Friday, July 7, 2017

FAKE NEWS; BLOG 2092;JUL 07, 2017























THE MESSAGE:





The proliferation of fake news today seems to be an attempt to wage a form of psychological warfare. Some sources even see it as a threat to democracy. In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning that the Russian government was using 'pseudo-news agencies' and 'Internet trolls' as disinformation propaganda to weaken confidence in democratic values.


In 2015, the Swedish National Security Service, issued a report concluding Russia was using fake news to inflame "splits in society" through the proliferation of propaganda. which needed to be dealt with.

Fraudulent news has affected politics in Indonesia and the Philippines, where there exists widespread usage of social media. At the same time there is little or no recourse for checking any political claims, to help decide whether or not they are indeed true.

THE BLURB:



CRAIG SILVERMAN 

Craig Silverman, has spent much of his career as a journalist writing about issues of accuracy in media. He wrote a column for the Poynter Institute called Regret the Error and later a book of the same name on the harm done by erroneous reporting. He also launched a web-based startup called 'Emergent' devoted to the sourcing and fact-checking of fake news. Silverman has lists of more than 50 websites that  publish fake information as news.



IN THE USA
Reports were published by the Denver Guardian that an FBI agent, investigating Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server, killed himself after murdering his wife.  Investigators believe FBI agent, Michael Brown, 45, shot and killed his 33-year-old wife, Susan Brown, late Friday night before setting the couple’s home on fire and then turning the gun on himself. Brown was a 12 year veteran of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department before spending the last six years in the FBI. There was no truth to this story. 

The Denver Guardian is simply a fake news web site masquerading as the online arm of a (non-existent) big city newspaper. Like the Baltimore Gazette, the Denver Guardian is nothing more than a hastily thrown together web site with a bunch of non-working links and a fake street address, all created for the sole purpose of disseminating fabricated clickbait news stories.

The story is completely false, but it was shared on Facebook over half a million times.

IN CANADA


The City of Dorval Denounces False News Circulating on the Internet

Dorval, January 27, 2015 – For a number of weeks now, false news has been circulating on social networks, as well as via a string of emails, about the Mayor of Dorval having allegedly refused to follow up on a request from Muslim parents asking him to remove pork from the City’s school cafeterias. The story also quotes speculative comments from the Mayor  regarding  Muslims. 

Supposedly, the mayor explained the reasons for his refusal via a note sent to local parents by the town clerk. The note states that Muslims in the area need to 'adapt to Canada and Quebec, its customs, its traditions, its way of life, because that's where they chose to immigrate. It also pointedly suggests that, for Muslims who do not feel comfortable in Canada, 'there are 57 beautiful Muslim countries in the world' ready to receive them.


The mayor's supposed stance has been applauded by commentators from around the world, with many criticising their own leaders for not adopting a similar policy. The mayor's office received calls from across North America congratulating the mayor for his stance on the issue.


The City of Dorval wishes to denounce this false article and resents this identity usurpation. Internet users across the world have published this false news as it was true, and the Mayor would like to set the record straight by saying that, on no account, he, nor any the City’s representatives, have made such comments.

Albeit difficult to track the origins of this hoax, our research has led us to believe that it started in the United States. A similar hoax about a Mayor in Belgium had traveled the Web in 2013

LAWRENCE SOLOMON, National Post June 27, 2017



The left has mostly been oblivious to the rate at which Trump is fulfilling the mandate on which he was elected. His detractors are convinced he's a buffoon. Soloman asks,  "why does he keep winning?" 

Distracted by Trump’s tweets and obsessed with linking him to Russia, Democrats and nay sayers have mostly been oblivious to the rate at which he is fulfilling the mandate on which he was elected.


Until the left wakes up, and grows up by accepting that Trump is a legitimate president with whom it must engage, Trump will continue to win, win, win. 

GERMANY

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned of the societal impact of 'fake sites, bots and trolls.


 

Breitbart News has yet to launch its planned German-language website, but it's already causing confusion in that country. In January, police in Dortmund had to debunk a Breitbart report about an alleged mob of 1,000 men chanting "Allahu akbar" and setting fire to Germany's oldest church on New Year's Eve.



The report was widely shared on social media, but Dortmund police clarified that there had been no such attack, and that nothing "extraordinary or spectacular" had happened. Police remarked that New Year's Eve had in fact been "rather average to quiet."The local newspaper, Ruhr Nachrichten, said elements of its online reporting on New Year’s Eve had been distorted by Breitbart to produce “fake news, hate and propaganda”. Stray fireworks did start a small blaze, but only on netting covering scaffolding on the church and it was put out after about 12 minutes, the paper reported. The roof was not on fire and the church is not Germany’s oldest.

Some Germans are slowly wising up to the proliferation of alternative, explosive facts; however, others are simply overwhelmed, duped or unwilling to do further necessary research.

THE POPE 



Pope Francis declares that an obsession with scandal can do great harm. He asks them to avoid disinformation, comparing it to the sickness of coprophagia (the eating of feces). The Pope believes that the sickness can also include elements of sexual arousal."I believe that the media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal or to communicate ugly things, even though they may be true," the pope said in an interview with the Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio. 

THE POPE'S CASE IN POINT




Clinton insiders claim that Bill slept with so many women that Hillary Clinton has repeatedly forced him to get an HIV test from the doctor. This is because the former President “favoured unprotected sex.” The media awaits news that his health has deteriorated to the point of imminent death.


THE QUESTION:

Are people truly equipped to resist 'Fake News' in today's societies?






THE LEMON:

Awarded to D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo 






A federal judge has tossed out two life sentences for Malvo and ordered Virginia courts to hold new sentencing hearings.U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk said Malvo is entitled to new sentencing hearings after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional. 
Malvo was 17 when he was arrested in 2002 for a series of shootings that killed 10 people and wounded three in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, causing widespread fear throughout the region.


THE QUOTE:




"A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results. "Wade Boggs


THE CLIP:




No comments: