False Equivalency Exposed

"First, the media criticized Harris for not submitting to more interviews. Now that she’s submitted to interview after interview over the last several weeks, the media is criticizing her for not answering questions clearly enough.

“'She keeps answering the question she wants, not the one that was asked,' writes Michael Bender for The New York Times — as if Bender has found in Harris a notably new trait among politicians, as if candidates for office usually answer questions they are asked rather than questions they want to answer.

"She’s 'lawyerly, argumentative and fundamentally defensive,' Bender continues. Hello? What about Donald Trump?

“'She often deflects or sidesteps.' Ditto.

"She 'often responds to unpleasant questions without answering them, questions the very premise of questions she finds unfair and can take it upon herself to reword a query she considers unhelpful.'

"Oh, please. That’s what a smart candidate does."

Click on the link below for the rest of the story:

Double Standard?

A Deep and Wide Look At Foreign Affairs By A True Expert

"Fareed Zakaria is the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and a foreign affairs columnist at the Washington Post. He joins Preet to discuss the regional and global dynamics of the Israel-Hamas War, the appropriate role for the United States in the Middle East, the state of play in Ukraine, and the politics of the Southern border."

Click on the link below for an important podcast presenting a global down-to-a-local perspective on foreign affairs. Yes, it begins analyzing the Middle East problems but then expands into virtually all the main international issues affecting humanity:

Unraveling Foreign Affairs

Monopoly Affects Journalism Also

"Today we take a look at the impacts of media ownership on society including legacy newspapers and social media platforms owned by billionaires and the consolidation of our news and entertainment corporations through mega mergers."

This label should be required on ALL conservative media:

Click on the link below for another reason to change the politics in the USA:

Who rules America: the power of the media

Memo To USA: Ignore Science At Your Peril

"From America's inception, there has always been a rebellious, anti-establishment mentality. That way of thinking has become more reckless now that the entire world is interconnected and there are added layers of verification (or repudiation) of facts. "As the great minds in this video can attest, there are systems and mechanisms in place to discern between opinion and truth. By making conscious efforts to undermine and ignore those systems at every turn (climate change, conspiracy theories, coronavirus, politics, etc.), America has compromised its position of power and effectively stunted its own growth. "A part of the problem, according to writer and radio host Kurt Andersen, is a new media infrastructure that allows for false opinions to persist and spread to others. Is it the beginning of the end of the American empire?"

Click on the link below for an extremely important 25-minute video.

Will America's disregard for science be the end of its reign?

It's Not Just Facebook

"It occurred to me recently that the problem with Facebook’s omnipotent algorithm is very similar to a problem we see with scientific publishing. In scientific publishing, we also have a widely used technique for filtering information that is causing trouble. In this case, we filter which publications or authors we judge as promising.

"For this filtering, it has become common to look at the number of citations that a paper receives. And this does cause problems, because the number of citations may be entirely disconnected from the real-world impact of a research direction. The only thing the number of citations really demonstrates is popularity. Citations are a measure that’s as disconnected from scientific relevance as the number of likes is from the truth value of an article on Facebook.
"Of course, the two situations are different in some ways. For example on social media, there is little tradition of quoting sources. This has the effect that a lot of outlets copy news from each other and that it is extra hard to check the accuracy of a statement. Another difference is that social media has a much faster turnover-rate than scientific publications. This means on social media people don’t have a lot of time to think before they pass on information. But in both cases, we have a problem caused by the near-monopoly of a single algorithm."

The trouble with Facebook and what it has in common with scientific publishing

Journalism: The Barrier Between Freedom & Tyranny

"Newspapers and journalists of all kinds perhaps have never been under such duress. From changing business models. From a polarized body politic. From the president of the United States and other politicians of both parties who would rather operate in the dark.

"Those pressures are real. But they should not obscure the fact that every day, across the nation, thousands of reporters, editors and visual journalists are asking questions, breaking news, investigating public and private officials, explaining their country or community, and telling compelling stories."

In era of 'fake news,' these journalists have real impact

(themedianet)

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article209136654.html#storylink=cpy

There May Be A Better Way To Communicate Reality

Communicating fact, science and science-based thinking to the public is a frustrating effort.  This article presents some tips, especially to journalists.

