Fake Fact Checks

 

Creating a world where facts and truth are always questioned.

The idea to keep us in a state of confusion about power and politics. That way, powerful forces control the messages and their outcome. ProPublica reports that Russia is using fake factchecks to misinform the Russian population. what the Russian controlled media is doing is creating false narratives and then disproving those false stories with fake fact checks. According to the article, here's how it work:

"On March 3, Daniil Bezsonov, an official with the pro-Russian separatist region of Ukraine that styles itself as the Donetsk People’s Republic, tweeted a video that he said revealed “How Ukrainian fakes are made.”

"The clip showed two juxtaposed videos of a huge explosion in an urban area. Russian-language captions claimed that one video had been circulated by Ukrainian propagandists who said it showed a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city."

"But, as captions in the second video explained, the footage actually showed a deadly arms depot explosion in the same area back in 2017. The message was clear: Don’t trust footage of supposed Russian missile strikes. Ukrainians are spreading lies about what’s really going on, and pro-Russian groups are debunking them. (Bezsonov did not respond to questions from ProPublica.)"

"The goal of the videos is to inject a sense of doubt among Russian-language audiences as they encounter real images of wrecked Russian military vehicles and the destruction caused by missile and artillery strikes in Ukraine, according to Patrick Warren, an associate professor at Clemson who co-leads the Media Forensics Hub."

“The reason that it’s so effective is because you don’t actually have to convince someone that it’s true. It’s sufficient to make people uncertain as to what they should trust,” said Warren, who has conducted extensive research into Russian internet trolling and disinformation campaigns. “In a sense they are convincing the viewer that it would be possible for a Ukrainian propaganda bureau to do this sort of thing.”

The use of social media makes this so much easier that 25 years ago. The firehose stream of information has limited filters. The attacks on the media by Trump and his administration were a deliberate attempt to confuse the issues. There is no shared truth, only opinions vetted by those who would shape the narrative. Trump influenced conservatives are attacking science, intellectuals, journalism, an independent judiciary, and democracy...even organized, mainline, religions. Why? Divided, we are more vulnerable.

Pew published a series of reports to gain insights about the potential future effects of people’s use of technology on democracy. "The digital disruption of democracy has been a leading concern over the past four years – a time of the Brexit decision in the United Kingdom, the American presidential election and a variety of other elections. Pew shared a series of quoted from people who are studying these issues in a hunt for remedies." The report came out in 2020. Their worst fears are being realized in Trump's "Big Lie" and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The river of falsehoods and lies has become a torrent. 

Some of those quotes from the Pew article are below.

Is This The End? 

Many Tech Experts Say Digital Disruption Will Hurt Democracy 

About half predict that humans’ use of technology will weaken democracy between now and 2030 due to the speed and scope of reality distortion, the decline of journalism and the impact of surveillance capitalism. A third expect technology to strengthen democracy as reformers find ways to fight back against info-warriors and chaos.  (Pew Research Feb 2020)

Why People Lie

And Why We Believe Them

Everybody does it. When we were little we lied to our parents, hoping we wouldn't get into trouble. We exaggerated our accomplishments to our friends. We've omitted things to influence the outcome. We've fibbed to keep from hurting people. Most of this stuff is harmless, until it isn't. When is that? When it hurts people, betrays a trust, deliberately misleads, it's used to keep others in their place. You could probably come up with more reasons, but big lies today are clearly unethical and lead to violent behavior. And in some cases, that's the goal. Many times when we lie, we're simply in denial about our own behavior, and we might not care who we hurt.  

According to Psychology Today, there are six reasons why people lie.  

 -David J. Ley PhD

1. The lie matters to the liar.  The number one reason people lie when it just doesn’t matter is because they actually think it matters. 

2. Telling the truth feels like giving up control. Often, people tell lies because they are trying to control a situation and exert influence toward getting the decisions or reactions they want. The truth can be “inconvenient. ” 

3. They don’t want to disappoint you. People who tell lie after lie are often worried about losing the respect of those around them.

4. Lies snowball. They get out of control. Eventually,  we’re arguing about the color of the sky, because to admit anything creates the potential of the entire house of cards tumbling. 

5. It’s not a lie to them. Multiple studies demonstrate that our memories are influenced by many things, that they change over time, and that they are essentially reconstructed each time we think about them. 

6. They want it to be true. Sometimes, liars hope that they can make something come true by saying it over and over, and by believing it as hard as they can. In today’s environment of “alternative facts,” it’s hard not to see this as somewhat justified.

So many people deny the facts laid out before them. Why?

