Tag: fake news

Bloomberg accidentally reports that Russia invaded Ukraine

Bloomberg made a blunder.

The financial news site accidentally reported that Russia had invaded Ukraine Friday afternoon with a headline on its homepage.

“Live: Russia invades Ukraine,” read a jarring headline on Bloomberg’s homepage at around 4 p.m.

It stayed up for about 30 minutes, according to Olga Lautman, a Russian analyst who posted the message on social media.

Users who clicked on the eye-popping story — which comes as Russian troops mass on the Ukrainian border and US officials warn of a potential invasion — were shown an error page. 

“I went on the site and saw the breaking news but knew it wasn’t real because I deal with Ukraine and will be one of the first to know,” Lautman told The Post. “It is bizarre and a pretty big mistake to make considering this is a potential large scale invasion and everyone is on edge.”

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What Could Go Wrong? Millions of US Kids to Be Taught in School Which News is “Fake”

NewsGuard, a controversial service that ranks news sources read by clients online based on how trustworthy it considers them to be, will soon be available for free to millions of schoolchildren in the US.

The New York-based company signed a licensing agreement with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest teachers’ union in the country, making the service available to members and their students, the two said this week.

AFT President Randi Weingarten called the deal a game-changer when it comes to helping kids, “particularly our middle, high school and postsecondary students, separate fact from fiction.”

She called NewsGuard “a beacon of clarity to expose the dark depths of the internet and uplift those outlets committed to truth and honesty rather than falsehoods and fabrications.”

The service was launched in 2018, when the position that Big Tech should openly censor information that it deemed undesirable was not as pervasive in the US as it is today. NewsGuard ranks thousands of news sources with a “street light” color code, and puts a nutrition label-like explanation on each one to explain the score.

The service comes in the form of a browser plug-in and costs $2.95/month, except for users of Microsoft Edge, since Microsoft licensed it to be a built-in feature of its browser in 2019.

NewsGuard claims to be apolitical and to apply a rigorous process when assessing the integrity of news outlets. After its launch, skeptics, however, questioned the abundance of people linked to the US government among its advisory board.

One of them, Richard Stengel, who served under Barack Obama as the Department of State’s public affairs chief, said on the record that state propaganda was fine and that all nations subjected their citizens to it.

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Fake News: Spotify Hasn’t Lost $2 Billion Because Of Neil Young

A slew of reports claiming that Spotify has had $2 billion wiped off its market value because of the actions of Neil Young and others in opposing Joe Rogan’s content on the platform are fake news.

Variety and others ran headlines over the weekend like “Spotify Lost More Than $2 Billion in Market Value After Neil Young Pulled His Music Over Joe Rogan’s Podcast.”

As pointed out by many on social media, however, the drop in value of Spotify stock is part of a longer downward trend that started before Neil Young uttered a word about Rogan.

Indeed, Spotify’s stock has actually increased in value since the Neil Young driven backlash.

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National Geographic Published Book Falsely Claiming Kyle Rittenhouse Killed Two Black Men

National Geographic published a book about ancient Egypt that mentioned Kyle Rittenhouse, and wildly mischaracterized the self defense shooting he was involved in nearly two years ago.

In the book “The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World” by Kara Cooney, published by National Geographic, the author falsely claims that Rittenhouse killed “two Black men” in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Rittenhouse never stood accused of murdering two black men, or one black man.

All of the men he shot in self defense had white skin.

Regardless, Cooney wrote:

“Or consider 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who used his semiautomatic weapon to kill two Black men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while waging a glorious race war on behalf of his inherited White power.”

“That’s not to mention the White people who rallied behind him to post his bail. Fear has gripped the patriarchy, and the threat of righteous violence—or the lethal use of it—is the patriarchy’s response.”

National File obtained a digital copy of the book and verified the claim exists in the text.

The claim is in the last chapter of the book, which is titled “Smashing The Patriarchy.”

This remark was written in the context of how ancient Egyptian authoritarian power structures are still seen in the 21st century.

It seems likely that National Geographic published Cooney because of her status as an academic. She is an Egyptology Professor at UCLA.

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The Fall Of The Mainstream Media And The Biggest Lies They Told In 2021

If the past year has confirmed anything it is that the mainstream media is thoroughly dishonest. Yes, most people already suspected this, but the last 12 months have provided more confirmation than the past several years combined. 2021 has made it clear that the mainstream media is a propaganda arm of political and corporate elitists, from big government to big pharma.

While there have been a few shining examples of independent and mostly unbiased journalism in the MSM, these moments are as rare as Loch Ness Monster sightings and almost as unbelievable. The public has been lied to so consistently that sometimes we ignore legitimate journalism when it pops up because it’s safer to assume the media is disingenuous at all times.

