Talk:Fake news website/Archive 1
List being updated
creative commons list being updated here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10eA5-mCZLSS4MQY5QGb5ewC3VAL6pLkT53V_81ZyitM/preview
Victor Grigas (talk) 02:19, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- If you check it again, the list itself is gone, and all that remains is tips for how to avoid such sites. Perhaps best used for that purpose. Although maybe you could copy it with that license to another Wiki website for archiving purposes. Sagecandor (talk) 02:25, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
List of fake news sites
I'm not sure that this is encyclopedic.
There are bound to be thousands and thousands of fake news sites both in existence now, and in the future.
If we name all of them, the article will be over dominated by such a list as opposed to discussion about them in paragraph form from cited sources.
Maybe the link given as a source could be most useful in either the "Further reading" or "External links" section.
Also, this source link appears to be a re-hashing of the list made by Melissa Zimdars, a media professor at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, which is already discussed in paragraph form in the article itself, and already linked as further reading.
Sagecandor (talk) 02:21, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- You know, I think you are right. That said, there are many pages on Wikipedia that are 'list of...'. What if we make a new page for 'list of fake news sites? It's not a place to learn ABOUT fake news (like this article is) but a place to identify what sites are fake news.Victor Grigas (talk) 02:42, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Victorgrigas:That's a great idea ... I'm not sure any of those fake news sites are individually "notable" to be on a list, are they? I think we should let the outside experts like Melissa Zimdars keep compiling the lists externally, and we can link back to them in the article here, what do you think? Sagecandor (talk) 02:53, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- I think the notability comes from the external list itself? What if at least two external sites claim for a site to be fake? What are the notability rules for this on Wikipedia? Is there an internal list of what sites might be considered noteworthy?Victor Grigas (talk) 03:01, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- Maybe we can use as a model the article you added to the "See also" section, namely List of satirical news websites. In that one it appears that to be listed there, all the sites have to be independently "notable" with their own already existing articles on Wikipedia. Perhaps we should stick to that type of standard? Sagecandor (talk) 03:06, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- I've created List of fake news websites using the list that was here. It should be expanded, but each entry should be individually sourced as I have done using named references. --JFH (talk) 03:10, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Jfhutson:That's a great initiative on your part, but I'm not sure Wikipedia is the place for that unless they are all each notable on their own. It's likely over time that page will either get deleted or redirected back to here, probably. Sagecandor (talk) 03:14, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- I don't think any of these are likely to be notable, but a list of them is useful, and I can't think of a guideline that would lead to its deletion as long as we source it.--JFH (talk) 03:15, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- If you want to do the effort to expand it, source it, and maintain it, that's awesome. I hope you're right! Sagecandor (talk) 03:18, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- I don't think any of these are likely to be notable, but a list of them is useful, and I can't think of a guideline that would lead to its deletion as long as we source it.--JFH (talk) 03:15, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Jfhutson:That's a great initiative on your part, but I'm not sure Wikipedia is the place for that unless they are all each notable on their own. It's likely over time that page will either get deleted or redirected back to here, probably. Sagecandor (talk) 03:14, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- I've created List of fake news websites using the list that was here. It should be expanded, but each entry should be individually sourced as I have done using named references. --JFH (talk) 03:10, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- Maybe we can use as a model the article you added to the "See also" section, namely List of satirical news websites. In that one it appears that to be listed there, all the sites have to be independently "notable" with their own already existing articles on Wikipedia. Perhaps we should stick to that type of standard? Sagecandor (talk) 03:06, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- I think the notability comes from the external list itself? What if at least two external sites claim for a site to be fake? What are the notability rules for this on Wikipedia? Is there an internal list of what sites might be considered noteworthy?Victor Grigas (talk) 03:01, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Victorgrigas:That's a great idea ... I'm not sure any of those fake news sites are individually "notable" to be on a list, are they? I think we should let the outside experts like Melissa Zimdars keep compiling the lists externally, and we can link back to them in the article here, what do you think? Sagecandor (talk) 02:53, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
Added three secondary sources
Added three secondary sources to sources Business Insider, and The Plain Dealer, and The Hollywood Reporter -- with edit here.
Sagecandor (talk) 13:19, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
- Also removed reference to citation The Washington Post for same information and solely relying on secondary sources as mentioned above. The fact that many other secondary sources are now reporting on this exact same information from The Washington Post now makes it even more noteworthy. Sagecandor (talk) 13:24, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
Merge "Facebook and fake news" into this article
Proposal to merge "Facebook and fake news" into this article.
Covers exact same topic.
This article here covers it in better detail and better sourcing at section:
Fake_news_website#Responses_from_Google_and_Facebook.
