Fake News has me Literally Shaking!
The Script has been handed out. "Fake News" and "Russia" “Alt-Right” “Snowflakes” all these terms seem to be the keywords the media and ideologues are throwing out now when they are not agreed with or to discredit an opinion. Want to spot "Fake People" ? Look for the key words. You'll be "Literally Shaking"!
"If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly. "
Thomas Sowell
On the topic of "Fake news" however, It is a very slippery slope to play with the notion that so called fake news should be eliminated from circulation. Trust that it is a ruse and a reason to censor the media.
“Censorship is the suppression of free speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions.”
What? Don’t think Censorship is possible in the U.S.? Why not? We are too smart of people to fall for Censorship? What do you think Political Correctness is? Political Correctness is a form of government censorship because it criminalizes the use of certain words and terms used to offend or oppress. Do I think the use of these words are okay? Not in the least, however, it is a form of censorship.
"When was the last time you were super offended? I might be like, 'That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!' Or, 'It's not my thing,' or, 'It was a stupid joke.' But there's such a sensitivity now. Political correctness has become really insidious. "
Justin Theroux
The reason why it’s allowed , however, is that it is agreed upon by the majority. Consensus rule can be useful at times but it can also be costly. Don’t forget that consensus rule isn’t always correct. Prior to the seventeenth century, the consensus amongst the people was that the Earth was flat, much to the annoyance of scientists like Copernicus, Pythagoras and Galileo.
This brings me back my original point. The easiest way to censor the media in a country is for the government to make the people believe that it’s for their own good. Truth in point “For your own Good” methods have been used in many occasions to pass legislation that limits individual freedoms while granting the government more power. See my previous essay “For your own good” . In the case of the United States and in recent events, the government is causing the citizens to lose confidence in what they are receiving as news. I’m not claiming that the media in this country is not to blame. It is blatantly clear that the news in this country is manipulative and bias. It has not been a secret in this country for many years. Network stations like CNN and Fox News has been at the top of the lists as blatantly biased news stations. It is very common for political zealots to mock their logos ,Labeling them such things as Clinton News Network and Faux News.
We have this past election night as further proof that Network News outlets are indeed bias, by the public reaction from their hosts at the naming of Donald Trump as our new President. Their yelling and crying and temper tantrums show clear bias, and if their discontent at an opposing ideology or opinion is strong enough to show these emotions from a public position that is supposed to be unbiased , and is not only accepted by but provoked by the people who write their checks, then what is to stop them and their ideology from manipulating the news they report and we hear? Yes, I acknowledge the fact that these anchors are people and have a right to their opinions, but unless they are political pundits specifically there to give an opinion based on their ideology, these types of personal reactions and beliefs should be reserved for their personal time, not when reporting news. If in fact they are being allowed to make these ideology leaning remarks and expressions , then they and their networks should not try to mask themselves as being unbiased or be offended when they are being labeled as bias.
I know what you’re thinking right about now. I’m full of shit, right? Well, think of this. I have often joked around for a long time with the concept that scripts are handed out to the Left and Right winged supporters. These so called scripts are used by the loyals in arguments and debates as so-called facts or statistics and are distributed by newscasters and/or read in news reports. Most often these facts or statistics are tampered with, skewed, false or pseudo factual(purposely omitting certain details that may cause question) Often times however, they are fed keywords. These words are repeated over and over again by political pundits, government officials, teachers, TV or Movie Characters, Cartoons…. You get the picture. These words also have the power to discredit and manipulate but in my opinion, they are entirely an insult to educated minds because their use is blatantly obvious. This is slap in the face to the citizens of this country. It is basically the “hand behind the curtain” telling us we are stupid.
Case in point, how many times in recent months have you heard the term or terms repeated in media or in debate? “Literally Shaking”, “Fake News”, “Russian Hackers”,“alt-right” ,“snowflake” and so on? It’s not a form of brainwashing exclusive for the media or government either. This form of mental manipulation is found everywhere in the world. It’s used very often in advertising. It’s called Priming and is used to associate a word or character to a person or product.
“Priming is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to one stimulus (i.e., perceptual pattern) influences the response to another stimulus. The seminal experiments of Meyer and Schvaneveldt in the early 1970s[1][2][3] led to the flowering of research on priming of many sorts. Their original work showed that people were faster in deciding that a string of letters is a word when the word followed an associatively or semantically related word. For example, NURSE is recognized more quickly following DOCTOR than following BREAD. Various experiments[2][3] supported the theory that activation spreading among related ideas was the best explanation for the facilitation observed in the lexical decision task. The priming paradigm provides excellent control over the effects of individual stimuli on cognitive processing and associated behavior because the same target stimuli can be presented with different primes. Thus differences in performance as a function of differences in priming stimuli must be attributed to the effect of the prime on the processing of the target stimulus.
