Discussion about hot topics trending today

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

Jel is Cordelia?

[Gatefan1976]

And my point is that it is the responsibility of the reader to evaluate information, and any actions he takes based on that information are also his responsibility.

You are wrong on both counts.
Journalism exists to present the -facts-, not make them up out of whole cloth (and if they do, they should be punished for it when it is discovered). What is up to the end user is to separate the spin from the facts. FOX news, for all people rag on it rarely, if ever makes up facts, but it does present them in a highly biased way, and people like Sean Hannity are not even journalists (self admitted BTW). With political reporting, it is even worse as the facts are soon lost or replaced outright with "IMO" as the goalposts get shuffled around like a deck of cards, and that is not unique to either side.
Fake news is exactly that, fake, but it is presented in such a way to garner credibility and confuse the audience, an audience already primed by over a decade of non reporters giving opinion and it being treated like fact because of confirmation bias.
Example:
I could write a story about 20 people being gunned down in downtown Sydney (totally false), and on the basis of that fake story, write "interviews" with people saying "if only they had a gun........." and turn the whole thing into an opinion piece on how bad our gun laws are" and right wingers in the US would eat it up without even bothering to check if the event happened because of their confirmation bias. Then someone would say "how come no one else is covering it, the MSM is trying to cover it up!!" then the calls of the MSM being biased begin when the actual fact of the matter is, they are not covering it, because it IS NOT REAL, but it's too late by then.
Then some Yahoo's decide to "police" the area in question, beat the crap out of, or kill some poor bastard, not because it would be normal behaviour for them but they -believed- in the false narrative I was putting out there. It is the same as calling fire in a theatre, and as the catalyst, -I too- share blame for that situation.

In this case, did the author of the fake information tell the guy to go shoot up a pizza joint? No. So he is not responsible. The guy who shot up the pizza joint is responsible for his own actions.

Ahh, yes, he is responsible, same as the idiot who shot up the place.
If I put out a story claiming someone (let's say -you-) is a child molester (one of those crimes garenteed to get a nasty response from anyone) and someone kills you over that false story, would I be innocent?

And it has to be this way, or you will destroy the value of the internet and social networking as a discussion medium that any citizen make use of.

Garbage.
It's one thing for people to shoot the breeze and have discussions, we have been doing that for centuries, it is another to abuse the trust of the journalistic process.

It is a worldwide communications medium, accessible to anyone and in the U.S. at least, it is uncensored. If you allow censorship, it loses its value as a discussion medium.

It's not censorship in any way, shape or form. The Onion is not censored, it is merely recognized as -fake news-. You have no argument to make here.

You're right, this isn't a left/right issue, but the left is trying to make it out to be one to allow them to control the discussion.

If the left were -truly- trying to do it, don't you think the first thing they would call "fake" would be the WikiLeaks? You know it's really not that hard to photo shop whatever you want onto stuff.

I'll ask you the same question I posed to jelgate.
How about we do regulate it, but we use Fox, Breitbart and Heritage.org as the arbitrators of truth. How does that sound to you?

Fine to me, simply because the facts are not altered by spin.
Ask them to check weather Trump saved 1100 jobs at Carrier
Weather Hillary started the Birther movement
Weather 1000's of Muslims in NJ were celebrating when the twin towers fell
Weather Obama is C-in-C of ISIS
Weather the Unemployment rate is 42%
Weather Trump built his business with only a 1M dollar loan
Weather Trump won the popular vote

I could go on, but start with those ones, we can even check democratic porkies if you want as well.

As I said to jelgate, I don't like that idea either. Nobody should be censoring it. In order to remain a valuable tool that allows unfettered discussions, it must remain the responsibility of the reader to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

It is not being censored, and this has nothing to do with "free communication" it has to do with journalistic integrity. It is not "up to the reader" to have to determine facts from fiction, it is up to the reader to sort through bias.

[jelgate]

Jel is Cordelia?

*whacks PH with glove*

I demand satisfaction

[Gatefan1976]

http://patriotnewsagency.com/category/politics/#

[Falcon Horus]

So, again and again I ask: How about we do regulate it, but we use Fox, Breitbart and Heritage.org as the arbitrators of truth.

Or is it only acceptable when the arbitrators of truth agree with your political viewpoint?

Isn't that what you do all the time?

My position is that NOBODY should be censoring it. Let the reader make up their own mind about it.

I think it's an established fact that readers are never checking whether the news they are getting is real or fake, or simply don't care.

I'd say that's a very naive thought.

And I know I have no chance of changing your mind. In this case, I consider the right of people to speak their minds without interference to be more important than trying to control nut jobs by censoring what they might read, while you appear to favor censorship in order to control nut jobs, with people who generally agree with your political views and disagree with mine as the censors.

For the record, you voted for a man who will gladly censor the people he doesn't like.

[aretood2]

Isn't that what you do all the time?



I think it's an established fact that readers are never checking whether the news they are getting is real or fake, or simply don't care.

I'd say that's a very naive thought.



For the record, you voted for a man who will gladly censor the people he doesn't like.

Stop being such an idiot. Lord Trump is the messiah and he can do no wrong.

[jelgate]

I think aretood is shooting heroin again

[Gatefan1976]

We need to re-direct his self destructive tendancies.

[jelgate]

I think I hear what you are saying.

Hey aretood, did you know that Trump is one of the biggest heroin user in New York.

[Gatefan1976]

We can finally put those clones to good use, one is sure to get though and discover the truth.

[jelgate]

Then we can sit back and repeat the scandal Canada had a few years ago

[Gatefan1976]

Not the great maple scandal of '09!!

[jelgate]

Sure. Lets go with that

[Gatefan1976]

That's when the tood clones burnt all the rum and replaced it with maple syrup!!
I think I need a safe space.........

[jelgate]

I need to burn tood clones