Sagecandor (talk) 15:06, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- Support I agree that this article covers the same stuff as the other one (which I created) but in more detail. Everymorning (talk) 22:15, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- Support, as per explanation by Everymorning, basically. Sagecandor (talk) 22:22, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- As it appears we are in agreement between the merge proposer and the only contributor (creator) to the page-to-be-merged-in, I might do this earlier than was going to. Was thinking about letting this run for one week, but since both parties agree to the merge, might do it sooner. Sagecandor (talk) 23:27, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- DONE -- merged all content in here from Facebook and fake news. Sagecandor (talk) 16:58, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
Paul Horner quote
I cut this yesterday with User:Snooganssnoogans's agreement, but User:Sagecandor has added it back - what does the article gain by telling the reader that one particular fake news writer claims to make $10,000 dollars a month and believes that "Trump is in the White House because of me"? It's not a useful figure on the profit from fake news because the next paragraph has a secondary source for Balkan teenagers making ten times that much, and it's all WP:NEWSPRIMARY - a secondary source commenting on one liar's impact might be worth mentioning, but that liar's self-aggrandising assessment of his own work seems inappropriate. --McGeddon (talk) 08:46, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- I understand how you feel and it is certainly most upsetting information. But it has been re-quoted and re-reported by many many secondary sources, three of which I cited in the article text itself, including "According to Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Plain Dealer ..." before the quoted text itself. Sagecandor (talk) 13:01, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- Lots and lots of coverage in searches verbatim for "Paul Horner" and "Fake". Whether we like it or not, it is getting lots and lots of analysis from secondary sources. Sagecandor (talk) 13:06, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- Per WP:NEWSPRIMARY, interview quotes are considered primary sources, not secondary. --McGeddon (talk) 19:39, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Right, but we've got listed above secondary sources reporting on it, and we avoid using the primary source, The Washington Post, in the article for that particular piece of information. Instead, we now rely upon three other secondary sources -- Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Plain Dealer. Sagecandor (talk) 20:07, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- WP:NEWSPRIMARY explicitly considers "interviews and reports of interviews" to be the same thing. The real problem here is that most of the quotation is redundant - we already have a stronger secondary source on fake news revenue (giving a higher number), and a secondary source on the BLP claim that members of Trump's staff reposted fake stories. All this quote adds is a self-confessed hoaxer telling us how influential he believes himself to be. --McGeddon (talk) 20:41, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Right, but we've got listed above secondary sources reporting on it, and we avoid using the primary source, The Washington Post, in the article for that particular piece of information. Instead, we now rely upon three other secondary sources -- Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Plain Dealer. Sagecandor (talk) 20:07, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Per WP:NEWSPRIMARY, interview quotes are considered primary sources, not secondary. --McGeddon (talk) 19:39, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- I think we should remove Horner's quote on his supposed influence on the election. The man is not a political scientist, expert on politics or notable politician, and he shouldn't be quoted on that topic. Its' not a particularly interesting quote either. I'm neutral as to whether we should include Horner's claim as to how much he earns a month on fabricating news. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 20:16, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- I've removed all the quotations from that person, Better? Sagecandor (talk) 21:03, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Evidently others feel the quotes should be included. After my edit, another user, Thunderforge, added it back as a new paragraph about the quotes, and I removed that in the spirit of collaboration from this talk page here. I've asked him on his talk page to come here to share his views. Sagecandor (talk) 21:37, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- And, it was added back, again, this time by Volunteer Marek at here. Sagecandor (talk) 21:40, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- My main reason for adding it was that there was nothing regarding this widely reported interview (I found it in an Ars Technica article) in the section for the 2016 Presidential election. It didn't even occur to me to look for it elsewhere. I do think that it's worth mentioning that he believes he influenced the election (because so many news sites are repeating that claim), but regardless, I think something needs to be in the 2016 US Presidential election section. -Thunderforge (talk) 21:52, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- So far we appear to have Sagecandor, Thunderforge, and Volunteer Marek for keeping some version of the quotes, and McGeddon and Snooganssnoogans against. Can we come to some sort of compromise resolution somehow? Sagecandor (talk) 21:55, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- As I stated in my edit summary, some of the quote is useful. I thought my version was a "compromise resolution" already.Volunteer Marek (talk) 22:19, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- I can live with the current version, since my main concern was having something in the 2016 U.S. president section. I would still like to have Horner's claim that he influenced the election, but I think that the existing quote is acceptable. -Thunderforge (talk) 23:35, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Thunderforge:I'm okay with that too, but I'd like to come to a conclusion that makes the article more stable. Sagecandor (talk) 02:36, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
- The New Yorker re-quoted the quotes, at "The Failure of Facebook Democracy". Sagecandor (talk) 17:38, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Thunderforge:I'm okay with that too, but I'd like to come to a conclusion that makes the article more stable. Sagecandor (talk) 02:36, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
- I can live with the current version, since my main concern was having something in the 2016 U.S. president section. I would still like to have Horner's claim that he influenced the election, but I think that the existing quote is acceptable. -Thunderforge (talk) 23:35, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- As I stated in my edit summary, some of the quote is useful. I thought my version was a "compromise resolution" already.Volunteer Marek (talk) 22:19, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- So far we appear to have Sagecandor, Thunderforge, and Volunteer Marek for keeping some version of the quotes, and McGeddon and Snooganssnoogans against. Can we come to some sort of compromise resolution somehow? Sagecandor (talk) 21:55, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- My main reason for adding it was that there was nothing regarding this widely reported interview (I found it in an Ars Technica article) in the section for the 2016 Presidential election. It didn't even occur to me to look for it elsewhere. I do think that it's worth mentioning that he believes he influenced the election (because so many news sites are repeating that claim), but regardless, I think something needs to be in the 2016 US Presidential election section. -Thunderforge (talk) 21:52, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- And, it was added back, again, this time by Volunteer Marek at here. Sagecandor (talk) 21:40, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Evidently others feel the quotes should be included. After my edit, another user, Thunderforge, added it back as a new paragraph about the quotes, and I removed that in the spirit of collaboration from this talk page here. I've asked him on his talk page to come here to share his views. Sagecandor (talk) 21:37, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- I've removed all the quotations from that person, Better? Sagecandor (talk) 21:03, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
Classifying Politifact.com as a biased and satirical website
There seems to be an unsolicited, not sourced and incorrect claim that Politifact.com is a fact-checking website. Please justify this claim, or keep my edit on there, or let's compromise by not mentioning the website.
