#breaking fake news

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A media literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

Media explainers are a cheap way to become an instant expert on everything from billionaire submarine excursions to hellaciously complex geopolitical conflicts, but On The Media's "Breaking News Consumers' Handbooks" are explainers that help you understand other explainers:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-and-gaza-edition-on-the-media

The latest handbook is an Israel-Gaza edition. It doesn't aim to parse fine distinctions over the definition of "occupation" or identify the source of shell fragments. Rather, it offers seven bullet points' worth of advice on weighing all the other news you hear about the war:

https://media.wnyc.org/media/resources/2023/Oct/27/BNCH_ISRAEL_GAZA_EDITION_1.pdf

I. "Headlines are obscured by the fog of war"

Headline writers have a hard job under the best of circumstances – trying to snag your interest in a few words. Headlines can't encompass all the nuance of a story, and they are often written by editors, not the writers who produced the story. Between the imperatives for speed and brevity and the broken telephone between editors and writers, it's easy for headlines to go wrong, even when no one is attempting to mislead you. Even reliable outlets will screw up headlines sometimes – and that likelihood goes way up in times like these. You gotta read the story, not just the headline.

II. Know red flags for bullshit

The factually untrue information that spreads furthest tends to originate with a handful of superspreader accounts. Whether these people are Just Wrong or malicious disinfo peddlers, they share a few characteristics that should trip your BS meter and prompt extra scrutiny:

High-frequency posting

Emotionally charged framing

Posts that purport to be summaries or excerpts from news outlets, but do not include links to the original

The phrase "breaking news" (no one has that many scoops)

III. Don't trust screenshots

Screenshots of news stories, tweets, and other social media should come with links to the original. It's just too damned easy to fake a screenshot.

IV. "Know your platform"

It used to be that Twitter got a lot of first-person accounts from people in the thick of crises, while Facebook and Reddit contained commentary and reposts. Today, Twitter is just another aggregator. This time around, there's lots of first-person, real-time reporting coming off Telegram (it runs well on old phones and doesn't chew up batteries). Instagram is widely used in both Israel and the West Bank.

V. "Crisis actors" aren't a thing

People who attribute war images to "crisis actors" are either deluded or lying. There's plenty of ways to distort war news, but paying people to pretend to be grieving family members is essentially unheard of. Any explanation that involves crisis actors is a solid reason to permanently block that source.

VI. There's plenty of ways to verify stuff that smells fishy

TinEye, Yandex and Google Image Search are all good tools for checking "breaking" images and seeing if they're old copypasta ganked from earlier conflicts (or, you know, video-games). The fact that an image doesn't show up in one of these searches doesn't guarantee its authenticity, of course.

VII. Think before you post

Israel-Gaza is the most polluted media pool yet. Don't make it worse.

There's plenty more detail on this (especially on the use of verification tools) in Brooke Gladstone's radio segment:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-gaza-edition

The media environment sucks, and warrants skepticism and caution. But we also need to be skeptical of skepticism itself! As danah boyd started saying all the way back in 2018, weaponized media literacy leads to conspiratorialism:

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2018/03/09/you-think-you-want-media-literacy-do-you.html

Remember, the biggest peddlers of "fake news" are also the most prolific users of the term. For a lot of these information warriors, the point isn't to get you to believe them – they'll settle for you believing nothing. "Flood the zone with bullshit" is Steve Bannon's go-to tactic, and it's one that his acolytes have picked up and multiplied.

It's important to be a critical thinker, but there's plenty of people who've figured out how to weaponize a critical viewpoint and turn it into nihilism. Remember, the guy who wrote How To Lie With Statistics was a tobacco industry shill who made his living obfuscating the link between smoking and cancer. It's absolutely possible to lie with statistics, but it's also possible to use statistics to know the truth, as Tim Harford explains in his 2021 must-read book The Data Detective:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

There's a world of difference between being misled and being brainwashed. A lot of today's worry about "disinformation" and "misinformation" has the whiff of a moral panic:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/are-we-having-a-moral-panic-over-misinformation.html

It's possible to have a nuanced view of this subject – to take steps to enure you're not being tricked without equating crude tricks like sticking a fake BBC chyron on a 10-year-old image with unstoppable mind-control:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/28/fog-o-war/#breaking-news

#pluralistic #media literacy #fake news #disinformation #misinformation #israel gaza #gaza #israel #palestine #conspiratorialism #hoaxes #infowar #on the media #breaking news #npr #flood the zone

[aniseandspearmint]

Urban fantasy idea;

There's been a rash of disappearances in poor neighborhoods in a few large cities.

