The role of media in establishing public consensus
Link to an essay on the role that “technical authority”, media propaganda, and how “consensus of experts” are used to influence the public and to exert control over us. This essay is an eye opener.
Fake news headline of the day: “Infections are raging in India. Could U.S. be next?”
“Could U.S. be next?” is a click-bait question in a headline. The answer is “no”.
ITV caught using photshopped image to make a point; but backfires when caught at it
The UK’s ITV used an alleged “before” and “after” photo to show that lock downs cleared the atmosphere and thus, proving that these actions were good for humanity. Or something. But its a really bad photo shop.
“Negative spin: “U.S. vaccination pace slows as average daily cases drop below 60,000”
Cases are dropping, but let’s focus on a drop in vaccinations in the headline – even though that is probably explained by the “pause” in the use of the J&J vaccine.
Media focuses on scary rises in Covid cases but ignores declines
Covid-19 cases have fallen dramatically in several states. The media, which gleefully reported the rising case counts, doing its best to create fear and hysteria, vanishes when cases start dropping. They move on to the next state to having rising case numbers. A consequence is readers only see constant bad, scary news – and never see the good news. This causes everyone to live in a constant state of anxiety.
Who shares fake news on Facebook?
A relatively small number of people account for sharing of most fake news stories on social media. Much of it originates from people or groups with an agenda – and is propaganda intended to sow societal dysfunction.
Why Is All COVID-19 News Bad News? | NBER
Study confirms that U.S. news media turns all news, even positive news, into negative spin stories. In this case, a study looked a news reporting of Covid-19 and found that about 90% of U.S. news reports are negative in tone to the point that there were 5.5 times more stories about rising Covid cases – during periods when cases were actually in decline!
“Global heating?”
The Guardian is a daily fictional story service that pretends to report the news. They’ve tossed the IPCC official terminology of “climate change” and replaced it with their own creation of inflammatory rhetoric “climate crisis” and “global heating”.
NBC Accused of Hyping Covid-19 news
NBC hyped a news story about 4 Oregon residents, who had been vaccinated, subsequently testing positive for Covid-19. The story was twisted through errors of omission – such as context.
Negative spin: “… Here’s What Could Go Wrong
Seems the purpose of journalism is to find the negativity in every possible story. “NASA is Dropping a New Rover on Mars. Here’s What Could Go Wrong.”