Here’s a link to the NYT story: www.nytimes.com/…
I previously copied the whole story onto Daily Kos. That’s not “fair use”. I’ve selected 3 paragraphs from the story. They’re below.
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For years, the discussion about misinformation online has focused on falsehoods circulating on the American right. But in recent weeks, a flurry of conspiracy theories and false narratives have also been swirling on the left…..
The researchers emphasized that the falsehoods and exaggerations were not as entrenched or as toxic as those permeating right-wing spaces online. Several studies have shown that the political right is more likely to share false narratives and misinformation. Researchers at Northeastern University found that Democrats were generally better than Republicans at discerning true from false news…..
Snopes, the fact-checking website, is used to seeing pushback over its frequent debunking of right-wing disinformation. But since the war started between Israel and Gaza — and through this year’s presidential election — the website has also faced scrutiny after running fact-check articles about left-wing falsehoods, according to Doreen Marchionni, the executive and managing editor for the site.
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I emailed the authors of the NYT story:
NO
Your report is false equivalence. There is no way misinformation from the left is anywhere near as bad as misinformation from the right. Your reporting gives the impression it is.
You're clouding reality, not clearing things up. You're reporting that the Left engages in misinformation the way the Right does. That's false. IT IS NOT TRUE.
I took my rubber boat out of my apartment closet and rowed it on the Harlem River in 2013. That year I cruised on the Queen Mary 2 from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to Quebec City and back. The Queen Mary 2 can not sail on the Harlem River because it'll run aground. My rubber boat will not run aground in the Harlem River, so, obviously, my rubber boat is superior to the Queen Mary 2.
Arguing that my rubber boat is superior to the Queen Mary 2 is analogous to the tortuous logic used to argue that "Left Wing Misinformation is Having a Moment". No, it's not.