Large Urban Mimics have adapted and started mimicking cars with the window down, or keys in the ignition, and the local car thief populations are getting hit HARD.

I'm just picturing a couple of guys eyeing up a shiny yellow Kia parked on some old broken down residential alike;

"Nah man, think about it. Why would THIS car be here? It's WAY too nice! And it's a bright color. You know what the news reports said."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Don't wanna end up like Stevie. Or Eddie. Or Amy. Or–"

"yeah, you don't gotta go down the whole list. Let's go."

They leave and the car sits there for a few more minutes and the whole thing makes a kind of juddery motion, and the whole thing slinks off into the empty street, not quite moving right, less like a thing with wheels and more like a thing with lots and lots of little legs.

#this would be a perfect side case/quest for an urban fantasy story #also i can just see this hitting the news eventually and people starting to put like- a strip of fake teeth along their windows #to make observant thieves leave their cars alone #like people put home security signs in their yards to deter break ins #urban fantasy #fun stuff #story ideas

[puppyeared]

ive made myself more wet and pathetic

#new icon because im SUFFERING. im in HELL #its so bad. i had to sign out of discord so now im both lonely and stressed #because i KNOW im still gonna get dstracted. i just did making this URGH #how good are brains at working around things. i once set a 7AM alarm on my phone with snooze cause i was so sure my brain would #be too lazy and keep snoozing instead of actually turning it off. but nay it either kept sleeping through the alarms and snoozing #or actually managed to turn off the alarm half awake that i barely remembered it and then waking up late #i actually have a track record of climbing out of bed and turning my alarm off without remembering. which is impressive bc i have a loftbed #the other thing is setting fake deadlines so make myself panic into doing things ahead of time. but unfortunately that doesnt work either #because if theres one thing my brain will put all its energy into remembering its self assurance. meaning i WILL be able to remember #the real deadline even if i try to trick myself. cant ask someone to give me a fake deadline either #the only things keeping me going rn is that i have deadlines due at least 1 day between each other and excitement being able to talk with #crow after break. but you can see how well thats going <- ignores long term rewards in favor of short term pleasure #BTW CROW IF YOURE READING THIS IM SO SORRY TURNING OFF MY DISCORD WITH BARELY ANY EXPLANATION #im a huge fucking dumbass and i had barely enough impulse control not to block everyone in my dms because i realized that would send a real #really bad msg. youre not distracting me im distracting myself and i promise youre not annoying me i just really like talking to you and #thats why im just barely stopping myself from signing in. I WANT TO TALK TO U LOTS BUT AT THE SAME TIME IM KICKING MYSELF FOR DOING IT #you can be a little mad at me btw cause i definitely could have done that better but i was all over the place abt how to do it without #making u think im ignoring you. IF THAT MAKES SENSE. SORRY #yapping #doodles #puppysona #edit but last week i tried to schedule and give myself work periods and break periods using my class schedule #and reminders on my phone to tell me when to start and stop. can you guess what happened

[windmills123]

this is apple shes Red and has really cold skin inspired by when i get apples from tha fridge and they hurrt my teeth and also i found 2 cents on the ground today which is so good

#my art #she knos how to use the computer and goes fishing on the weekend #breaking news: old picture finished after 200 years.. wtf #moth girl #insect girl #bug girl #bug anthro #fake 3d #low poly #cute art #artists on tumblr #ibispaint x #character art #cute character #anthro bug

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Kate Andrews

Has Kate Middleton united America? For the past few days, we have been one nation under her spell.

The Princess of Wales has dominated Google searches in the United States ever since Kensington Palace released that now-notorious doctored photo of her with her children for Mother’s Day.

Her name search beat that of both ‘Donald Trump’ and ‘Joe Biden’ over the past week.

To say she has broken the internet would be only the start of it: rumours of her well-being are making their way into every newsroom, dive bar, and church fellowship hour across America.

My friends from all over the country text and call me to ask the same question: What’s happened to Kate?

They know I’m as removed from the royal family as anyone could be, but I’m in London and I work in Westminster, so they hope I’ve heard a theory that hasn’t made its way across the pond just yet.

Left-liberal pals who usually text me when Trump says something obscene now want to know when I last walked by Buckingham Palace.

Did anything seem strange? More right-leaning friends, who tend to send videos of Biden jumbling his words, want to know if it’s unusual in Britain to not wear your wedding ring.

Or did someone photoshop her ring out of the Mother’s Day photo, too? Is that even her hand in the picture?

