We all know Facebook's new "neutral" news algorithm has been sharing fake news stories with their users. But how bad is it? PCWorld created two pristine new Facebook accounts to find out, one an artificial Republican, and the other an artificial Democrat. What news would Facebook's algorithms choose to show?
A significant number of posts on both sides were largely neutral, or slanted so slightly that I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Of those, Smith, the Democrat, saw 12 political posts, 23 slanted posts, and six posts which I characterized as non-political. None were fake.
White, the Republican, saw 33 political posts and 79 slanted posts—many more posts in general, but a higher percentage of slanted posts within his overall News Feed. Facebook also chose to show White the 10 fake posts, as well as seven that weren’t political.
Another difference, says author Mark Hachman: "[R]arely did conservative Pages reference so-called mainstream media. Instead, they tended to regurgitate blog posts from other sites, Facebook posts, and right-wing blogs [...]”
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—He Spoke for the Mountains:
It's easy to spot lazy, inaccurate performances in the national media. A fairly significant part of what takes place here is spotlighting those times when some millionaire talking head uses the airwaves of the television networks or the pages of some internationally-known newspaper to practice sloppy stenography in place of news.
That doesn't mean there aren't still a lot of good journalists out there. We're still blessed with many hard-working, tough-minded reporters and editors who are more interested in finding the truth than in repeating press releases. Unfortunately, today we have one less.
Tom Gish bought the Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, Kentucky in 1956. Up until then, the Mountain Eagle was an innocuous local weekly that rarely ruffled a feather. Under Gish and his wife, Pat, the paper's motto changed to "It Screams." And it did.
The Mountain Eagle screamed out against corruption in Kentucky politics, against the excesses of coal mine operators, against police who abused their power, against mistreatment of workers, and against destruction of the land. Gish used his paper like a hammer, and he didn't care whose political fingers he smashed as he pounded out the truth. It didn't matter if you were a local school board member, or the president of a giant corporation. The Gishes would not back down.
Monday through Friday you can catch the Kagro in the Morning Show 9 AM ET by dropping in here, or you can download the Stitcher app (found in the app stores or at Stitcher.com), and find a live stream there, by searching for "Netroots Radio.” |