Published on Aug 23, 2019
(JUST IN TIME FOR THE 2020 ELECTIONS) – Facebook hiring editors to pick stories for ‘News Tab’, that didn’t work out well last time
Facebook will hire a “small team” of journalists to select featured content for its much-hyped ‘News Tab’ section, which the platform will begin testing across its US user base later this year.
What could go awry with human editors in charge? Facebook should know, since the company was forced to fire its last team of human content-pickers over revelations of bias against conservative viewpoints.
The platform said Tuesday that the new team — which will likely be fewer than 10 employees at the beginning — will choose the content for the ‘Top News’ section of the News Tab. Stories found in the other sections will be chosen by algorithms and determined by specific user interests, the New York Times reported.
‘Trending’ no more: Facebook removing controversial news feature
Facebook said it made the decision to go after human curators after discussions with publishers convinced them that algorithms would not be capable of “news judgement” the way real journalists would and that it would take too long to train an algorithm to that level.
But there are pitfalls to consider with human editors, too. Facebook ditched its ‘Trending Topics’ section last year after being plagued by accusations that it was politically biased and amplified “fake news.”
An explosive Gizmodo story put the spotlight on Trending Topics in 2016, revealing that human editors, independently contracted by Facebook, were asked to suppress conservative news and even stories about Facebook itself.
The contractors were also told to artificially “inject” preferred stories into the trending module, even if they were not trending organically. Rather than relying on algorithms (as it claimed), Facebook was acting like a traditional news organization and reflecting the personal biases of its employees.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Facebook is planning to pay publishers “millions of dollars” to include their content in its News Tab.
A source told Digiday that the new batch of curators will be given the option to include that content in the Top News section, but they will not be obliged to. The new hires will be full-time employees, unlike the contractors used for the doomed Trending Topics section.
As Facebook rolls out the News Tab, users will no doubt be waiting to see if it has learned its lesson after the last debacle.
READ MORE: Google is censoring political content? *Gasp!* Who knew?
OBAMAS TO RELEASE ANTI-TRUMP MOVIE ON NETFLIX
Film aims to undercut Trump’s job number claims
AUGUST 21, 2019
Ahead of the 2020 election, the Obamas are set to release a documentary via Netflix that has been described by Politico as anti-Trump.
The movie, scheduled to be released this week, titled American Factory, focuses on the economy in the heartland of the US.
The review states:
The documentary, which debuts on Netflix on August 21, never mentions President Donald Trump by name—but its message is clear: Trump’s promise to reinvigorate the industrial heartland is going to take a lot more than a campaign slogan. There are no easy solutions. And if some manufacturing jobs do come back, they’re going to look nothing like they used to. Americans will have to accept a new reality to stay competitive in the global marketplace—one that they might not like, and one that Trump doesn’t acknowledge.
it’s a message that echoes Obama’s declaration in 2016 that some jobs in the manufacturing sector are “just not going to come back.”
The movie argues that Trump’s efforts to reinvigorate manufacturing have not been successful, despite there being more employed in factory jobs now than before Trump was elected.
The message is clear. The Obamas are trying to hit Trump where it matters ahead of the election, in an effort to prevent history repeating.
Last year, when the Obamas inked the deal with the streaming service, the former president declared that the projects would focus on “training the next generation of leaders.”
“I continue to believe that if we are hearing each other’s stories and recognizing ourselves in each other, then our democracy works,” Obama said at the time.
WATCH: Why You Should Cancel Netflix
CNN ANALYST: WHITE REPUBLICAN MEN ARE ‘GREATEST TERRORIST THREAT’ IN US
Triggered by the word ‘hijacking’
AUGUST 21, 2019
CNN Analyst Angela Rye told a Republican strategist on air this week that ‘the greatest terrorist threat’ in the US are white men who think like he does.
GOP campaign strategist Patrick Griffin argued that the so called “Squad” of Democrats, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has “hijacked” the Democratic Party.
“It’s so interesting that you use the term — the only two Muslim women in Congress, the term you chose to use, sir, is ‘hijacking,’” Rye, the former Congressional Black Caucus executive director, ridiculously responded.
“It has nothing to do with whether they’re Muslim or not,” Griffin hit back, “Nothing to do with that… They’ve hijacked from their own principles.”
“That’s a real interesting word choice, and you understand why,” Rye continued, insisting that Griffin used the term to connect the Democrats to terrorists.
“You can talk over me all you want to but the bottom line is the greatest terrorist threat in this country is white men, white men who think like you. That is the greatest terrorist threat in this country.” Rye blurted.
Griffin described Rye’s remarks as “silly rhetoric.”
“No, it’s not!” Rye responded.
“You know what’s silly? The fact that you’re on here knowing how dangerous times are right now defending this nonsense.” she added.
CNN, bringing the nuanced debate as usual.
BUSTED: A Democrat Media Manufactured Recession
Published on Aug 21, 2019
THE SICK THING IS; THEY WANT A RECESSION. THEY’RE ROOTING FOR IT. JUST SO THEY CAN BLAME TRUMP. THESE ARE SICK PEOPLE WE’RE DEALING WITH.