I wonder if Kate knows she has achieved the impossible in bringing America together in this way.

I suppose that depends on where she’s been, how she’s been faring, and how much she’s checking the news – all questions that largely remain unanswered.

Either way, it’s an impressive feat and a wonderful service she has performed.

Sure, it would be nice if existential threats to the United States and its citizens were cause enough for us to find common ground. But I’m not going to be picky.

I will forever be grateful for this smidgen of evidence that, if the cause is compelling enough, America can pull itself back from the brink.

How did ‘Kate-gate’ go viral in a nation that isn’t even her own? The princess’s prolonged absence from public life has the right components to capture America’s imagination.

We are a country obsessed with The Crown and true crime. Since we rejected the British monarchy almost 250 years ago, we have rarely had the opportunity to combine the two.

The mystery of Kate’s movements and the online sleuthing required to discredit that photograph proved to be a golden moment.

But it’s the cover-up elements, which made the story stratospheric.

Like everything else in the States, conspiracy theories tend to be big – the more far-fetched, the more viral they go.

Trumpist QAnon talk has never appealed to non-partisan Instagram girlies, but speculation around a princess’s whereabouts make for perfect 20-part video series to add to your highlights reel.

That’s because Kate-gate is not your traditional conspiracy fare.

The big questions – what’s happened to Kate, where has she been – have not been whipped up from nothing.

Suspicion has been fed by a number of public-relations mishandlings from the Palace.

Stories have changed, a photo has been botched and is still being censored on social media.

This is particularly strange given the normal PR slickness of the Firm: a protective, ruthless operation that presidents and popstars envy.

Some of the rumours have taken absurd and dangerous turns. But it’s not only fantasists who have questions. Something seems to be happening; we just don’t know what.

We may never find out what Kate has been up to these past months. And perhaps we shouldn’t. Her medical issues aren’t our business, after all.

But we know what’s happened to her in the eyes of the public: Brand Kate has skyrocketed.

She and her family have become even more intriguing – the Prince and Princess of Wales’s Instagram and X accounts gained more than 200,000 followers combined in the days after the doctored photo was posted.

That intrigue has made the princess all the more sensational.

Kate is now a mega-celebrity. She has the kind of fame her sister-in-law craves so badly.

Markle’s tactic was to shout from the rooftops: to make herself and her point of view heard through every media platform and streaming service that showed any interest. It worked for a while.

Had a pandemic not scuppered her big moment, ‘Megxit’ would have been the story of 2020.

She and Harry still got to sit down with Oprah. Netflix charted their journey from the Palace to the Hollywood Hills. But attention quickly waned.

This week, the duchess finds herself doing what every fame-hustler must do in the fight for survival: launching a lifestyle brand.

Her Californian-inspired venture, called American Riviera Orchard, will be offering us fashion advice and gardening tips, along with another outlet selling artisan jams and yoga gear.

Yet as she pushes the cutlery and cookbooks, it’s absent Kate whose face is projected all over the world: a testament, if there ever was one, to the power of silence.

Given the long line of mess-ups from the Palace, this boost for Kate is a fairly good outcome.

The princess disappeared for a few months, and the world made its message clear: we simply can’t bear to be without her.

When she returns to public life, she will be more adored and loved than ever.

The rumours and theories will die down. The outpouring of support for the Princess of Wales will continue.

It seems likely that she will, as promised, resume public duty in the spring.

The future queen of England will return, radiant as ever, to stand next to her future king and her family, as if nothing ever happened.

We’ll watch on, always with the niggling feeling that there was something we weren’t told and that not knowing is the key to the charm.

As Walter Bagehot said:

‘We must not let in daylight upon magic’ – or photoshop, for that matter.

NOTE: Additional photos have been included in this article.

#Princess of Wales #Catherine Princess of Wales #Catherine Middleton #Kate Middleton #British Royal Family #Brand Kate #trending #viral #fake news #misinformation #disinformation #cancer #chemotherapy #break the internet #Kate-Gate

[frozenoj]

#susan meachen #meme #supernatural #destiel #i love you #booklr #breaking news #tumblr style #faked death

[loobiino]

DASK RECORDS CONFIRMS LOOBII’S JUNO WILL MAKE HIS AWAITED DEBUT AS A SOLO ARTIST IN MARCH !

january 2nd 2023 ／ written by son wohee.

Finally the confirmation from the agency!

According to DASK RECORDS, JUNO, the leader of LOOBII will be the first member to debut as a solo artist this year, this news was finally stated with a very much anticipated announcement early this year as usual for DASK’s artists, published as their “NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS”, which are essentially the future debut plans of the company.

