The truth and alternative facts: there is a difference.

One of the first moves in every authoritarian dictator's playbook is to intimidate, suppress, and ultimately destroy the free press.

And that's precisely what the Republicans are doing right now.

Legitimate journalists have been banished from the White House press corps. NPR and PBS have been defunded, with local stations nationwide on the edge of heavy cuts or closure. Trump's FCC has launched a wave of phony investigations into news outlets Trump doesn't like.

In the face of these attacks, too many corporate news outlets have submitted to MAGA control by paying fines, failing to endorse opposition political candidates, and editing stores in line with the MAGA propaganda.

The corporate press's main motive is profit not public service. Most journalists are no longer professionals bound to a code of ethics, but corporate actors who obey the preferences of their handlers or they are fired.

There is an important difference between propaganda and news. Can you tell the difference? As a nation, these skills of critical thinking are rapidly atrophying. What will nurture our democracy, and a high quality society is a return to the truth and a dismissal of what the MAGA folks call "alternative facts."

In these times, it is very important to support the independent media. Who are your favorites?

Everyone Loves Secrets, But Today They Are Killing Us by Charles Bouchard

 Article notes - Everyone Loves Secrets, But Today They are Killing Us by Charles Bouchard

https://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/archives/issues/winter-2022/reflection-i-ve-got-a-secret-everyone-loves-secrets-but-today-they-are-killing-us 

Everyone likes to be an insider, to get the scoop and to carry a big secret. It is human nature. Sometimes it is just a question of harmless gossip or falling for a marketer's pitch — a vague but intriguing promise of fame or fortune. When many people begin to search for and believe false information, it leads to a conspiracy theory. In a public health crisis, being drawn to that sensational nugget of information can have deadly consequences.

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Lee McIntyre, the author of Post-Truth, says the book's title means that we live in an era where truth is at risk, where we're in danger of losing sight of what truth means. He defines post-truth as the "political subordination of reality" and "a tactic that's used by authoritarians and their wannabes to control the flow of information so that they can then control the populace."

Suspicion of truth has particularly dangerous consequences for science and medicine. The scientific method is our most rigorous tool for establishing truth. Yet many people reject scientific evidence of the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines. They believe the virus is an effort by Russia to plant microchips in us, that it is transmitted by 5G cell phone towers or that COVID can be cured by chloroquine or an anti-parasitic drug intended for large animals. Others believe the vaccines were rushed, that they will alter our DNA or even cause autism. Just yesterday I heard one vaccine resister say he did not want to take it because it contained formaldehyde and antifreeze.

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I am happy to say that Catholics are being vaccinated at a rate higher than the national average.2 Given our commitment to the common good and solidarity, that is as it should be. But vaccinations are not enough. We also need to resist the culture of secrecy and the rejection of truth that nourishes skepticism in the first place. This is where the virtue of temperance comes in.

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Uncritical appropriation of conspiracy theories is a vice. The internet has a million hiding places for secret knowledge. It is easy to wander in, find a theory that consoles us with easy answers and to then share it, which can lead others to make bad choices that endanger lives.

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Pope Benedict once said that we "cannot rest content with a superficial and unquestioning exchange of skeptical opinions and experiences of life. All of us are in search of truth, and we share this profound yearning more today than ever." 

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Let us be critical thinkers whose goal is truth, even when it is not as interesting or as easy to access as gossip.

For the whole article click here.

Let's care before we share. Media literacy is #1 for democracy

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Do you share fake news?

 

Media literacy requires that people not blindly rely on the internet for their news.

Is the first admendment protected on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Yes, social media platforms are not publishers. They are not responsible for content, the poster is.

Does free speech protect libel and slander? Yes, when the person libeled and sladered is a public figure.

So, is President Trump and others able to tell lies and libel and slander people as they choose, yes.

That's why the internet has been called by legal media experts such as Ken White, "a sewer."

The internet should not be blindly depended on for any kind of facts and their interpretation.

Check your facts and delve into context for appropriate and legitimate interpretation.

To listen to the brief podcast on "Legal Talk Today" entitled "Trump vs. Twitter (again)" click here.

Lie machiines are toxic to democracy and well being

From One Zero, downloaded on 05/16/20
 https://onezero.medium.com/lie-machines-how-governments-are-using-tech-to-spread-misinformation-about-covid-19-179904c231f8

Lie machines are on the rise — they’ve been built to undermine our faith in society’s key institutions and to encourage citizens to question authority. Lie machines have helped swing elections and sow discontent. And now they’ve been tuned to abet authoritarianism during the coronavirus crisis.

“It’s about doubting institutions that have performed pretty well for a long time, like national health care systems and professional news outlets,” says Philip N. Howard, the director of the Oxford Internet Institute. Howard is the author of the new book, Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives, which has taken on an urgent new relevance as states and political actors try to influence the perception of their response to the pandemic.

Howard defines the lie machine as “the social and technical mechanisms of putting an untrue claim into service of ideology,” composed of three parts: producers of lies, such as political candidates; distributors, such as social media platforms like Instagram; and marketers, such as political consultants. In the age of Covid-19, the lie machine is working to undermine trust in institutions like the World Health Organization, pushing a narrative that scientists and experts should not be trusted. And this, Howard argues, has worrying implications for global health.

