Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/792585
We'reallwellacquaintedwiththefake news phenomenon — the Trumpian sewage that's routinely pumped into the brains of the dumb and numb. But the good news is, Facebook has started to fight back, working with a coalition of fact-based media outlets. Better late than never. The 2016 campaign was fes- tooned with phony scoops like "Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president" and "FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apart- ment in murder-suicide" and "Hillary sold weapons to ISIS." Credulous social media users clicked and shared and were happy to get suckered. It's no surprise that the con lives on. My new favor- ite bit of fakery, which has already been shared tens of thousands of times, and re- posted on dozens of websites with names like Angry Pa- triot and Trump Media, fea- tures this eye-candy head- line: "BREAKING. Congress Moves to STOP Obama's Treasonous Coup Attempt Against Trump" Sigh. These people still can't quit the guy. Last I saw, Obama was photographed on a boat- ing vacation, wearing cool shades and flashing a free- at-last grin. He sure didn't look like somebody plotting a coup and seething with trea- son, but hey, maybe his va- cay vibe was just part of the conspiracy. And if Congress is indeed moving to stop his coup, I can respect its appar- ent decision to do so quietly. Maybe that explains why not a single Republican in Con- gress, or Spicer or Kellyanne, has breathed a word about what Obama has afoot. Anyway, I bring all this up because ABC News — work- ing with Facebook — has posted a deconstruction of the fake-news story, explain- ing how the infauxmation process worked. Basically, this was the fake-news logic: Trump is plagued by government leak- ers; many government offi- cials are civil servants who stay on the job from one ad- ministration to the next; some leakers might be offi- cials carried over from the last administration; there- fore, the leakers are parti- san Obama loyalists; there- fore, Obama is directing his loyalists; therefore, Obama is plotting a treasonous coup. ABC News dryly concluded that, aside from the people making stuff up, "no one is alleging that former Presi- dent Obama is connected to the leaks or has committed treason because of these rev- elations." But the most note- worthy true info comes at the bottom of the post: "ABC News has launched 'The Real News About Fake News' powered by Facebook data in which users report questionable stories and mis- information circulating on the platform. The stories will undergo rigorous reporting to determine if the claims made are false, exaggerated or out of context. Stories that editorial partners have also debunked will then appear flagged in your News Feed." Facebook announced this project earlier this winter. The social network had long prided itself as a neutral bul- letin board, but its leaders had come to realize that al- lowing sewage to flow un- checked was a social nega- tive. As Adam Mosseri, one of the Facebook veeps, said in December: "We really value giving people a choice (of information), but we also believe we need to take re- sponsibility for the spread of fake news on our platform." So Facebook hooked up with ABC News, the Asso- ciated Press, FactCheck.org (housed at the University of Pennsylvania), Politifact, and Snopes. Users can now flag stories they suspect to be fake, and stories that draw enough flags are typically steered to these fact-check- ing media sites. The Obama slime job met the specs for scrutiny. And another group called First Draft — which includes The Washington Post, Vox, and ProPublica — combats what it calls "the misinformation ecosystem." It's nice to finally see some kind of pushback, even if these efforts don't really make a dent. The users who guzzle fake stories about Obamwa certainly won't ac- cept a thumbs-down verdict from ABC News, which they probably dismiss as part of the conspiracy. No, they'd prefer to believe the lies that jibe with their Trump wor- ship and ideological predilec- tions; look no further than the scene Thursday morning at CPAC, the annual Conser- vative Political Action Con- ference, where a standing ovation greeted the on-stage appearance of alternative- factess Kellyanne Conway. But there's hope for the re- ality-based community. A new Quinnipiac poll says when Americans are asked whom they trust "to tell the truth about important is- sues," 52 percent choose the media, and only 37 percent tilt to Trump. No doubt he would dismiss those stats as "fake news." I call it good news. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. DickPolman No, Obama is not plotting a 'treasonous coup' Cartoonist's take CAPTION A little over a week ago, President Donald Trump (he's the only president with my first name) elic- ited howls from the usual "main stream news me- dia (MSN)" par- tisans, even a Swedish leader, over a clumsily phrased assertion about problems Sweden is experiencing from refugees and immigrants. Non- MSN observers and analysts (and Trump in a tweet) cor- rectly pointed to a segment on Tucker Carlson's Friday night Fox News show, not a terrorist attack. I found Mr. Trump's grasp of several issues to be under whelming during the presi- dential campaign. I winced— even disapproved—when, for in- stance, he lambasted a judge for his Mexican descent; and when he recently disparaged, as "so-called," a judge in Washing- ton state that ruled against his immigration executive orders. The Hispanic judge may indeed have had an anti-Trump preju- dice in the lawsuit before him; and the judicial opinions from the Washington and 9th Circuit Court judges were horrible rul- ings that ignored the plain text of the Constitution and estab- lished immigration law. Those were inappropriate statements by Trump. It must also be