For several months now, there have been rumors circulating that JUNO will be dropping his first solo this year or last year, but it was never confirmed or denied by the company.

Since the group, the last few months, has been very busy promoting for their latest successful album “GLOOMY GARDEN” who exceeded almost 6 million physical album copies (5.87 million) in just little time from the official release.

But as of now, the hardworking leader Juno is ready to shortly take his own path and show this new part of himself with his solo debut album release scheduled in March of this year, teasers will be soon posted on official group’s platforms as always!

The expectations are high, since JUNO is always mentioned as one of the main producers and songwriters in his group’s songs and has been part of many projects mainly as a gift to his fans’ gratitude and support.

Fans of LOOBII, ruscious, will looking forward to JUNO solo debut and will support him in this new journey!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

COMMENTS

[ +345 | -24 ] I was waiting for this debut more than my pay check honestly

[ +234 | -12 ] dask dont do them dirty now that they’re focusing on their solo careers. We NEED group activities!!

[ +189 | -20 ] of course it’s our leader to debut first, can’t wait for all the members to shine properly! I hope Juno will have control in the making of his album!

[ +56 | -2 ] GIVE US THE TEASERS ALREADY

[ +456 | -78 ] the year is already starting really good with this future masterpiece

offensive comments have been filtered due their triggering use of words…

#✶.˚ we shine as one ‎⸃ breaking news. #ficnetfairy #this is a filler post!! #why censored comments 🧐❓ #fake kpop boy group #kpop oc boy group #idolverse #fake kpop ocs #fictional kpop boy group #kpop boy groups #kpop oc community #fictional characters #kpop ocs #fake kpop idols #oc kpop group #oc boy group #kpop addictions

[mayamelodyegg]

the manga was better

#krugston #maya's art tag #fake manga #unreality #THREE DAYS OF NONSTOP DRAWING #okay not REALLY nonstop i took a lot of breaks BUT IM HAPPY WITH HOW THESE TURNED OUT !!! #go watch the new krugston episode !! its so fucking awesome #as someone whos been there since the 'youre not that smart' video noah has improved so much its crazy. in terms of just like #modelling and colors and expressions and etc etc #go go go go go watch it neeeoooowwwwwwwww

[emily63]

GOD BLESS AMERICA

#politics #social democracy #usa news #celebrity news #news #world news #breaking news #business news #latest news #newsies #fake news #headlines today news #global news #henry kissinger #kissinger #meme #dank memes #memes image #memes #memesdaily #relatable memes #best memes #meme humor #lol memes #tumblr memes #funny memes #funny #obviously only applies to americans #america #usa

[eric-the-disposable-demon]

hey uh im not coming back just yet I just wanted to say I love yall

#Also I'm kinda scared I won't be coming back #Like #I love all my moots but I just dont have the urge to post things or look at other people's posts anymore #And it's making me sad #Like I took a break for 2 days and suddenly I don't need this place anymore #Maybe it's for the best for now because I can't anymore with all the “fuck israel” posts #Like yeah I know #I know everyone hates my country #But whats going on isn't my fault #And what's going on hurt me and I lot of people I care about #And yet all I see day after day is fuck Israel boycott Israel fuck Israel boycott Israel ban Israel from the eurovision fuck this fuck that #Nothing about the people who were murdered and are still dying on my side #Nothing about the hostages who are being raped and tortured in there for half a year now #Only “bUt ThEy WeRe tReAtEd WeLL” #And loads of bullshit fake news #I'm sorry #But it's too much #And it's not my fault #So for now I'll be a bit quieter #I'll still reblog a but every now and then #But until things are a bit better I'm fucking off #Goodbye

[cyberth0t]

I am cRAWLING OUT OF MY HOLE

#please this was the hardest winter i've had since college #i was so depressed for no reason my GOOOODDDDDD #also...burnt out. but thats on me haha #its getting better tho #also in horrifying news--taking an extended break from drawing every day has made me somehow even better at art so what the fuck #i was pretty sure the advice of “rest your brain” was fake news turns out no it is real

[softceleste]

The fact I honestly thought I'd pull off playing College Craze and being normal about it, and then less than a week later I've already played it multiple times, made a duel MC au, a Pinterest board, and recreated some of the PopMe pages, is genuinely not lost on me.