I went to Vital Briefings website to find out more.

a) We want to,

b) it fits our view,

c) we're accustomed to believing the source.

But facts matter

 David Schrieberg points out that facts matter. Anybody who is the business of reporting information needs to support a higher ethical standard than the run of mill meme on social media. But putting the facts out there may not be enough anymore.

“Think about what is now required for a Republican politician to be considered a party member in good standing. He or she must pledge allegiance to policy doctrines that are demonstrably false; he or she must, in effect, reject the very idea of paying attention to evidence.” PAUL KRUGMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

According to Schrieberg recent research on this subject focus on three explanations, which can be linked, as to why people are willing to ignore facts in their process of making judgements.

#1: Motivated Reasoning - Selectively choosing evidence.

#2: Confirmation Bias - It feels good to ‘stick’ to our guns’ even if we are wrong,” JACK AND SARA GORMAN

#3: Illusory Truth Effect - The more times you read, hear or watch a story, the more you believe it’s true. 

So, what can we do? 

Schrieberg suggests:

• Consume less.
• Be very selective in the news you consume.
• Check out the sources you choose. Do they adhere to genuine journalistic practices? If they have biases, are they clearly stated and presented? Do they present multiple sides to the story, but not necessarily giving them all equal weight? Are their conclusions based on responsible reporting?
• Be wary of sites that don’t clearly present the sources of their revenue.
• Avoid sources displayed in your social media feeds that you can’t verify and/or lack legitimate expertise in the subject matter.
• Don’t rely solely on breaking news. Seek out more in-depth stories and analyses to inform your opinions and decisions.

COVID - 19 Things that don't work!

Bogus Cures

There's all sorts of misinformation about the Coronavirus spreading all over the web.

The BBC lists six things that absolutely do not work.

1. Garlic

We're not talking about vampires.  The WHO (World Health Organization) says that while it is "a healthy food that may have some antimicrobial properties", there's no evidence that eating garlic can protect people from the new coronavirus.

2. 'Miracle minerals'

Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned about the dangers to health of drinking MMS. Health authorities in other countries have also issued alerts about it.

3. Home-made hand sanitiser

There have been many reports of shortages of hand sanitiser gel, as washing your hands is one key way to prevent spread of the virus. There are rumors that Tito's Vodka can be used. Unfortunately, Tito's does not have enough alcohol to be used as a hand sanitizer. Ordinary soap and water works really well.

4. Drinkable silver

No, no, a thousand times no! There's a televangelist promoting this stuff. He's selling it.  there's clear advice from the US health authorities that there's no evidence this type of silver is effective for any health condition. More importantly, it could cause serious side effects including kidney damage, seizures and argyria - a condition that makes your skin turn blue.

5. Drinking water every 15 minutes

Drinking water will keep you hydrated, but there is no proof that you can flush the virus out of your system by drinking lots of water. This fake cure has been copied and pasted many times on Facebook

6. Heat and avoiding ice cream

Trying to heat your body or expose yourself to the sun - presumably to make it inhospitable to the virus - is completely ineffective, according to Prof Bloomfield.  Once the virus is in your body, there's no way of killing it - your body just has to fight it off.Outside the body, "to actively kill the virus you need temperatures of around 60 degrees [Celsius]", says Professor Bloomfield - far hotter than any bath.

Viral Posts Mislead

Social media is having a huge impact on information we share. Does it make journalism obsolete? I hope not.

Remember the song "What you See is What You Get" by The Dramatics? Not anymore. Technology, combined with social media, is going to present a huge problem for the 2020 election. The footage was shared hundreds of thousands times on Instagram. The power of social media to mislead is immense. According to Pew research, most Americans continue to get news on social media, even though many have concerns about its accuracy.

Fake video taken at face value

The video was share hundreds of thousands of times. If it is this easy to fool users, imagine the effect of fake news shared on social media. We got a taste of this in 2016. The same tactics are being intensified for 2020.

Below are four fake stories being spread on social media. The four stories were highlighted as false by Factcheck.org.

September 6, 2019

A 1978 photo of a Somalian army recruit has been misidentified on social media as Rep. Ilhan Omar, who wasn’t born until 1982.

September 6, 2019

Viral posts on social media make the baseless claim that the shooter in Odessa, Texas, had a sticker on his car for Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. The Texas Department of Public Safety said there was no sticker on the car he was driving during the attack.

September 5, 2019

Viral social media posts wrongly suggest that President Donald Trump’s three eldest children are citizens only because of birthright citizenship.

September 5, 2019

A fake tweet circulating online attributes a made-up statement about hurricane preparation to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Hold tight. This is only going to get worse. Our defense? Check our sources. Seek out credible news sources. 

