Thursday, November 17, 2016

How Big Is Fake News?



New York Times: Obama, With Angela Merkel in Berlin, Assails Spread of Fake News

BERLIN — In his strongest public comments since the election, President Obama on Thursday sharply criticized the spread of fake news online and said that President-elect Donald J. Trump would not remain in office for long if he failed to take the job seriously.

Mr. Obama made his remarks at a news conference in Berlin beside the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, one of his closest allies on the Continent, calling the pair “veterans” of the international political stage. Ms. Merkel was unusually sentimental. “It is hard to say goodbye,” she said.

But instead of basking in the glow of his valedictory tour of Europe, Mr. Obama used the moment to make a passionate and pointed attack on bogus news stories disseminated on Facebook and other social media platforms, twice calling such false reports a threat to democracy in his hourlong news conference.

Mr. Obama also warned Mr. Trump of the need to take the job of the presidency seriously and to be tough on Russia.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I had to deal with fake news first in the former Soviet Union .... and now with much of the Western press .... as illustrated by the Brexit vote and by the recent U.S. Presidential election. The Clinton - Trump election was without question .... in terms of misinformation .... the worst that I have seen from the main stream press .... ever. They were basically wrong on everything .... and they fed a false narrative that I am willing to bet good money on that the Clinton campaign probably believed in .... until the end. And while President Obama likes to focus his ire on social media .... where he should focus his ire on is the major networks and news organisations. As to my read on these fake news sites .... because I use multiple news sources from around the world I have never fallen for one of these garbage sites .... at least not yet.

More News On President Obama's Criticism Of Fake News Sites

Obama: We must guard against fake news -- Politico
Fake news threatens democracy, Obama says -- USA Today
Facebook's Fake 'Fake News' Problem -- FOX News
Obama criticizes the spread of fake news on Facebook -- Verge
Obama Chimes in on Fake News Phenomenon, Warns It Could Weaken Democracy -- Variety
Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’ -- Washington Post

3 comments:

James said...

"President Obama likes to focus his ire on social media .... where he should focus his ire on is the major networks and news organisations."
He should know, after all they do work for him.

C-Low said...

No the mainstream media and the professional pollsters were not wrong their data was not wrong. They LIED straight up LIED because they were attempting to make opinion rather than measure opinion. They were using the echo chamber to push the narrative that only uneducated whites supported Trump, Trump supporters were about hate, and that Hillary was going to winning by double digits. The goals of that was to make Trump supporters stay quite not talk up the candidate spreading his base with the first two and the third was to discourage his voters.

Proof of this can be seen by Clinton herself. If she believed the narrative and her internal polls showed her winning double digits she would not have been rallying in her rear areas like a defensive loser she would have been forward leaning into GA, KY, etc... She knew full well she was losing.

Unknown said...

Obama is chastising his minions for failing.