#college craze #katie talks ifs and vns #i made psds for new contacts and calls too but didn't really have a use for them in this #also i just bs'd vidtok if it pops up I'll redo those but >.> i think you can tell who my favorite RO is so far okay (it's Pierce) #and then jay shaun ruby and trish also have me by the throat like if Trish has 0 fans I'm dead okay #I've known those characters literally like 4 days and I'd go to bat for all five of them already ok - my beloveds #anyway madeline mostly follows canon (the divergence is Ches exists and Ches is canonly the one fake!dating Shaun for Mad's tuition) #otherwise what the vn throws at Madeline she gets ok and then Ches breaks canon... so much it'd be probably too long for the tags #but this is what i get for being like 'this oc I've been writing for a decade+ would be down so bad for Pierce and Shaun lemme do a #playthrough with her and see what happens' - this happens apparently 😂 listen the vn helped me get through the entire time my mom was #in the hospital (she's home now) so tbh it was a really appreciated distraction <3 #extremely long post #long post #edits:mine #college craze: ches #college craze: madeline #college craze: madeline x jay #college craze: ches x pierce #i had fun with these though like Madeline messaging Ches to ensure she isn’t going to come in and find Jay in the dorm #and Ches being like ‘yeah my vidtok is 100% Pierce’s fault’ yikes I need to sleep I’m excitedly tired rambling #sorry if this post is annoying (and for the lines under the categories breaking future me will fix that in further edits if I post more #those may be relegated to the shit post blog though we’ll see posting oc stuff makes me so anxious ngl) #im just hitting post I’ve been staring at this stressing it like two hours now jfc

[readingbythestreetlights]

(x) psst hey guys let me in on the joke

#crappily made gifs by yours truly 🫶🏼🫶🏼 #(don’t judge me on the quality it’s just to push the nimi (kico??) propaganda) #this just in: kimi and nico are in love (REAL NOT FAKE) #part 1 of nimi (kico?) inspiration for my fic #<<THE BESTIE SAYS NIMI #BREAKING NEWS #nico rosberg #kimi raikkonen #67 #nimi #kico #<<doesn’t hurt to keep that there #f1 #my gifs

[sportsthoughts]

.

#oh i am a bit tired tonight folks. had a nice time yesterday trawling through old pens forums and linking back some posts to here #(all with links because like - it's nice to share where you've found fun stuff right?) no point gatekeeping at all - we don't own content #and then the same old people once again somehow by chance post the exact same five or six photos 5 minutes after #and yeah. great minds think alike right? you were probably trawling a not touched since 2015 forum too at the same time. it's possible #and out of the hundreds of photos on there you decided to make the exact selection i did. it's possible right? #and truthfully i don't really care because i'm posting this stuff because my blog is MY personal archive and it's stuff I want to catalogue #but when you have blocked as many blogs and sideblogs as you can and people are still finding you and send you shitty anons for just... #daring to use the player tags? cataloging stuff by literally tagging the player's name? ughhhhh it's exhausting how can i block you when yo #are the tumblr equivalent of hydra regrowing a new fake sideblog pretending to be a different person every week. #sorry i know this ranting into the abyss is pointless but i have a few more posts scheduled for tonight and i know i'll wake up tomorrow #and miraculously the same ones will be posted on the same people's blogs 5 minutes after me and it's just so childish #but yeah. we all know who they are and i'm just a little tired of it and hearing the stories of people being harassed in their inboxes/dms #anyway anyway anyway. i think i shall just take a break from posting stuff because feeling a little disheartened! and uncomfortable #because i feel watched. please stop using other blogs to find me. please stop talking about me in your tags. touch some grass my friends

[keepcalmitstemporary]

#youtube #breaking news #global news #headlines today news #news #world news #business news #political #political persecution #maga #trump 2024 #trump indictment #president trump #fake news #demonic democrats #biden corruption #democrats are corrupt

[loobiino]

# tw : mention of smoking, sensible words

⸰ ͘ ࣭𓍼 LOOBII MAKES THE HEADLINES…

It’s not surprising that LOOBII is often the target of news, they could rank first as the most ❛❛ problematic ❜❜ group within DASK RECORDS and as the group who has the most weird scandals and controversies. This is just a small piece of the articles that have been published through their career…

𓂄 feedbacks are very well appreciated!

#✶.˚ we shine as one ‎⸃ breaking news. #ficnetfairy #kpop fake ocs #kpop fake group #kpop fictional character #idolverse #idols ocs #kpop ocs #kpop oc #kpop fictional kpop group #fake kpop boy group #fake ocs #fake kpop oc idols #kpop oc boy group #kpop oc community #oc community #fake kpop group