Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Our own fake news

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  • andin,

    Pilger-to-Hitler

    Im trying to connect the dots as to how anyone can make that leap. They are polar opposite as far as I'm concerned. So it defeats me.

    raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    Bread and Serkises...

    Trump the cunning linguist!

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • andin, in reply to David Hood,

    From the study

    rationality has a bigger impact on shaping (sometimes irrational) beliefs than previously expected, given that in the current communication environment, people are overloaded with emotional messages coming from ads, political and social campaigns.

    It was a small cross section of people in Hungary apparently, dont know if that makes a difference.
    But people can reason their own way to irrationality it seems. I guess we knew that anyway. But its harder to go the other way. You need others pointing out your BS as well. If they can be bothered I guess!

    raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell, in reply to andin,

    Im trying to connect the dots as to how anyone can make that leap. They are polar opposite as far as I’m concerned. So it defeats me.

    Israel.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • andin, in reply to Rob Stowell,

    Really! I have found his criticism of Israeli policies at times strident and wrong headed but never thought he was an anti Semite.

    raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to Russell Brown,

    The other page, the account of the Pilger-to-Hitler person, was genuinely unnerving. Last time it was someone not bothered when I pointed out they were sharing hideous neo-Nazi cartoons – this time, full Hitlter. And they were both women who seemed to consider themselves sort of greenie-lefty. Buying the Assad-Putin narrative can lead to to really bad places.

    Are they NZ or overseas-based? If US-based, they sound like Bernie-or-bust types who voted Trump out of spite. Some of them, like Cassandra Fairbanks, showed their true Pepe/Kek colours after Trump got in.

    I unfollowed a couple of fellas on Twitter when they turned out to be "alt-Left" NWO types who are thinking out loud of NZ First on election day.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Thanks for this, Russell. I will use it in my first year Media Cultures course* as their first blog task is to identify an item of fake news and track it back to its origin (as you have done).
    Every man and woman and dog engaged in teaching is doing something about fake news at the moment but it is important work.

    * the last time ever I will teach this course.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    Really! I have found his criticism of Israeli policies at times strident and wrong headed but never thought he was an anti Semite.

    I suspect much of the current mess came from the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin before he could see the Oslo Accords through. Bibi Netanyahu basically cashed in on it to cement his hold on power to this day.

    * http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/shot-in-the-heart

    And a paradox has emerged amongst parties and figures on both sides of the Atlantic with long histories of anti-Semitism:

    * https://newrepublic.com/minutes/140079/donald-trump-strange-pro-israel-anti-semitic-dance
    * http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.777484

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __,

    It worries me that some of my highly-educated and otherwise intelligent friends won't take Snopes as the end of the discussion.
    Then it's "Oh yeah it's a badly written article. I'll have to find another one with citations cos this issue is important."
    Or
    "Well, it might not be right about everything but still some very valid points here".
    Or
    "Yeah it's fake, but still pretty interesting, right?"

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Neil,

    Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia.

    It's the sort of thing that got overshadowed by all the fake Hillary Clinton scandals and there's a remarkable number of US pundits still intent on down playing the Russian angle, instead spending money and energy attacking the Dems for trying to bring out into the open.

    Since Nov 2016 • 382 posts Report Reply

  • WH,

    From the NYT: The Aria of Babyface Cauliflower Brown

    Since Nov 2006 • 797 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Neil,

    Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia.

    Josh Marshall has been pointing this out for a while now. It might be that what does in Trump himself will be the unwanted light shed on his business finances by any investigation.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Josh Marshall has been pointing this out for a while now. It might be that what does in Trump himself will be the unwanted light shed on his business finances by any investigation.

    As in the kind of investigation that got Al Capone nabbed for tax evasion?

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Here we go again ...

    18 July 2017
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    The Taxpayers' Union can reveal that another $2.4 million has been paid by the NZ Aid programme to the controversial 'Clinton Health Initiative', a subsidiary of the Clinton Foundation, which President Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea Clinton sits on the board of.

    The payment of $2,352,869 NZD was paid in May and revealed in a response to a Taxpayers' Union Official Information Act request to Foreign Affairs Minister Gerry Brownlee. Mr Brownlee's response has been uploaded to www.taxpayers.org.nz/2017_clinton_payment

    Jordan Williams, Executive Director of the Taxpayers' Union, says "Back in January, the Australian Government cut all ties with the very fund our Government is still pumping millions of taxpayers' money into. Mr Brownlee can say all he likes about the money apparently doing work in Africa, but no one really believes that a charity run by Chelsea Clinton is the best way to deliver that."

