01-13-2017, 07:10 PM
(01-13-2017, 02:12 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:(01-13-2017, 03:28 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Why don't we arrest the creeps who put out these fake news stories?
And the lies about Hillary; many on the Left believed them. Really too bad; she would have been so much better as president than she was as a candidate. Makes me sad.
But, I guess, it wasn't really in the stars, even though I wanted to think she had a chance. Trump was going to be hard to beat, no matter how bad his behavior was. I knew that. He knows how to put on a good show.
Well, as you know the 1A would protect the reporting orgs. However, the SVR/GRU assets and those who harbor and give comfort to them, who are the initial "sources" of them, and who coordinate the overall operations - they are committing acts of war, espionage and treason. For the ones who are not Americans this drone is for you, for the American ones giving aid and comfort, lock 'em up and string 'em up.
As effective sanction would be disgrace.
There used to be journalistic standards -- obviously, don't make stuff up; don't plagiarize. Remember Jayson Blair? Who? He got some high-profile stories for the New York Times before he was shown to have made stuff up and plagiarized. For editors -- fact-check. That's what new journalism grads got to do -- make sure that there is some sizzle to the steak. Wikipedia has an article on him, and it goes blank for the next then years. I have no idea of what he has been doing for the last ten years. Janet Cooke, a Washington Post journalist who fabricated a story about an 8-year-old heroin addict (it was well written, but fiction is in another section of the newsstand), was exposed and disgraced. I have no idea what she does for a living now.
With the technology that we now have, practically anyone can be a 'journalist'. Getting the stories is trickier. One of the easiest ways is to be a conduit for propaganda.
Maybe our society is so ferociously competitive and result-oriented (get results or perish!) that even in complete futility one is pressed to succeed, even if dishonestly. Serving a foreign government? Be very, very careful.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