I’ve personally noticed a wash of commercials lately paid for by major legacy media platforms like the New York Times desperately trying to convince the public that they are still relevant. The message is that they are the only “true source” of news information while they beg people to start subscribing and reading their hot garbage once again. Leftist media is crumbling, with online propaganda peddlers and click-bait prostitutes like Buzzfeed and Vox imploding. The lack of profits is obvious and the layoffs have been aggressive.

These platforms survived for the past few years on tech media hype and venture startup capital, but the free money has run out and now they don’t know what to do. Buzzfeed’s scheme was to go public and sell shares, but this plan failed so completely and the company’s stock plunged so hard that the event has exposed all other fledgling tech media to wider scrutiny. In other words no one has faith in these outlets, at least not enough to invest in them, and now the veil of their supposed “success” has been lifted. Buzzfeed used to claim they were worth $1.5 billion; reality revealed they are worth almost nothing.

Legacy media has also seen its audience numbers plummet over the past ten years, but the last year in particular has been especially unkind to them. ALL of the major corporate news channels saw their audience ratings decline, with CNN seeing the largest drop overall. CNN is facing an epic cut of 68% in its prime time numbers in 2021, while MSNBC now has the smallest prime time audience it has witnessed since 2016. Fox also dealt with audience declines this year but continues to remain the most watched cable news outlet so far, probably because of the continued popularity of commenters like Tucker Carlson.

Some might blame the loss of election coverage, but it’s not as if there hasn’t been enough news to hype in 2021. With millions of people still working from home and facing intermittent covid restrictions this year (in blue states), you would think that this would represent a captive audience for the fear machine. Hell, even YouTube and other social media platforms are forcing MSM content into our faces daily while burying any alternatives. Yet, their numbers are still plunging and audiences are laughing.

YouTube has even removed the “Dislike” button just to protect the corporate media and the White House from the hilarious bombardment of thumbs down they receive on every video. It’s unacceptable for us peasants to have the ability to voice our discontent.

So, where are people turning for their news if not the mainstream? While stats are not as well tracked for independent sources, it is obvious from viewership and subscription numbers that the alternative media is quickly becoming the dominant force in information. My own audience numbers have jumped at least 30% in the past two years alone and this seems to be the trend across the board for conservative and libertarian media. Websites like Social Blade, which tracks YouTube channel stats, support the conclusion that the alternative media is becoming the go-to media.

Why is this happening? It’s actually been a long time coming. Mainstream media numbers have been in decline for many years and their audience age brackets have been increasing dramatically. This accelerated after 2016 when the mainstream media mask came off completely and what we now know as the “Culture War” revealed itself.

The migration of audiences is undeniable in entertainment and pop culture media. Mainstream platforms funded by a steady cash flow from the corporate coffers of Disney, Time Warner, Comcast, Viacom, etc, used to reign supreme in entertainment publications. Moderately sized tech media operations clamored to remain in the good graces of these corporations in exchange for favors and special access. Now, operations with billions of dollars behind them are being thwarted by low cost do-it-yourself YouTube channels like Geeks And Gamers, The Quartering, Nerdrotic, Clownfish TV, etc.

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ABC News Takes the Prize — for Dishonest Journalism

Given all we know now, a program informed by basic journalistic ethics should have exposed the mix of partisan politics and Trump derangement syndrome that led many in the highest reaches of media and government to countenance Steele’s absurd claims. What we need is a postmortem. Instead, we get a resurrection.

The first 50 minutes of the 68-minute program are a love letter to this former MI6 agent turned gun for hire. As ominous music plays in the background, it portrays Steele as a suave and tireless truth seeker – we even get a James Bond clip to make the point. Following a treacly account of his beloved first wife, who died young, a parade of associates assure us that Steele was the best of the best while spying in Russia for the British government and then as a private intelligence contractor after he left the service in 2009.

One of those clients was the FBI. With blazing dishonesty, ABC News suggests his work was pivotal in exposing Russia’s corrupt scheme to host the soccer World Cup in 2018. In fact, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz reported in 2019 that “Steele did not have any role in the [FIFA] investigation itself, he did not provide court testimony, and his information did not appear in any indictments, search warrants, or other court filings.”  

Having falsely established Steele’s bona fides, George Stephanopoulos allows him to repeat his anti-Trump smears while merely noting here and there that not everyone agrees with his view.

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McAuliffe buys ‘fake news’ ads in effort to sway voters, Fox News investigation finds

Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe has spent nearly $100,000 advertising “fake news” websites on Facebook during the Virginia gubernatorial campaign, Fox News can reveal.

The Democrat’s advertisements, which have been viewed up to 3.5 million times so far, are hidden on a Facebook page with a similar name to a local news website. The ads link to third-party websites that ostensibly publish local news, but exist to promote Democratic candidates. The websites have been widely described as disinformation and “partisan propaganda.” 

The revelation comes less than a week before election day, and as the candidates fight for every last vote, with polls showing McAuliffe and rival Republican Glenn Youngkin locked in a tight battle.

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