WATCH: CNN’s Fake News Thug Charged with Assault After Being Accused of Accosting a Real Reporter
Fake news reporter April Ryan’s bodyguard is charged with assaulting a real reporter.
By Shane Trejo
A bodyguard for a CNN fake news reporter is facing criminal charges after he reportedly took a journalist’s camera and twisted his arm violently as he removed him from an event in New Brunswick, New Jersey earlier this month.
The event took place at the NJ Parent Summit in the Heldrich Hotel on Aug. 3 where CNN’s White House correspondent April Ryan was addressing the audience. Charlie Kratovil of New Brunswick Today alleges he was violently accosted by 30-year-old Joel Morris, who was working as Ryan’s security detail, for trying to record the event.
The video footage can be seen here:
Kratovil filed a criminal complaint accusing Morris of harassment, assault and theft. He alleges that Morris injured his arm and shoulder while grabbing him and forcibly removing him from the facility before taking the camera. Kratovil was later able to retrieve the camera.
Kratovil claims he was invited to the event by a public relations firm, and recorded other speakers for two hours without any problems until Ryan took the stage. She was apparently the only speaker who didn’t want her words to be heard by the public, and she seemingly sent a thug to do her dirty work and hurt a real journalist for putting her on the record.
“What I will say, when I speak, I don’t have news covering my speeches,” Ryan declared to the crowd, asserting that she is above scrutiny.
The Society of Professional Journalists released a statement in favor of Kratovil and against the CNN fake news hack Ryan.
“While journalists may have no special rights superior to members of the public, they do not have fewer rights than others,” they said in a statement.
“A no-photography policy should apply to everyone. Nor should the perceived viewpoint of a news organization be regarded as grounds to deny admittance to a member of the media; people who make news do not have a license to dictate how and by whom they are covered,” they added.
Ryan has refused to comment about why she was so desperate to deny Kratovil the ability to cover her speech.
“Her silence is deafening at this point. It’s been more than two weeks,” Kratovil said. “Anybody who’s a journalist should be condemning this.”
Ryan has frequently cried and complained about President Donald Trump’s treatment of the media, claiming she has been the victim of death threats. She released a book, “Under Fire,” last year whining about how tough she has it as a corporate news reader in the age of Trump.
“There are people out here who really are concerned with my safety, and there are people out here [who] really could care less about my safety. I don’t like talking about it anymore, but it’s real, and it’s a turning point,” Ryan said while promoting her book in an NPR interview last year.
As usual, the CNN hack was projecting completely. If anyone is a threat to real news reporting, it is Ryan and the rest of the professional deceivers who she works with at the fledgling cable news station.
‘We are moving into a new, controlled society worse than old totalitarianism’ – Zizek on Google leak
Modern censorship is more dangerous than open totalitarianism, it being concealed and incorporated in our daily routine, says Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, commenting on the insider leak detailing Google’s news blacklist.
The intellectual told RT he’s not advocating for online anarchy, comparing it to snuff movies in hardcore pornography – some regulation should be in place to block harmful content on the internet, he says. But hiding political motives for suppressing voices online is what worries Zizek the most.
“We all know we have to censor things at some level, but the main rule for me is that the process should be transparent. Not in the way – I’m talking about the developed West – it is done now, when all of a sudden somebody is prohibited and you are not even allowed to debate it,” Zizek explains. The “false choice” between politically correct censorship and radical liberalism is a trap, he believes.
This week, conservative transparency group Project Veritas published documents it received from an ex-Google employee. The documents appeared to confirm that Google can boost or de-rank news sources based on a seemingly biased set of internal rules. Calling the practices “dark and nefarious” the whistleblower, Zachary Vorhies, also leaked a doc detailing Google’s “blacklist” that lists nearly 500 websites, including both conservative and leftist media outlets.
Zizek believes the Big Tech’s practice of blacklists and shadow bans could prove an opportunity for right-wing activists to show themselves as a group fighting establishment politics and targeted for their opposition. The philosopher thinks this tactic will actually backfire against liberals by giving “the new populist right a position where they can say: you see, we’re the true alternative, we’re the true oppressed.”
Google is likely not the only tech megacorporation with a tight grip on their users’ digital menu, Zizek argues – but “the process isn’t some kind of a dark plot,” rather an inconspicuous slide “into a new, controlled society.”
What’s terrifying about it is that we don’t even experience it as something controlled. We just use social media, buy things, go to a doctor – and all the data about us is out there. But those are the things that we perceive as our freedom. So what we perceive as freedom becomes the very way we are controlled.
One doesn’t know anymore “if there is secret police following you or somebody reading your letters,” and this in Zizek’s mind is what differentiates it from the totalitarianism of the past. Modern control is hidden and undeclared, Zizek says.
