XPost: alt.global-warming, can.politics   
   From: tdcomeau@gmail.com   
      
   Rightist Americans are good for compost.   
      
      
   The internet is full of fake news and parody sites. For a long   
   time, people knew them for what they were: sites aimed at   
   entertaining readers with a satirical take on the news.   
      
   But as trust in the mainstream media has eroded, and use of   
   social media as a news source has risen, fake news may have   
   become more influential than ever before.   
      
      
   "The impact of corrections [from mainstream media], which may   
   have sunk a candidate in another era, was compromised because   
   there is no longer a consensus on what a fact is," Oliver   
   explained. "Trust in mainstream media outlets has been falling   
   and people can choose to get their news from echo chambers   
   that validate their views."   
      
      
   For example, the top Google news link for "final election   
   results" on Monday was from a fake-news site called "70 News"   
   which "reported" that Donald Trump had won both the electoral   
   and popular vote. As the Washington Post points out, that's   
   simply not true.   
      
   Complicating matters are the plethora of left- and right-   
   leaning propaganda sites out there, deliberately spreading   
   misinformation in order to appeal to certain groups. Satire   
   sites like The Onion and The Borowitz Report are one thing;   
   sites that promote hoaxes for click-bait or play to people's   
   deepest fears are quite another.   
      
      
   "Fake facts circulate on social media to a frightening   
   extent... There is now a whole cottage industry specializing   
   in hyper-partisan, sometimes wildly distorted clickbait,"   
   Oliver explained.   
      
   To combat the circulation of misinformation, Fake News Watch   
   has compiled a list of websites that have been known to be   
   untruthful, ranging from satirical websites to sites trying to   
   pass off lies as truth.   
      
   Here are several fake news sites that have become popular on   
   Facebook, and which should be avoided if you're looking for   
   the facts:   
      
   Publication Name        Approximate Facebook Following   
   American News        5,000,000        Hoax   
   DC Gazette                    420,000        Hoax   
   Activist Post        540,000        Propaganda   
   Before It's News        400,000        Propaganda   
   Daily Buzz Live        160,000        Propaganda   
   Disclose TV                    1,900,000        Propaganda   
   InfoWars                    613,000        Propaganda   
   Natural News        2,000,000        Propaganda   
   Red Flag News        270,000        Propaganda   
   World Truth TV        1,700,000        Propaganda   
   ............   
      
      
   NewsBusters is a wingnut media watch website that styles   
   itself as "Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias." The   
   site is an extension of Brent Bozell III's hate group, Media   
   Research Center.   
      
   While an ostensibly admirable goal to keep check on the media   
   (quis custodiet ipsos custodes?[1]), it does not so much   
   expose "liberal bias" as try to ram a Republican agenda in all   
   over the place. The site also has a blatant anti-science   
   agenda, often bashing stories on evolution and global warming   
   that don't give time to wingnut creationist or denialist   
   perspectives.   
      
   Newsbusters' methods for exposing the media's bias toward   
   liberalism include only reporting instances that they perceive   
   as liberal and copy/pasting from blogs that have actual,   
   clearly stated liberal biases   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)