Fake News = The other Bill and Hillary
Posted on 02/15/2019 2:45:58 PM PST by DeweyCA
Microsoft is the latest tech giant taking it upon itself to police so-called “fake news,” packaging an app with its mobile browser that warns users not to trust various news websites, including a number of conservative ones.
NewsGuard is an extension available for most browsers that displays a green checkmark or red exclamation point next to users’ address bar, to denote whether websites satisfy criteria “such as whether the site regularly publishes false content, reveals conflicts of interest, discloses financing, or publicly corrects reporting errors.” This is achieved by a team of “trained journalists and experienced editors,” rather than algorithms.
"NewsGuard uses journalism to fight false news, misinformation, and disinformation. Our trained analysts, who are experienced journalists, research online news brands to help readers and viewers know which ones are trying to do legitimate journalism—and which are not," the NewsGuard website states.
"Our Green-Red ratings signal if a website is trying to get it right or instead has a hidden agenda or knowingly publishes falsehoods or propaganda," it adds.
NewsGuard is a free, optional feature most users have to download for themselves if they want it, but Microsoft is now pre-installing it in mobile versions of its Microsoft Edge browser, TechCrunch reports. The warnings do not display on default, but can be activated by simply enabling News Rating in the Settings menu.
“Microsoft’s Edge experiment with NewsGuard isn’t a solution to that issue, but baking some kind of news verification tool right into the browser does feel like a step in a compelling direction,” TechCrunch’s Taylor Hatmaker writes approvingly, but others warn of ideological bias in its execution.
While some right-of-center websites, such as The Federalist and Conservative Review, receive green checkmarks, others such as The Drudge Report, The Blaze, Breitbart, and PJ Media are given warning labels. LifeSiteNews receives a warning label as well, with NewsGuard falsely claiming that this website “generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability,” has “repeatedly misstated medical research about abortion,” and fails to “regularly correc[t] or clarif[y] errors.”
In the app’s full “Nutrition Label” for LifeSiteNews, NewsGuard Vice President of News Literacy Outreach Sarah Brandt’s primary example is that LifeSite disputes the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists’ denial of a link between abortion and breast cancer, but does not note that LifeSite and many other pro-life groups have challenged the ACOG’s credibility and impartiality on this and other subjects.
The label, which was edited by NewsGuard Vice President of Business Development Anna-Sophie Harling and Managing Editor Amy Westfeldt, also claims a “July 2018 piece headlined ‘Republican bill would stop US embassies flying gay ‘pride’ flags’ does not note that the legislation bans the flying of any flag other than the American flag.” In fact, the report in question notes exactly that in its opening sentence, and two additional times in the body of the piece.
NewsGuard does flag the left-wing Daily Kos as red, though other left-wing sites that conservatives have criticized for deceptive content, including Vox, ThinkProgress, and Rewire, are given green checkmarks. Even Media Matters for America is given a clean bill of health.
Breitbart notes that BuzzFeed News and Rolling Stone are marked trustworthy as well, despite both publications being the home of high-profile stories they were reluctant to retract even after being debunked.
“Microsoft is partnering with NewsGuard to offer the NewsGuard browser extension on Microsoft Edge, and a feature in Microsoft Edge mobile apps for iOS and Android to help our customers evaluate news sources,” a Microsoft spokesperson responded in a statement to Breitbart. Across both the browser and the apps, NewsGuard is optional and customers need to take action if they want to use the feature.”
Microsoft’s competitors Google and Apple have also come under fire for various actions to quash “fake news” on their platforms, which many conservatives argue are slanted to target responsible information and opinion that dissents from liberal orthodoxy.
This is the tactic university professors use.
They tell their students that they have told them the truth, so don’t listen to anyone else. They’re just lying to you.
Try discussing issues with one of them on a casual basis. They’ll cut you off saying all that you are saying is just propaganda.
Now they’re trying to convince public adults of the same thing.
Listen to us, and don’t even listen to them. It’s all propaganda.
Their minds are closed. They don’t expose themselves to other thoughts, just the Leftist dogma.
Drudge Report is not conservative in my opinion.
It’s not a news site either. All he does is link.
I have previously declared that all Microsoft search engines are false sources of truth.
CNN is fake news CBS is fake news Washington post is fake news New York Times is fake news Boston Globe is fake news LA Times is fake news
Safari is labeling, iPad iOS 12.2, as we speak,
FreeRepublic.com as Not Secure
I find that very annoying
Pravda Edge.
Newspeak Edge.
Does the new microsoft app agree?
I had one site that suprised me when Chrome will not allow access last week. It was the Survival Seed Bank. I was going to order more seeds and had to use Bing to get to the site.
ridiculous they’d even try, but their execution is even worse
They tell their students that they have told them the truth, so don’t listen to anyone else. They’re just lying to you.
The ancient Greeks would have instantly spotted the arrogance. That it not “love of wisdom,” that is a arguing from a claim of superior wisdom - sophistry.
- sophist
- 1542, earlier sophister (c.1380), from L. sophista, sophistes, from Gk. sophistes, from sophizesthai "to become wise or learned," from sophos "wise, clever," of unknown origin. Gk. sophistes came to mean "one who gives intellectual instruction for pay," and, contrasted with "philosopher," it became a term of contempt. Ancient sophists were famous for their clever, specious arguments.
- philosopher
- O.E. philosophe, from L. philosophus, from Gk. philosophos "philosopher," lit. "lover of wisdom," from philos "loving" + sophos "wise, a sage."
"Pythagoras was the first who called himself philosophos, instead of sophos, 'wise man,' since this latter term was suggestive of immodesty." [Klein]
It’s really awefully tedious to be treated like schoolchildren. Red light/Green light? Twitter “time outs”. Facebook dictating what is true and which can be shared.
Time to get rid of this crap and the political powers that are pushing this anti-free speech agenda.
They have let it be known to all they want to get rid of the Constitution in its entirety. The left has been lying all along but now it is out there for all to see. Speech is not protected. Guns are not protected. The viability of the fetus no longer matters. The states have no standing. The electoral college should be done away with... they just want to grab complete control over everything and these pesky ‘God given rights protected by the Constitution’ must be stripped away. They started by trying to tell us that they weren’t God Given rights but ‘Constitutional Rights’ when in fact the Constitution just enumerates a few of our human rights upon which government cannot infringe.
While I accept that MSFT, TWTR, FB etc are not government, they are damn near proxies for it given the amount of regulation and inter-dependency, licensing, oversight, and billions of dollars in contracts.
I turned this rotten app off. They don’t force you to use it.
Microsoft is crap. There was a spam ware program. That Microsoft reclassified once they bought the company.
I’ll just take this opportunity to say how very much I’m enjoying my new install of the “Elementary OS” Linux distro. It really seems to be giving Microsoft and Apple a run for the money. Nicely polished!
or publicly corrects reporting errors.
Hi.
“NewsGuard uses journalism to fight false news, misinformation, and disinformation. Our trained analysts, who are experienced journalists, research online news brands to help readers and viewers know which ones are trying to do legitimate journalism—and which are not,” the NewsGuard website states.”
That would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious.
Methinks CWII in ten years. Will make CWI look like a walk in the park on a warm spring day.
Lock and load boys and girls. The tree of Liberty needs refreshing.
5.56mm
Thanks for the background on those words/terms.
I believe you were addressing today’s professors, but I did want to see if you thought I was falling into those two categories, with my comments.
If you were addressing the professors, I do agree. IMO < it is dangerous to tell people not to listen. We have to hear the bad, and deal with it. Is it true, logical, or just propaganda?
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