conformation bias

Another Hoax News Site And A Vile One…Unethical Website Of The Month: NewsLo

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments
NewsLo Caption: "Palin Posed with dead hog: 'I picked a black one so no one could say I was racist!'" Yes, your Democratic neighbor believes this crap, and is posting it on Facebook right now...

NewsLo Caption: “Palin Posed with dead hog: ‘I picked a black one so no one could say I was racist!'”
Yes, your Democratic neighbor believes this crap, and is posting it on Facebook right now…

I’ve got a lot of genuine ethics issues to write about, and I resent having to waste my time on this despicable hoax news site. But a lawyer and gentleman I very much respect just got fooled by a post there, and these vile hoax sites are apparently proliferating. They are designed to pollute the web with rumors and false information, relying on confirmation bias to make others look stupid, or best of all (in their warped view), get a legitimate news site to misinform its readers.

NewsLo’s gimmick is that it publishes fake news stories that include real stories within them, and readers can push buttons that say “Show Facts” (that will highlight the true portions of the fake posts) or “Hide Facts.”  All posts initially come up with the facts hidden, however, so the site is easy to misunderstand. The comments on the posts indicate that a lot of readers don’t push any buttons, which is just what the creeps who maintain this site hope for.

IF you go to the Home page, and IF you go down to the very bottom of that, then you will find an “ABOUT” link, where you will read: Continue reading →

Unethical Quote of the Week: Yahoo Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

“[Mitt Romney and the GOP] are happy to have a party with black people drowning.”

–—Yahoo! Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian, caught on an open mike during the Republican National Convention and broadcast live. Chalian was promptly fired.

I didn’t believe it, to be honest. When I stumbled upon Rush Limbaugh ranting about how the broadcast media was trying to make the case that the Republicans should cancel their convention because of Hurricane Isaac heading to Louisiana, that it was callous and insensitive for them not to, I thought Rush was having one of his increasingly frequent paranoid moments. Yet incredibly, he was not. I personally heard the theme echoed on ABC, on CNN, on NBC and, of course on MSNBC, the latter repeatedly. How “awkward” it was going to be for the GOP to be “having a party” while people were again suffering in New Orleans. How hard it was going to be to explain, how “bad it would look.” Then came Chalian’s gaffe, which was, it is clear, not a sudden Pazuzu moment, but a symptomatic one, as he felt comfortable enough in a thoroughly hateful anti-Republican media culture to make his absurd and insulting comment. Continue reading →