Fake News Travels Fast

It Really Works

Fake News (false news) moves faster and deeper than the real stuff. The reason is economic. According to a study done last spring, social media rewards views. More eyeballs see the false stuff. The motivation is profit. The effect can be devastating.

Marketplace reporter Molly Wood interviews Sinan Aral of the Harvard Business Review. 

Sinan Aral: There's a story from Barack Obama's presidency where a false tweet that indicated that he was injured in an explosion wiped out a $130 billion of equity value in a single day. These types of stories can have consequential impacts on our democracy, on businesses, on our national security. And so it's a problem we really need to concentrate on.

According to the study that came out of MIT, Twitter leads among all platforms for spreading false news. Is it a coincidence that the president prefers that platform above all others?

Even more disturbing, "A false story is much more likely to go viral than a real story, the authors find, "A false story reaches 1,500 people six times quicker, on average, than a true story does. And while false stories outperform the truth on every subject—including business, terrorism and war, science and technology, and entertainment—fake news about politics regularly does best."

Journalists, people who check sources, must be free to counter the tsunami of misinformation posing as news in our news feeds. They cannot face it alone. We need to be more informed as consumers about false narratives. Those narratives need to called out.  Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Google will need to do more to stem the tide of misinformation. If they are unwilling to do that, consumers can boycott and regulators must regulate.

The News Cycle and Mutual Destruction

The News Cycle Fuels Funding 

In fundraising circles we often discuss the value of the news cycle and the ability to raise funds from listeners. During presidential campaign the public radio audience swells and membership dollars increase.  For public radio's core audience, the news from NPR, PRX,  PRI and APM offer a sanctuary of thought provoking and rational content.

It looks as if the news cycle may not take its usual post election dip. That should be a happy thing for public broadcasting. Then again, maybe not.

 As someone who lived through the Cold War and the threat of the Nuclear Holocaust, Donald Trump's tweets about the nuclear arsenal are not going down well. The need to be informed from a reliable news source will become more important.

Fake News Ups the Ante

Add to the mix the proliferation of fake news. A news story from a fake new site heightened tensions between Pakistan and Israel.  According to an article published by Huffington Post with sources included in the New York Times "Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, wrote a frightening Twitter post in response to a fake news article stating that Israel would attack Pakistan with nuclear weapons." Asif's comments were in response to a fake story posted by awdnews.com quoting the Israeli Defense Minister that "If Pakistan send ground troops into Syria on any pretext, we will destroy this country with a nuclear attack." 

We are are closer to the brink than most people realize. According the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, we are three minutes to midnight, a global catastrophe. In 2012 we were five minutes to midnight.

Public Media will have plenty to report on and a steady, measured and fair treatment of the issues will be greatly appreciated by our core audience. By focusing on the core audience and their values the growth potential will continue to increase.

Duck and Cover

I'm part of that core, and I remember the drills at school, "Duck and Cover," and being reassured that we would be okay if the Menominee River Valley took a direct hit. Then later seeing the civil defense brochure about the circles of destruction and understanding at age nine that we were too close to the epicenter to survive, and understanding that if we did survive, we would likely die from the burns or radiation poisoning.

The theory behind the policy of mutual destruction was that nobody would be foolish enough to push the button. I wasn't reassured then. I am even less assured now. Public Media has a part in all this. No matter the platform, we must continue to meet the expectations of our audience. Public Radio news has grown up to be trusted news source among its audience. When we first started we considered to be boutique in nature...an alternate news source. There's no going back now.

Warning For the Media...

From the Pope.

In a story heard on NPR, Pope Francis warns against the infatuation with scandal, citing 'Coprophilia.' Coprophilia is an abnormal interest in feces. He used Coprophilia as a metaphor. The Pope said, "Disinformation is probably the greatest damage that the media can do, as opinion is guided in one direction, neglecting the other part of the truth," Francis' message was directed at news media, but it could easily be applied to the manipulation of information by fake news producers.

Purveyors of misinformation alleging sex trade out of restaurant involving Hilary Clinton recently caused an incident at a pizza parlor in Washington DC, brought one of the parents of the Sandy Hook tragedy under attack of threats by people who believe the Sandy Hook shootings to be a hoax, and the continued false allegations that President Obama's mother-in-law will be getting a $160,000 for baby sitting for the Obama's daughters.

The Pope went on to say, "I believe that the media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey — without offence, please — to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal, to communicate ugly things, even though they may be true." The Pope made his comments in an interview with the Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio.

He added, "And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, it can do great harm." It already has.