Satire is better at cutting through bullshit than news broadcasts.

Misleading use of statistics

Protecting the truth in the age of misinformation

This is part #1 in a series on Media Literacy In The Age Of Misinformation and Propaganda

How media literate are you when you rely on corporate media solely for your information?

How media literate are you? Do you rely solely on corporate media for your information? How can you make good political decisions about your own, your family, your community, your state, your country's welfare when the information you receive is being filtered by the 1%?

From Bernie Sanders' book, Where We Go From Here.

The truth is that it is very difficult for people to understand what’s going on in our country economically or politically, or to imagine an alternative vision, if the corporate media is their major source of information. Let’s be very clear. Corporate media is not ‘objective’; they are not the ‘referees’ trying to provide ‘all sides of the story.’ Corporate media are profit-making entities owned and controlled by the ruling class and some of the wealthiest people in the country. And, like all private corporations, they have an agenda.

Be aware of the funding of your news source

From America magazine, 09/02/19 issue in an article entitled "Why Americans need nonprofit sources for news."

The First Amendment guarantees the right to a free press because the founders recognized the vital role the Fourth Estate should play in the republic. A free press helps hold government accountable to the people. But the commercial press, pressured by different motivations, has been negligent in fulfilling its civic function. There is a need, even if the demand is not yet loud, for a press that is less susceptible to market influences and keeps the government in check.

Nonprofit sources of news may be one answer. Government-funded media outlets like National Public Radio demonstrate—most of the time—how a news organization can function when it does not rely solely on marketplace conditions. But Americans also need options that are not susceptible to de-funding threats from Congress. Nonprofit media, like ProPublica, can zero in on matters of public concern instead of aggravating existing partisan rifts.

While cable news outlets have benefited from a divided America, independent news groups could be in a better position to communicate difficult truths on which audiences can agree. Nonprofit trusts—independent of both the government and the marketplace—may provide a much-needed avenue to civil conversation. Profit-driven media conglomerates will not always give us trustworthy news. It is time to find another way.

Editor's comment:

Trumpism is rampant in the United States currently and there is not much about it that is beneficial to our society except their complaint about "fake news" and "alternative facts."

Of course, "alternative facts" is an oxymoron because there is no such thing. There certainly can abe "alternative opinions" or "alternative interpretations" but a "fact" by definition corresponds to empiral, fundamental reality. People are entitled to their own opinions but not to their own facts.

Even with empirial facts reality can be distorted by chosing which facts to lift up for viewing and which are marginalized are silenced into the shadows for hiding. 

Commerical media has a profit incentive and so it presents the "facts" and interpretations which will emotionally arouse and hook viewers and readers. In other words the "news" is often sensationalized to grab attention for advertisers to the channel or conduit of the media communication being attended to. Nonprofit news has no profit incentive and is not so dependent on the quanity of consumers and thus can concentrate on the quality of the consumers.

The truth is sometimes painful and upsetting and thus preferably avoided. The truth is hard some times, and yet would you rather know it and be told it? The truth can sometimes be boring even if illuminating and enlightening. Would you still want to attend to it?

Support nonprofit news sources. My favorites are Propublica, Mother Jones, and Democracy Now. There are others. Distrust the profit making news sources like Fox, MSNBC, CNN, etc. 

In the age of Trumpism the ratings for the profit making news sources are up because Trumpism is more entertaining and emotionally arousing than the truth. It reminds me of fake wrestling which has a huge fan base and makes millions of dollars per year. The U.S. President, Donald J. Trump has been a participant in and a purveyor of fake wrestling long before he was elected President. Did the voters want a chief executive of their country or an entertainer? Apparently they wanted the entertainment because the competence and performance of the chief executive is very poor and in some ways destructive to the well being of the American public.

One of the most fundamental skills in media literacy is deliberately choosing one's news source and vetting it. It is a good idea to use and financially support nonprofit news sources for your information gathering so you can make more informed and less biased judgements about what is best for yourself, your family, the country and the world.

Can AI help recognize click bait?

From Penn State News on 08/29/19

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Humans and machines worked together to help train an artificial intelligence — AI — model that outperformed other clickbait detectors, according to researchers at Penn State and Arizona State University. In addition, the new AI-based solution was also able to tell the difference between clickbait headlines that were generated by machines — or bots — and ones written by people, they said.

For whole article click here.

One of the big topics in media literacy is what is called "click bait" which seduces readers into clicking on links for fake news stories.

In the time of digital media where every person with an internet account can become an author, publisher, and distributor editorial vetting is a quaint practice from the past.

As we have learned from disinformation introduced into our 2016 presidential campaign, robots can be programed to flood digital media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram with increasingly false and misleading information and narratives.

How is even a critical, media literate person able to discern the authentic news story from a fake one? It is interesting how computer algorythms are beling trained to help with the task.

What is the best way for the fourth estate to inform citizens in our American democracy?

Larry Ferlazzo asks this question on 08/21/19 as his "Question of the week." I think it applies to everyone, not just students. All citizens in a democracy should consider this question. I am going to tag posts related to this question as "Media literacy."

Perhaps we can reframe the question as "What are the best ways, the media, the fourth estate, can inform the citizens of our American democracy and the people around the world?"