(themedianet)

The History Of Reporting On Climate Change And Exposing Deniers

"Across centuries, the scientific literature documents climate research unceasingly. But from week to week, ephemeral journalism reports it unevenly. Climate-change deniers can exploit the unevenness, falsely portraying the science as unseriously contrived, not painstakingly established. That’s a reason for attention to Andrew Revkin’s New York Times posting “News coverage of coal’s link to global warming, in 1912”—and to other reporting that embraces climate science’s development since the 19th century and recognizes how the subject has, or has not, been publicly discussed."

Climate science’s long history matters—and so does the history of news reporting about it

Fake News Websites

Following are links to fake news website lists:

Snopes

Wikipedia

About

Facebook

Fake News Watch

Granite Crok

Media Bias/ Fact Check


OR, just do a Google search for the website in question.

A Major Medical Journal Goes To The Dark Side

"Dr. David Spiegel, the medical director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine says, 'I don’t think we’re at the point where it’s an obvious science yet, but I think we’re heading in that direction.' I think that JAMA should read that line again. If they are publishing articles highlighting approaches that are not backed by science - then medicine is going down a very dangerous road. And, JAMA is leading the way."

AMA highlights alternative approaches with no scientific evidence

It IS The Religion, Stupid

"PuffHo is on a crusade to stamp out 'Islamophobia,' by which it apparently means not just bigotry against Muslims themselves, which is reprehensible, but criticism of the religion. To the latter end, it repeatedly asserts that Islam is not a divisive, xenophobic, or particularly hateful faith—and it’s not, so long as you’re a Muslim of the right sect. But if you’re a Sunni, the Shias should watch out, along with nonbelievers, ex-Muslims, gays, Christians, and women (the list is long)."

PuffHo tries to whitewash Islam again (yawn)

Sam Harris presents the truth.

Why Do Atheists Waste Their Time Thinking About Religion?

"If you atheists are so against religion, why do you waste your time thinking about it or even blogging about it?"

A "Top 5" List

The 9/11 Sermon All Need To Read

"Whatever else may be wrong with our world, it remains a fact that some of the most terrifying instances of human conflict and stupidity would be unthinkable without religion. And the other ideologies that inspire people to behave like monsters—Stalinism, fascism, etc.—are dangerous precisely because they so resemble religions. Sacrifice for the Dear Leader, however secular, is an act of cultic conformity and worship. Whenever human obsession is channeled in these ways, we can see the ancient framework upon which every religion was built. In our ignorance, fear, and craving for order, we created the gods. And ignorance, fear, and craving keep them with us."

Yes, we must destroy al Qaeda. But humanity has a larger project—to become sane.

WebMD: Be Cautious

While much of its information is accurate, there also are frequent false or misleading "scares", for example:

WebDUMB Swallows Stupid Food Scares

Facebook Is Censoring Science And Journalism

"FB removed the page of a pro-GMO advocate but allows the controversial Dr. Oz to promote miracle cures."

Facebook’s policy seems clear: If somebody is offended, it is best to censor first and ask questions later.

The Subtle Assumption Of Unsupported Dogma By The Media

"What newswriter (anchors don’t write their own copy) would say such a thing—and get away with it? The sooner that newspapers and television stop tacitly assuming that we live on after death, the better."

NBC News tacitly accepts Heaven

John Oliver On Charter Schools

A serious question:  why is a comedian the most prominent voice for exposing this?

So you think Charter Schools are the answer to the problems with public schools?

A related article:  evidence shows clearly that public funds diverted to private entities is not going to improve education overall.

What the U.S. can learn from Canada on education

Newspapers Are At The Bottom Of the Journalism Food Chain

"Either way, the market for serious, decently-paid journalists is dying, and when it’s gone, we’ll have clickbait and endless Kardashiana as our daily fare. The New York Times will be the last credible paper in America."

The death of journalism

The Fall Of A Once Great Magazine

"Well, we know that the Murdoch family and their Fox organization took over the magazine rag at the end of 2015. As the Guardian reported then, the magazine was bleeding money, and after the takeover a lot of people either quit or were fired.  And now, it seems, the magazine is turning into a tabloid, one with strong religious overtones."

What the hell happened to National Geographic?

Science Journalism Sucks

"In short, this is a horrible hack job of science reporting that mangles all the basic facts and focuses on a fictitious implication of the research that seems to have been invented by the reporter to generate click bait."

A Tale of Two Science News Reports