Priming can occur following perceptual, semantic, or conceptual stimulus repetition. For example, if a person reads a list of words including the word table, and is later asked to complete a word starting with tab, the probability that he or she will answer table is greater than if they are not primed. Another example is if people see an incomplete sketch they are unable to identify and they are shown more of the sketch until they recognize the picture, later they will identify the sketch at an earlier stage than was possible for them the first time.[4]
The effects of priming can be very salient and long lasting, even more so than simple recognition memory.[5] Unconscious priming effects can affect word choice on a word-stem completion test long after the words have been consciously forgotten.[5]
Priming works best when the two stimuli are in the same modality. For example, visual priming works best with visual cues and verbal priming works best with verbal cues. But priming also occurs between modalities,[6] or between semantically related words such as "doctor" and "nurse"
Need more proof of this mind trick being used?
And here we are, days into a new administration and we finally have a president who will go to task with these News Networks and their bias reports, publically calling them out for their manipulations of the facts. I think this is wonderful. Just like other organizations that have been designed to benefit the public, there should be oversight committees to keep them honest and they should be scrutinized and even punished when they are not.
At this point it is beginning to sound as if I may be all for Censorship. I’m sure it is no secret that I am completely against the manipulation of news and the spread of ignorance and I most certainly am, however, I most certainly am not for Censorship and/or the witchhunt against so-called “fake news”.
“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”
James Madison
As i said earlier, It is a very slippery slope to go down because of the human factor. Theoretically , just as we trust our newscasters to be unbiased and just as they have proven not to be, we are now supposed to trust that the people who will be chosen by the government to seek out and censor these fake news source will remain unbiased. right? There will more than likely be a bipartisan panel who will look out for your best interest. right? They can be trusted to be honest and unbiased. Right? Maybe but maybe not.
“The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
James Madison
I am not denying that there has been a rash in the sharing of fake news. It is clear that this fake news is targeted , not at one political party or the other, but it is targeted at the ignorant and naive people of this country. The fact is that it is American people's fault that this issue has gotten so bad. Fake news has been in existence for generations, however, more people were able to differentiate the real from fake back in those days. They were quickly able to label these sources as satirical. In these days of Facebook and Twitter however , It is much easier to share these same fake stories believing they are real because in this “get up and go” society we now live in, no one has the inclination to research. They quickly accept their first choice in media source and move right on to the next one. .
The one thing that we don’t want this spreading of Fake News to do is encourage the government to attempt to censor these news sources. The term “fake news” and the obvious discontent for the major news networks by our new President can be very troublesome. If it becomes an intent to try to regulate these sources, satire as they may be, It will open up a door for it to also ban possible credible sources that may not agree with the views or perception of the administration in power. We have already seen steps taken by social media like Facebook that is giving the power to flag and weed out what viewers determine to be fake news. These viewers are the same people that can not recognize fake news as it is, so rest assured that these flagged news reports will more than likely be based on statements that challenge their beliefs. This includes the people reviewing the flagged stories. Sure, it’ll start as just the ones that are blatantly false…..and then, one they don’t agree with, here and there. Like it always ends up as.
“WILLIAM LA JEUNESSE:
Well Bill, Facebook says it doesn't want to be the gatekeeper or censor, but with 50 percent of Americans getting their news from that news feed, the company says this is the responsible thing to do. It's going to work in three ways. One, users can flag a story they think is fake, and as more complain, the story is flagged and sent to third party fact-checkers, like PolitiFact, FactCheck[.org], Snopes, to investigate, and if doubtful, that story is labeled "disputed." Finally, Facebook itself is changing the way it works to marginalize clickbait, those sensational headlines that grab readers, and stop the automated ads that rewarded fake news. Will it work? Well time will tell. Right now, Bill, this is in the experimental phase. “
The point is that It should not be a power given to any government, lest we are prepared for it to reach the levels of N. Korea and China.
“The Chinese government has long kept tight reins on both traditional and new media to avoid potential subversion of its authority. Its tactics often entail strict media controls using monitoring systems and firewalls, shuttering publications or websites, and jailing dissident journalists, bloggers, and activists. Google's battle with the Chinese government over Internet censorship, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee's awarding of the 2010 Peace Prize to jailed Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo, have also increased international attention to censorship issues. At the same time, the country's burgeoning economy relies on the web for growth, and experts say the growing need for Internet freedom is testing the regime's control.”
Though, in those cases, because of their totalitarianism, their media has always been censored, in a Democracy, the censorship would have to start small and work its way up.
In closing, be smart. Read and educate yourself so that you will be able to spot real from fake and don’t allow the government to intervene because of our ignorance. It is not the Government's responsibility to think for the people and Honestly, If the people are too lazy to fact check for themselves, then they deserve it when they are embarrassed when speaking to educated people and/or deserve the anxiety or fear they receive from a news report that has no credibility. Careful where you walk, citizens, the government is watching. and waiting.
Don't be afraid.... That ringing you hear in your ears is just a bit of ...
BRAYN NOISE