Media Bias Thread

[Deru]

^ The point, I would think, should be pretty obvious. Considering the way Fox News leans, how revealing it is that the most influential for writer for Carlson shared those views and the base that listens to them. It's an incredibly embarrassing forced "admission".

 

[mal3volent]

shocking...

Tucker Carlson's top writer resigns after secretly posting racist and sexist remarks in online forum

Tucker Carlson's top writer resigns after secretly posting racist and sexist remarks in online forum

Editor's note: This article quotes racist, homophobic and sexist language, much of which has not been censored.

www.cnn.com

The top writer for Fox News host Tucker Carlson has for years been using a pseudonym to post bigoted remarks on an online forum that is a hotbed for racist, sexist, and other offensive content, CNN Business learned this week.

Just this week, the writer, Blake Neff, responded to a thread started by another user in 2018 with the subject line, "Would u let a JET BLACK congo n****er do lasik eye surgery on u for 50% off?" Neff wrote, "I wouldn't get LASIK from an Asian for free, so no." (The subject line was not censored on the forum.) On June 5, Neff wrote, "Black doods staying inside playing Call of Duty is probably one of the biggest factors keeping crime down."

On June 24, Neff commented, "Honestly given how tired black people always claim to be, maybe the real crisis is their lack of sleep." On June 26, Neff wrote that the only people who care about changing the name of the NFL's Washington Redskins are "white libs and their university-'educated' pets."

And over the course of five years, Neff has maintained a lengthy thread in which he has derided a woman and posted information about her dating life that has invited other users to mock her and invade her privacy. There has at times also been overlap between some material he posted or saw on the forum and Carlson's show.

CNN Business contacted Neff for comment Thursday night. After he or someone acting on his behalf passed that email to Fox News spokespeople, a network spokesperson on Friday morning told CNN Business that Neff had resigned. A Fox News spokesperson said on Friday that Carlson could not be reached for comment. Neff did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In a memo sent to employees Saturday afternoon, after this story was first published, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace condemned "horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior."

"Neff's abhorrent conduct on this forum was never divulged to the show or the network until Friday, at which point we swiftly accepted his resignation," Scott and Wallace wrote. "Make no mistake, actions such as his cannot and will not be tolerated at any time in any part of our work force."

Scott and Wallace said that Carlson would address the matter on his Monday show.

Neff worked at Fox News for nearly four years and was Carlson's top writer. Previously, he was a reporter at The Daily Caller, a conservative news outlet that Carlson co-founded. In a recent article in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Neff said, "Anything [Carlson is] reading off the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me." He also acknowledged the show's influence, telling the magazine, "We're very aware that we do have that power to sway the conversation, so we try to use it responsibly."

When asked in a 2018 appearance on Fox's "The Five" about the writing process for his show, Carlson said he spends hours working on scripts, but referred to Neff by name, saying he was a "wonderful writer" and acknowledging his assistance. And Carlson credited Neff in the acknowledgments of his book, "Ship of Fools," for providing research. In the acknowledgments, Carlson said that Neff and two others who helped with the book "work on and greatly improve our nightly show on Fox."

During the years that Neff wrote for him at Fox, Carlson has hosted one of the most influential shows on cable news. In the last quarter, Carlson had not only the highest-rated program in cable news, but the highest-rated show in the history of cable news. Carlson also counts President Trump among his most loyal viewers. On multiple occasions, the President has tweeted out videos of Carlson's program. Which is to say, the scripts that Neff likely helped write and shape were being shared by the President of the United States.

oh wow, would you look at that...

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Less about media bias and more about fictional journalists created to spread disinformation...

Deepfake used to attack activist couple shows new disinformation frontier

...
Online profiles describe him as a coffee lover and politics junkie who was raised in a traditional Jewish home. His half dozen freelance editorials and blog posts reveal an active interest in anti-Semitism and Jewish affairs, with bylines in the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel.

The catch? Oliver Taylor seems to be an elaborate fiction.

His university says it has no record of him. He has no obvious online footprint beyond an account on the question-and-answer site Quora, where he was active for two days in March. Two newspapers that published his work say they have tried and failed to confirm his identity. And experts in deceptive imagery used state-of-the-art forensic analysis programs to determine that Taylor’s profile photo is a hyper-realistic forgery - a “deepfake.”
...
Six experts interviewed by Reuters say the image has the characteristics of a deepfake.

“The distortion and inconsistencies in the background are a tell-tale sign of a synthesized image, as are a few glitches around his neck and collar,” said digital image forensics pioneer Hany Farid, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

Artist Mario Klingemann, who regularly uses deepfakes in his work, said the photo “has all the hallmarks.”