    "Of real concern is Gerry Brownlee's claim that the Clinton Health Initiative is independent and not a subsidiary of the Clinton Foundation. That is simply not true. We've gone back to the Minister pointing out the Initiative's public filings showing that the Clinton Foundation has full control, including appointing the board - which includes President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton. Under international accounting standards, the power to appoint the board is determinative of that organisation being a 'subsidiary'."

    "The Minister is either misleading the public in claiming the fund is not a subsidiary of the Clinton Foundation, or his advisors are incompetent. If it is the latter, it seems $9.1 million of our money has been handed out on a false premise. From a taxpayer perspective, it's not clear which of those is worse."

    "In addition to the constitutional objections to NZ Aid giving money to a foreign politician's foundation, if the Clinton Foundation was so effective at delivering aid outcomes, why have our Aussie neighbours pulled out?"

    "If this was a charity run by President Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump, then we have no doubt we would not be funding it. So why are we funding the Clintons?"

    It's not even news. It's an ongoing project and a similar amount will be paid, subject to targets being reached, next year.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • nzlemming, in reply to Russell Brown,

    if the Clinton Foundation was so effective at delivering aid outcomes, why have our Aussie neighbours pulled out?"

    Because they're dicks? #justathought

    Waikanae • Since Nov 2006 • 2937 posts Report Reply

  • Neil, in reply to Russell Brown,

    “If this was a charity run by President Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump, then we have no doubt we would not be funding it. So why are we funding the Clintons?”

    Our local alt-worlders are a bit behind in their false equivalence. No mention of how criticism of the Trump-Putin nexus is is just the same as the Birther campaign against Obama.

    Since Nov 2016 • 382 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell, in reply to andin,

    Sorry - yeah, but it's a key connection I think. Not that Pilger is an anti-semite (I'm sure he's not) just that his strident anti-zionism attracts some bad company, and leads some people into much darker water.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    * the last time ever I will teach this course.

    End of an era! Sad but maybe liberating too?

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell,

    I've been arguing with some 9/11 truthers on facebook (one of whom is an old mate, haven't seen for years, but good to catch up.). It's interesting, perplexing, and a bit demoralising. They also will criticise snopes, and more-or-less reject both argument and evidence. There's a community around this; rejecting the msm and government or 'mainstream' explanations is a given. Challenging these beliefs puts one outside the community. Nevermind the article posted that started this was pretty obviously fake. Dipping into these websites, you suddenly realise there are multitudes. And they are mostly selling, amid a range of batshit items and some fairly real news, a (vaguely - it's usually a bit muted) a pro russia/putin, anti israel, pro assad, and pro trump slant on everything. There's a bit of pilger here, a dose of asange there. It's not ideological. it seems designed just as much to confuse and undermine; to cast doubt and aspersions, as to push a line. But after a while you start to feel the bullshit climbing up past your ankles, your waist, towards your neck and you think - gotta get outa here!

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell, in reply to Russell Brown,

    The most ridiculous thing about the taxwhinger's union is how successful they are at getting their propaganda and spin taken up by the msm. They're not in opposition to our media; they're using it, parasitic, as a host for their nasty ideology. And way too often our media mates swallow the parasite whole, and excrete the poison.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Neil, in reply to Rob Stowell,

    There’s a bit of pilger here, a dose of asange there. It’s not ideological. it seems designed just as much to confuse and undermine; to cast doubt and aspersions, as to push a line.

    It's quite disturbing. It plays into the hands of Trump, Assad and Putin. Some of it like The Intercept is well financed.

    Since Nov 2016 • 382 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to simon g,

    Why? Because they can. Not because they care. And that is on them. If they don't know the difference between censorship and basic professional standards, they really are a big part of the problem.

    A good summary of the problem across media outlets: abandonment of editorial and journalistic standards where privileged broadcasting arrangements/licenses were only granted on the basis that those safeguards apply. Time to renegotiate the social contract?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Rob Stowell,

    the taxwhinger's union

    excellent.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • simon g,

    That SpinOff link features Porky Pig, campaigning for the Taxpayers' Union.

    Does the Jordan Williams outfit have permission to use a character whose copyright is owned by Warner Bros?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1333 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock, in reply to Neil,

    it seems designed just as much to confuse and undermine; to cast doubt and aspersions, as to push a line.

    It's quite disturbing. It plays into the hands of Trump, Assad and Putin. Some of it like The Intercept is well financed.

    There is a theory I've seen floated once or twice that this more the desired end itself, as much as it is the means. Essentially, the use of maskirovka as static and smokescreen to do exactly this: confuse and undermine; to cast doubt and aspersions.

    The desired and ongoing result is to weaken western-style democracies by gaslighting the populations on a massive scale.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

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