acknowl- edged that Trump's spokes- man accurately stated that the judiciary is "a coequal," not a superior, branch of govern- ment. Judges have a long his- tory of getting major issues completely wrong (i.e. Dred Scott decision denying blacks the right, as citizens, to sue in federal courts). I think that Trump is on a learning curve and getting better by the day. Trump's statement, the out- cry and subsequent analysis have, to the chagrin of his sup- porters (including this writer), shown that taking Trump "se- riously, not literally" has once again shown him to be spot on. The MSN and Democrats (a redundancy given the 80 to 90 percent of news media people that support, vote for and con- tribute to the Dems) engaged in another "ready, fire, aim" knee-jerk pile on. Look up: "Trump Was Right; Migrants Riot, Loot, Fight with Police and Set Cars On Fire in Sweden—While the media was dismissing Trump, riots were breaking out in the immigrant suburb of Rinkeby in Stockholm" (by Chris Me- nahan); "Looks Like Donald Trump Was Right About Swe- den After All" (by Emily Za- notti); and "The Silly Swe- den Flap" and "More Evidence That Trump Was Right About Sweden" (by John Hinderaker). It is now incontrovertible that Sweden has joined Ger- many, France and other coun- tries in trying the risky "open borders" experiment with their own citizen population. They have no inoculation against the violence, sexual depreda- tions, idleness and reliance on government benefits that fol- lowed Syrians and other Mus- lim refugees into Europe. A chart showing official Swedish sex crime data, "Re- ported Sex Offences," showed the dramatic increase in an- nual criminal sex acts over the last 10 years—from about 12,000 to nearly 20,000. Lib- eral/progressive European blinders cannot hide the ir- reconcilable cultural and reli- gious divide, some might say subversion, that follows such refugees and immigrants—not all, to be sure, but a sizable, unapologetic core. Despite the wishes and fan- tasies of native Europeans, Muslim enclaves form, which can devolve into shariah-ad- hering, Islamic fundamental- ism-enforcing, "no go" zones for police and other emer- gency services. The riots men- tioned above sprang up with- out outside organization in re- sponse to an attempt to arrest one immigrant drug offender. That produced spontaneous violence directed at, not just those simply enforcing the law, but also against the fire fight- ing personnel arriving to put out the burning cars and other fires set by the violent crowds. "The Swedish government's response to the increased crime attendant upon mass Is- lamic immigration is along the lines of, 'Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?' The bottom line is that when it comes to Sweden and im- migration, Trump was right (J. Hinderaker, 2/20)." Most Americans agree with Pres- ident Trump when he says, "Here's the bottom line. We've got to keep our country safe. You look at what's happening. We've got to keep our country safe…(Sweden) took in large numbers. They're having prob- lems like they never thought possible." Liberals put their collective heads in ideological sand; don't trust them to keep us safe. Another ill-stated opinion from Trump, arguably true in some respects, was his nam- ing CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC and major newspapers, calling them "enemies of the American people." While over- generalized and excessively pointed, it could be com- pared to similar sentiments that we've heard from Barack Obama and numerous Demo- crats and leftists over the last 15+ years. Liberals and progressives would be hypocritical to con- demn Trump unless they had spoken out against, for in- stance, Obama's repeated dis- paragement and ad homi- nem attacks against Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party movement, etc. Isn't it rich with irony that the same lib- erals that mocked, insulted and hurled foul "tea bag" epi- thets at Tea Party adherents, now praise, support and cheer Trump resisters as "the left's Tea Party"? They're all hypo- crites. I am convinced that much of the left-leaning MSN secretly, if not openly, consider President Donald Trump to be an "en- emy of the American people." In tweets, on Facebook and other social media, some reporters, editors and supposedly "objec- tive" journalists—who revel in the First Amendment's freedom of the press—have made no se- cret of their hatred for Trump, his family, his supporters, con- servatives and Republicans in general. Their tweets are often de- leted, but such vituperation ex- ists; it energizes, colors and slants their coverage of every- thing he says, proposes and en- acts. Are they "Enemies of the American people?" No, they're just bitter, implacable foes who despise all supporters of Presi- dent Trump. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it Swedish Muslims and American press But there's hope for the reality-based community. A new Quinnipiac poll says when Americans are asked whom they trust "to tell the truth about important issues," 52 percent choose the media, and only 37 percent tilt to Trump. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Wasthismeetingopentothepublic? Unfortunately I didn't see it publicized anywhere beforehand. Marci Leigh: On Rep. Doug LaMalfa speaking at a Tehama County Patriots meeting The whole town of Red Bluff needs to be repaved. Our cars are falling apart because of all the potholes on every single street. Kara Johnson: On a repaving project for Antelope Boulevard and SR 36E Chip Thompson, Editor How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Don Polson Dick Polman It's nice to finally see some kind of pushback, even if these efforts don't really make a dent. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, February 28, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6