Getting to the point

Encouraging Signs

About halfway through my local NPR station's fundraiser, they shifted message points. They started talking about local coverage. They've done this before, but this time the message was much more that lip service. The messages focused on the type of coverage and the quality of the coverage, and how that coverage gives the broader perspective of events globally. The message was more about the unique value proposition of what they offer rather than, "We have local news!" The message made the fundrive easier for me to listen to.

They still mention the premiums, but the point of the drive is so much more than sox and mugs and wreaths. For a long time, this station relied heavily on premiums, but you gotta ask yourself, is that really why people listen? IMHO...it's the wrong path. It was chosen long ago by Public Television. Public TV is at a point, now, where they cannot raise funds around regular programming. Their fundrives are about pitching a product.

There's a lot at stake.

I was reading an article by Jim Wallis, "THE TRUTH QUESTION: HOW TO SEEK TRUTH WHEN THE PRESIDENT NORMALIZES LIES." Wallis points out that the president has lied over 13,000 times in 1,000 days. That's over 13 lies a day. His tactic is a common tactic.

AUTOCRATS AND STRONGMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD ATTACK THE FREE PRESS AND THE IDEA OF OBJECTIVE TRUTH BECAUSE THEY WANT YOU ONLY TO BE ABLE TO LISTEN TO THEIR TRUTH. (Sojourners)

The free press still exists, but it is under constant attack. Even here, where a free press is supposed to be guaranteed by The Constitution. There is no guarantee that it will be there for us without vigilance and active support. 

BTW- That's a call to action.

Misleading Ads on Facebook

It's okay, right?

Facebook allows misleading political advertising to be posted. 

Doesn't this make you in the least bit uneasy? 

"The language in Facebook's stated Advertising Policy has recently changed. While the guideline used to say that ads "must not contain deceptive, false, or misleading content," the rule now prohibits ads "that include claims debunked by third-party fact checkers" or, in some circumstances, by third-party organizations "with particular expertise" in the matter."


Facebook seems to be saying they will not allow false advertising if it was previously debunked. Does this mean new false and misleading material can be posted until it can be proved by fact checkers to be false? It seems so.


Take a look at these two stories. The first is from ars technica. Standards for paid advertising are different on Facebook. The second is from Politico. Elizabeth Warren's campaign deliberately posted false advertising to prove a point. “We intentionally made a Facebook ad with false claims and submitted it to Facebook’s ad platform to see if it’d be approved. It got approved quickly and the ad is now running on Facebook,” she wrote. “They’ve decided to let political figures lie to you—even about Facebook itself—while their executives and their investors get even richer off the ads containing these lies.”

By the time Facebook gets around to pulling a post, they've already left the barn door open. 

Political ads can lie if they want

Warren escalates war with Zuckerberg

hashtag

#socialmediaadvertising

Journalism's Risks

Controlling the Message

It Surely Won't Stand the Light of Day (CSN)

The tendency of this administration is to want to shoot the messenger. Trump continually threatens violence against journalists, calling them enemies of the state for doing their jobs. There is an imbedded defiance in what we do.

"You cannot kill the truth. You cannot kill justice. You cannot kill what we are fighting for."
- Jean Dominique

Does this seem defiant? I hope so. It is defiance in the face of the darkness that guides those who abuse their power.
Jean Léopold Dominique was a Haitian journalist and pro-democracy activist. His station, Radio Haiti-Inter, was the first to broadcast news, investigative reporting, and political analysis in Haitian Creole, the language spoken by all Haitian people.

He was assassinated. In 2014, A judge concluded the investigation into one of Haiti’s most notorious political assassinations on Friday, accusing nine people - including several close associates of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide - of having a hand in the killing of radio journalist Jean Dominique.

Jean Dominique was silenced for his reporting and his pro-democracy stance. According to the New Republic 34 journalists were killed in retaliation for their work in 2018, nearly doubling last year's number. (2017)

If we scratch beneath the surface of social media, we'll find that The Truth Is Getting Fierce (Murray Head). Reporting on the truth will have its risks. Are the people in our newsrooms up to the task? What about management? What about the board. It is not a question that should be dismissed lightly.

Paradigm Shift

The night before some really heavy thunderstorms rolled through. It delayed my flight to Baltimore four hours. I was annoyed. All that was forgotten the next morning. The skies were clear, bright blue, as the sun rose. I checked into the meeting for program directors and ten minutes later, everything changed. In an ironic twist we were discussing paradigm shifts when the first plane hit. Everytime I see a late summer sky like that one eighteen years ago, I'm reminded of that day and how fragile this all is.

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. 

Moving Forward

Today's #positivepost 

Looking back is not progress. Looking back does not bring us a just world. Looking back dooms us to continued failure.

Go forth and set the world on fire.
- Jesuit saying

Self Serving Coverage

Is This News?

When the network that will cover the Summer Olympics presents stories about US athletes, I think that qualifies as promotion...not news.

I think a firewall has been breached. NBC isn't the only organization that does this. Local TV stations do this all the time to promote primetime programming. I know public radio stations that are under pressure to do this.

So...am I just being naive? Couldn't this content be promoted outside the news?