“I’m 100 percent sure,” he said.
...
The Taylor persona is a rare in-the-wild example of a phenomenon that has emerged as a key anxiety of the digital age: The marriage of deepfakes and disinformation.

The threat is drawing increasing concern in Washington and Silicon Valley. Last year House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff warned that computer-generated video could “turn a world leader into a ventriloquist’s dummy.” Last month Facebook announced the conclusion of its Deepfake Detection Challenge - a competition intended to help researchers automatically identify falsified footage. Last week online publication The Daily Beast revealed a network of deepfake journalists - part of a larger group of bogus personas seeding propaganda online.
...

So aside from any media entity running an agenda over honest facts...there is the growing opportunity for persons to be invented solely to attack others or spread false information. A natural extension of all these bot farms FB and twitter are accused of running rampant with, I suppose.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

I'll admit, I had no idea NYT even attempted to address their wholehearted fail regarding the 2016 election.

Resignation Letter — Bari Weiss

I joined the paper with gratitude and optimism three years ago. I was hired with the goal of bringing in voices that would not otherwise appear in your pages: first-time writers, centrists, conservatives and others who would not naturally think of The Times as their home. The reason for this effort was clear: The paper’s failure to anticipate the outcome of the 2016 election meant that it didn’t have a firm grasp of the country it covers. Dean Baquet and others have admitted as much on various occasions. The priority in Opinion was to help redress that critical shortcoming.
...
But the lessons that ought to have followed the election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.
...
My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m “writing about the Jews again.” Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly “inclusive” one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.

There are terms for all of this: unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge. I’m no legal expert. But I know that this is wrong.

I do not understand how you have allowed this kind of behavior to go on inside your company in full view of the paper’s entire staff and the public. And I certainly can’t square how you and other Times leaders have stood by while simultaneously praising me in private for my courage. Showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery.
...
It took the paper two days and two jobs to say that the Tom Cotton op-ed “fell short of our standards.” We attached an editor’s note on a travel story about Jaffa shortly after it was published because it “failed to touch on important aspects of Jaffa’s makeup and its history.” But there is still none appended to Cheryl Strayed’s fawning interview with the writer Alice Walker, a proud anti-Semite who believes in lizard Illuminati.

The paper of record is, more and more, the record of those living in a distant galaxy, one whose concerns are profoundly removed from the lives of most people. This is a galaxy in which, to choose just a few recent examples, the Soviet space program is lauded for its “diversity”; the doxxing of teenagers in the name of justice is condoned; and the worst caste systems in human history includes the United States alongside Nazi Germany.
...
As places like The Times and other once-great journalistic institutions betray their standards and lose sight of their principles, Americans still hunger for news that is accurate, opinions that are vital, and debate that is sincere. I hear from these people every day. “An independent press is not a liberal ideal or a progressive ideal or a democratic ideal. It’s an American ideal,” you said a few years ago. I couldn’t agree more. America is a great country that deserves a great newspaper.
...
But I can no longer do the work that you brought me here to do—the work that Adolph Ochs described in that famous 1896 statement: “to make of the columns of The New York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.”

Ochs’s idea is one of the best I’ve encountered. And I’ve always comforted myself with the notion that the best ideas win out. But ideas cannot win on their own. They need a voice. They need a hearing. Above all, they must be backed by people willing to live by them.

A few key statements that stuck out to me:

• There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly “inclusive” one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.
• Showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery.
• This is a galaxy in which, to choose just a few recent examples, the Soviet space program is lauded for its “diversity”; the doxxing of teenagers in the name of justice is condoned; and the worst caste systems in human history includes the United States alongside Nazi Germany.

She can be written off as sour grapes who escaped before being fired (presumably, they'll have something come out that she wasn't right for the organization...something of an understatement). Still, this is the first noticeable voice I've heard willing to call them out, and it was done from someone who lived inside for years.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

ABC Spikes Leaked Video of Floyd Arrest, CBS/NBC Edit Out ‘Stop Resisting

Monday was the first chance the liberal broadcast networks had at giving their viewers a fuller understanding of the day George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer as two body camera videos were leaked to the U.K.'s Daily Mail. The videos show officers struggling to get Floyd into the cop car with an officer telling him to “stop resisting” at one point. ABC’s World News Tonight skipped the videos entirely, while CBS and NBC aired highly-edited soundbites and omitted the order.

In the video Daily Mail posted on YouTube, Officer Thomas Lane had Floyd out of his vehicle and was trying to get him into handcuffs. At the 2:13-mark, Lane can be heard telling Floyd to “stop resisting,” to which Floyd said: “I’m not.” “Yes, you are,” Lane replied.

