They gets you hooked into the spiral to follow their viewpoint. The worst, many prominent politicians and other popular figures use RT/Sputnik as their source for manipulations. Sadly (thanks to RU invasion), the emperor is naked and it turns out many of them played a role of megaphone producing fear and doubts. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2017/sep/28/hooked-how-pokies-are-designed-to-be-addictive https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-inter...
_-david-_ 5y ago
Free speech is only free speech if it is "real news"?

This is not the type of "side". It spreads misinformation on huge scale. Those sites can be compared to some fantasy book not real news.

by pqb 5y ago

This is not the type of "side". It spreads misinformation on huge scale. Those sites can be compared to some fantasy book not real news.

xiphias2 5y ago

I don’t think it’s so simple. I bought Bitcoin in 2013 because of Max Keiser on RT explaining its importance (and talking about the scams going on Wall Street, like silver price manipulation that Goldman Sachs was later fined for), while all the western media wrote that it will collapse to $0, and right now it gives me a comfortable life. It’s controversial here on HN whether it’s a good or bad thing, but at this point nobody denies that it didn’t collapse how famous US economists predicted.

pqb 5y ago
I can't speak about those two things, because I didn't find them interesting when they came out into daylight. I am against the next meetoo-like cancellation wave, but actually RT/Sputnik has done more bad than good in the last years. If they would not exist I believe other journalists will take care of those topics. There were others who spoke about manipulation in cryptocurrency world and it is not that we have only one news outlet, which is taking a look at gov/banking/corporations/... hands. As a person living in Poland, where state-sponsored media fights with opposition using a cheap propaganda, I know the RT is doing journalist job wrong, because the scheme is exactly the same. Real news mixed with fake ones or hugely skewed. The reader/watcher starts believing he gets the truth, while he got a pulp of a nonsense. I compare it to a typical slot machine algorithm (i.e. "you always win") [1]. News there looks attractive for any person with conservative way of thinking. They gets you hooked into the spiral to follow their viewpoint. The worst, many prominent politicians and other popular figures use RT/Sputnik as their source for manipulations. Sadly (thanks to RU invasion), the emperor is naked and it turns out many of them played a role of megaphone producing fear and doubts. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2017/sep/28/hooked-how-pokies-are-designed-to-be-addictive https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-inter...

_-david-_ 5y ago

Free speech is only free speech if it is "real news"?