Re Atlantic: What Facebook Did to American Democracy, and why it was so hard to see it coming

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dan Gillmor <dan () gillmor com>
> Date: October 15, 2017 at 2:22:01 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Re Atlantic: What Facebook Did to American Democracy, and why it was so hard to see it coming
>
> Jean Camp is correct about this, of course. But as bad at the Times was
> during the campaign -- and it was just awful overall, though it's
> recovered some of its honor since the election -- there's was a much
> more pervasive and malign contributor to the Trump campaign: television,
> and especially televsion "news" shows.
>
> Trump's "reality-TV" stardom had a lot to do with a large segment of the
> public believing in an entirely phony personality. Then he was amplified
> by CNN, in particular, which led the TV news pack in giving Trump
> several billion dollars worth of free, unedited airtime in 2015-16. You
> may even remember the videos an empty podium with announcers
> breathlessly saying Trump was about to speak, plus lavish and absolutely
> uncritical (until quite late) live-airing of his speeches he filled with
> lies and contempt.
>
> It wasn't just CNN. It was all of the TV "news" programming for the
> longest time. They did it for money. Trump was a draw, and they could
> make big money from advertisers by promoting his campaign.
>
> In early 2016, the head of CBS said something that absolutely
> characterized what was going on in the boardrooms and executive suites
> of the cable and broadcast "news" companies: "The money's rolling in and
> this is fun...It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS."
>
> That may be the epitaph for journalism in the Trump era.
>
> > On 10/15/2017 10:51 AM, Dave Farber wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > *From:* L Jean Camp <ljeanc () gmail com <mailto:ljeanc () gmail com>>
> > > *Date:* October 15, 2017 at 1:11:56 PM EDT
> > > *To:* Dave Farber <dave () farber net <mailto:dave () farber net>>
> > > *Cc:* ip <ip () listbox com <mailto:ip () listbox com>>
> > > *Subject:* *Re: [IP] Atlantic: What Facebook Did to American
> > > Democracy, and why it was so hard to see it coming*
> > > *Reply-To:* ljeanc () gmail com <mailto:ljeanc () gmail com>
> > >
> > > Thank you for that article. 
> > >
> > > However, in our focus on Facebook we are failing to address the role
> > > of the traditional press. It was not only these new social
> > > technologies but the reliable core press that amplified Russian
> > > efforts and destroyed factual discourse in this election.
> > >
> > > Facebook is important but let us recognize that America's three-letter
> > > police force  tipped this election, working with the tradition press.  
> > >
> > > Every American who read the NYTimes went to the polls believing that
> > > Hillary Clinton was corrupt and the focus of an an active FBI
> > > investigation, and also believing that the FBI has reviewed all
> > > Russian contacts with Trump, that his integrity on that issue was
> > > complete. 
> > >
> > > None of this would have worked or mattered without the NYTimes
> > > excessive focus on Clinton Has Scandal or their approach to Comey. It
> > > is clear the FBI payed as much of a role in this election as Facebook. 
> > > https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/
> > >
> > > We need to talk about both of these things.
> > >
> > > We cannot hold the FBI or the NYTimes accountable if we choose to
> > > ignore this. Russia/Brexit worked because of the Guardian and the
> > > Intercept. Trump/Russia worked because of the NYTimes and the FBI. I
> > > do not have a solution but we MUST address the problem.
> > >
> > > Ignoring the critical role of the NYTimes as the reliable voice of
> > > truth means that we are unilaterally disarming.  Of course, the
> > > NYTimes was also critical in leading our country to a disastrous
> > > invasion...
> > >
> > > I released data bout Trump/Russia email server in October. In less
> > > than half an hour the NYTimes rolled out what was clearly a previously
> > > prepared story, "Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link
> > > to Russia", killing the story. 
> > >
> > > Normally I would not expose your list members to Wonkette, but I think
> > > only they have addressed the NYTimes with the proper respect:
> > > https://wonkette.com/610577/new-york-times-may-have-cleared-trump-of-russian-collusion-a-tad-prematurely
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Prof. L. Jean Camp
> > > http://www.ljean.com <http://www.ljean.com/>
> > >
> > > Make a Difference 
> > > http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/govfel/congfel.asp
> > >
> > > On Sat, Oct 14, 2017 at 1:39 PM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com
> > > <mailto:farber () gmail com>> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >    Begin forwarded message:
> > >
> > > >    *From:* Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com
> > > >    <mailto:lauren () vortex com>>
> > > >    *Date:* October 14, 2017 at 12:40:43 PM EDT
> > > >    *To:* nnsquad () nnsquad org <mailto:nnsquad () nnsquad org>
> > > >    *Subject:* *[ NNSquad ] Atlantic: What Facebook Did to American
> > > >    Democracy, and why it was so hard to see it coming*
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >    Atlantic: What Facebook Did to American Democracy, and why it was
> > > >    so hard to see it coming
> > > >
> > > >    https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/what-facebook-did/542502/
> > > >    <https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/what-facebook-did/542502/>
> > > >
> > > >       Facebook's draw is its ability to give you what you want. Like
> > > >       a page, get more of that page's posts; like a story, get more
> > > >       stories like that; interact with a person, get more of their
> > > >       updates. The way Facebook determines the ranking of the News
> > > >       Feed is the probability that you'll like, comment on, or share
> > > >       a story. Shares are worth more than comments, which are both
> > > >       worth more than likes, but in all cases, the more likely you
> > > >       are to interact with a post, the higher up it will show in
> > > >       your News Feed. Two thousand kinds of data (or "features" in
> > > >       the industry parlance) get smelted in Facebook's
> > > >       machine-learning system to make those predictions.
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> -- 
> Dan Gillmor
> dangillmor.com/about
> +1.650.868.7528
> +1.650.353.2928
> (Signal messaging works on both.)



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