That exchange was edited out by both the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News. Instead, they chose to mislead. The included video below shows how both networks used the leaked video for selectively edited soundbites.

The media have seen these videos before when officials allowed the media to watch them, but not broadcast them. But CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell hid that fact from viewers. Telling them, “Tonight, we're getting the first look at body cam video from two of the Minneapolis police officers who were on the scene the night George Floyd died in custody.”
...

 

[Deru]

ABC Spikes Leaked Video of Floyd Arrest, CBS/NBC Edit Out ‘Stop Resisting

I'm not really sure what to say to this article but it screams misdirection. I watched the original video leaked to the Daily Mail and the stop resisting commands, given the context, were irrelevant. Considering, in context, the stop resisting commands seemed exaggerated given what was happening and Floyd obviously in distress - but besides this minor misdirection of the article, the horrific part was at the end when Lane voices concerns about turning him over and Chauvin replies, "No, he's staying put." Also, "That's why we have an ambulance on the way", as if he knew what they were doing was harmful.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

I can't argue the part you point to is significant and telling of the cops state of mind. But does the 'resisting arrest' and actions that got the cop to that mental state not matter?


Omission of requests to stop resisting, and continued resistance, only strengthens the idea that the cop sought him out specifically with intent to kill and the other cops went along. It hides the fact Floyd wasn't following orders and was resisting. That is part of the facts, which MSM doesn't care to present.

 

[Deru]

But does the 'resisting arrest' and actions that got the cop to that mental state not matter?

Absolutely, but if you take all of the video available at this point, that really gives the context needed in this case. Not just this most recent video, but all of the video, combined.

That is part of the facts, which MSM doesn't care to present.

This I agree with here, they should have aired the video in it's entirety to allow it to speak for itself, because by doing so it only invites that misdirection to begin with.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

I would have to agree there are right leaning media who set about destroying Biden (and pumping Trump). However, for CNN to pose this question AND get a response that was given

 

[TheLoveBandit]

 

[nuttynutskin]

Seeing how the left has been covering certain things that have been happening is just mind blowing.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

 

[TheLoveBandit]

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Facebook is shit, who cares what they censor?

 

[JessFR]

Facebook is shit, who cares what they censor?

I know right?

There's all these people who are either current or ex Facebook users. So few like me who were never Facebook users.

EDIT: actually that's not entirely true. I tried Facebook once a few years ago, for about a few weeks. Then ditched it again after determining that every reason I didn't try it sooner seemed to be correct.

 

[Deru]

Facebook is shit, who cares what they censor?

It gives Republicans huge ammo against Facebook (and Twitter) for ”censoring” the article with almost no context or communication as to why. The appearance of it looks horrible for both platforms and for Biden as well. The CEO of Twitter even publicly just acknowledged how poorly his own company handled it.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

It gives Republicans huge ammo against Facebook (and Twitter) for ”censoring” the article with almost no context or communication as to why. The appearance of it looks horrible for both platforms and for Biden as well. The CEO of Twitter even publicly just acknowledged how poorly his own company handled it.

I already voted and something as small as this wouldn't influence my vote.

 

[Deru]

I already voted and something as small as this wouldn't influence my vote.

True. I just voted today, as well. I think it could potentially sway some votes among the vast majority of people who haven’t voted yet, and even with the perception, opens both platforms up to huge scrutiny as well (and possibly even legal ramification, depending upon how legit the reason was to censor). Not only was this well timed, but Facebook and Twitter just made it entirely worse.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Facebook and Twitter just made it entirely worse.

Trump himself and many people right and left decry "fake news"; the platforms get to censor as they see fit and have faced *tons* of pressure for *not* censoring earlier.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Why would this influence the election at all given this?

 

[Deru]

Damned if they do, damned if they don't

I think depending upon how it plays out, it could just open up more attacks on Section 230. Or, their own protections under it.

Why would this influence the election at all given this?

In terms of the report, itself, or Facebook and Twitter censoring it?

I think had Facebook and Twitter done nothing, it likely would have had very little impact. Most people’s minds were probably already made up to the point where, maybe (?) it would have swayed some undecided votes. But I think the act of censorship, or even the appearance of it, gives it even more “credibility” that something is going on, further potentially swaying votes. Whether it would have any meaningful impact is probably unlikely, the other problem is if the perception of it alone create more problems. I think had they really articulated and provided context better for the actions they took, it may not even have been as bad, but it really did look bad there for a while today early on with minimal communication. And at a minimum, it gives Republicans even more ammo to use to try to sway votes.