Friday, November 30, 2018
Headlines for Nov. 30, 2018
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines (WMMFH) for Nov. 30, 2018
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted 11 minutes.
CANDIDATES FOR “WORST”/”MOST DISGUSTING”:
*Video Fact Check: 8 Putin Claims Regarding the Kerch Strait Incident
First, what is "Polygraph"? "Polygraph.info is a fact-checking website produced by Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty." In other words, it's the propaganda arm of the U.S. government. But it shows up in the Google News “Fact Check” column, which is how I found it. So Google is allowing the U.S. government to “fact check” the news. It was bad enough when they enlisted the right-wing Weekly Standard as one of their handful of approved fact-checkers. But now the U.S. government?
Samples of their "fact-checking", which read like a State Dept. press conference:
PUTIN: “In regards to the incident in the Black Sea – that, without a doubt, was a provocation.”
TRUE: This may be true, but if so, it was a Russian provocation, not a Ukrainian one.
That is a judgment, not a "fact".
PUTIN: “…in 2014 when Crimea decided to join Russia...”
FALSE: The Crimea didn’t “decide to join Russia.” The Russian military took the peninsula in unmarked uniforms and the part of the region “voted” under Russian occupation.
Why is "voted" in quotes? There was a plebescite, with an 83% voter turnout, and 97% voting to join Russia. Anyone opposed needed only to not vote (17%) or cast an invalid vote (<1 span="">
PUTIN: “The hard events of a civil war in Ukraine in the south-east in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”
FALSE: There is no civil war in those regions, but rather a Russian invasion and occupation.
That's just ridiculous. Of course there's a civil war.
CANDIDATES FOR “MOST MISLEADING”:
*40 million people with diabetes will be left without insulin by 2030, study predicts
The article’s lead: there are more and more people with diabetes worldwide. But the problem, which emerges in the penultimate paragraph, is the usual — profit. Studies (not mentioned in this article) say that 1 in 4 patients in the US are forced to ration insulin because of its cost, and some die as a result.
Trump demands action to reduce deficit, pushes new deficit spending
After a brief reference to "the GOP tax cut" in the 10th paragraph, the article doesn't get back to really discussing tax cuts and the bogus claims accompanying them (e.g., "the tax cuts will pay for themselves by producing a massive jump in economic growth") until the 27th paragraph. Why do I often emphasize which paragraph something appears in? Not just because everyone doesn’t read the whole article. But because in the Mercury News, which runs many WaPo articles, only the first 8 paragraphs appear.
Numbers: deficit increase from previous year was $113B; loss of revenues from tax cut was $202B.
*Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy
An hour after this story was published, following WikiLeaks tweeting denials that such a meeting had taken place, the headline was changed to read "Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say" (differences are seen in this link: https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1706143/diff/0/1 )
And of course the headline is deliberately sensationalized in the first place; ALL talks with Assange in the embassy are by definition "secret", obviously they aren't broadcast publicly nor are reporters present.
Tech tip: if you manage a website, and you update the headline on a story, it *is* possible to change the thumbnail that shows up on FB or Twitter (see below for details). But The Guardian hasn’t bothered. That means if anyone posts this story, their friends or followers will see the *original* headline, the one which presents the story as fact.
FB Debugger: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/
Twitter Validator: https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator
MTA Says Fare-Beaters Partially to Blame for Impending Fare Hikes
MTA alleges (not really sure how they could prove this) that fare-beaters cost the system $1 million/week, or $52M/year. The MTA's operating budget is $16B, or which $6.3B comes from fares, so the loss from fare-beaters is less than 1% of the fare income, and 3/10th of one percent of the total budget. In contrast, a New York Times report (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-system-failure-delays.html ) found that politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties, at the mayoral and gubernatorial levels, had gradually removed $1.5 billion of MTA funding. And because of that underfunding, the MTA has had to borrow, and now nearly 17 percent of its budget now goes to pay down debt. Compare that to the 3/10th of a percent attributed to fare evasion.
A Clear Link Between Trump and Russia Is Now Out in the Open
Really? Cohen talked to Putin's press secretary about a meeting with Putin about a Moscow Trump Tower. The meeting never happened, nor did any deal. So when the headline refers to a "clear link", I guess they mean a link that is transparent, i.e., there's nothing there.
CANDIDATES FOR “FUNNIEST”:
Washington Post admits gaffe after putting story on Kavanaugh coaching basketball in ‘Public Safety’ section
Karma? Or a deliberate act by a WaPo staffer?