ANTIFA SMUGGLED IN CONCRETE SLABS TO THROW AT TRUMP SUPPORTERS DURING PORTLAND EVENT
Democratic Congresswoman calls them “peaceful protesters.”
AUGUST 19, 2019
A video out of Portland illustrates how Antifa used broken up concrete slabs to attack Trump supporters during this past weekend’s protests.
“We caught Antifa smuggling concrete slabs within a black case then breaking up the slab & using it to throw at buses carrying right wingers stuck in traffic. This is further evidence of their pre-meditated violence & criminal activity in Portland,” tweeted Elijah Schaffer.
The video shows how Antifa avoided any police scrutiny by transporting the slabs inside a hard black case.
They were then broken up and lobbed towards buses carrying counter-demonstrators.
Meanwhile, Democratic New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland described Antifa as “peaceful protesters” during an appearance on CNN.
Haaland was responding to President Donald Trump’s tweet in which he said Antifa could be designated a terror organization.
Apparently, according to Haaland, throwing concrete slabs at people is peaceful!
IS THERE A HIDDEN POLITICAL AGENDA? THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS SUDDENLY FULL OF STORIES ABOUT THE COMING RECESSION
For those on the left that would like to see Trump voted out in 2020, the timing of the next recession will be key
AUGUST 16, 2019
All of a sudden, it seems like the mainstream media just can’t stop talking about “the coming recession”.
If you go to Google News and type in the word “recession”, you will literally get dozens of articles from the last couple of days with “recession” in the headline. And of course it is true that there are signs of global economic trouble all around us, and I have been documenting them on my website all throughout 2019. So we don’t want to criticize the mainstream media when they actually decide to tell the truth, because a recession is definitely coming, but could it be possible that there is also a hidden political agenda at work? The economy is generally regarded to be one of the bright spots for President Trump, and political operatives on the left clearly understand that a major economic downturn now would spell almost certain doom for Trump’s chances of winning the 2020 election. And when mainstream reporters talk about the possibility of a recession as we approach the next election, many of them almost seem gleeful as they describe how it could hurt Trump politically. Ultimately, when things start to really get bad it is inevitable that the mainstream media will place the blame directly at the feet of Trump. It is easy to imagine a narrative along the lines of “Trump’s handling of the economy has plunged the nation into a recession” being relentlessly pounded into the heads of American voters over the next year. And if the end result is Trump being voted out of office, more than 90 percent of those that work for the big news companies will be just fine with that.
This week, we have seen an absolute explosion in the number of stories about the possibility of an imminent recession. The following are just a few of the stories I came across while doing research earlier today…
–A global recession may be coming a lot sooner than anyone thought
–Recession watch: 6 financial moves to make when the economy slows down
–Trump 2020 can’t afford a recession
–The recession question we should be asking isn’t ‘when’ but ‘how bad?’
–Recession fears explained in one simple sentence
–Recession ahead? Dow, stocks tank on fears that bond market signals a downturn
–Recession indicator with perfect track record flashing red
–Recession signs are flashing, but Americans are still shopping at Walmart
–Worried about a recession? Don’t panic, but be prepared
Of course many of these stories were sparked by a major event that we just witnessed on Wall Street. The following comes from Fox Business…
Yes, it is possible that the yield curve could be wrong this time, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
And the economic news that is coming in from all over the world just continues to confirm that conditions are deteriorating. On Thursday, we learned that U.S. manufacturing has slumped back into contraction territory, and earlier this week we got some really troubling news from Germany and China…
So it isn’t as if the mainstream media is being dishonest with us in this case. Global economic activity is most definitely slowing down, and many believe that things will get much worse during the second half of this year.
And a global economic slowdown would be terrible news for the Trump campaign, because their entire narrative depends on President Trump making the economy great again. A substantial percentage of American voters are convinced that since he is a billionaire, Trump must really understand the economy very well. And according to a CNN poll from earlier this year, the performance of the economy is one of the main reasons for his current level of support…
But if the U.S. economy plunges into a painful recession, the game completely changes.
For those on the left that would like to see Trump voted out in 2020, the timing of the next recession will be key. If the next recession doesn’t begin until the second half of 2020, there may not be enough economic pain before November to swing the election in the favor of the Democratic candidate. So what the left really needs is for a recession to begin during the second half of 2019 or the first half of 2020 so that Americans are really suffering by the time election day rolls around.
I know that is a very sick way to think, but these are the sorts of conversations that these people actually have. For example, on his own television show Bill Maher publicly stated that a recession would be “worth it” if Trump is voted out in 2020. As we approach the next election, many on the left will be so desperate to see Trump gone that they will be willing to pay just about any price to see that happen.
And to be honest, the U.S. economy is definitely way overdue for a major downturn, and so it is only prudent to get prepared for rough times ahead. At this point, even USA Today is providing us with “recession survival tips”…
That is actually really good advice.
Now is a time to cut costs, get out of debt and build up your emergency fund.
The coming year promises to be quite chaotic, and those that hate President Trump are likely to pull out all the stops in an all-out attempt to get him voted out in 2020.
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