It needs a source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by PantherBF3 (talk • contribs) 23:59, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
- If you need evidence that PolitiFact.com is a fact-checking website....try clicking on the link and reading the article itself. Please stop making politically motivated edits and pretending you are reverting trolls. Justeditingtoday (talk) 00:07, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
If you think that "source" includes an article from the website itself I think you are deluded and politically motivated.http://www.newsmax.com/Reagan/PolitiFact-Fact-Checkers-Bias/2015/03/20/id/631565/http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/07/12/epic-humiliation-politifact-makes-13-errors-in-a-single-clinton-cash-fact-check/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by PantherBF3 (talk • contribs) 00:09, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Neither are reliable sources, and hurling political invective will lead to a block. GABgab 00:11, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
Neither is sourcing a claim about an organisation ... from the organisation itself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by PantherBF3 (talk • contribs) 00:16, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Nobody said the organization should reference itself. I invited you to read the Wikipedia article on PolitiFact.com which has over 30 references. Justeditingtoday (talk) 00:27, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Justeditingtoday:Multiple secondary sources identifying PolitiFact.com as a fact-checking website were already provided in the article. Including the text:
Fact-checking website PolitiFact.com was praised by its colleagues at FactCheck.org and recommended as a resource for readers to check before sharing a potentially fake story.[1]
- Lori Robertson and Eugene Kiely (18 November 2016), "How to Spot Fake News", FactCheck.org, retrieved 19 November 2016
- Praise from their competitors and colleagues over at FactCheck.org. Sagecandor (talk) 00:46, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Lori Robertson and Eugene Kiely (18 November 2016), "How to Spot Fake News", FactCheck.org, retrieved 19 November 2016
Possible page move
Should this be called Fake news or Fake news article with content about the sites in a section within? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:17, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- Nah it's big enough for its own independent article. Sagecandor (talk) 13:02, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
- Hi Sagecandor. Okay, fair enough. Cheers. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 21:42, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Thanks Anna Frodesiak ! Sagecandor (talk) 21:42, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- And thank you for the feedback, my friend. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 21:44, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- No problem, Anna Frodesiak. Say, we're having trouble coming to a good compromise resolution down on this page at Talk:Fake_news_website#Paul_Horner_quote, maybe you could weigh in with your wisdom for us. Sagecandor (talk) 21:49, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Hmmmmm, I don't know what to say about that. Well, you are all fine at that thread. I'm sure you'll work it out. Sorry I can't help. Best, Anna Frodesiak (talk) 22:04, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- No problem, Anna Frodesiak. Say, we're having trouble coming to a good compromise resolution down on this page at Talk:Fake_news_website#Paul_Horner_quote, maybe you could weigh in with your wisdom for us. Sagecandor (talk) 21:49, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- And thank you for the feedback, my friend. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 21:44, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Thanks Anna Frodesiak ! Sagecandor (talk) 21:42, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
- Hi Sagecandor. Okay, fair enough. Cheers. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 21:42, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
@Anna Frodesiak:Do you want to revisit after the article has now been expanded and see if the title still fits of if there is a wider title that could work? Sagecandor (talk) 04:07, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Hi Sagecandor. Well I'm pretty out of touch with this article. You and others who have been working on it should decide. Best wishes. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:32, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Alright no problem. Sagecandor (talk) 05:54, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
Russia removal
I've removed the reference to Russia, as the claimed source on Buzzfeed claims to source that statement from another article (https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo yet if you click that article, there is no mention of Russia. I assume this is anti-Russian rhetoric. 151.229.53.102 (talk) 22:50, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
- Right. The other citation does (this) — Rhododendrites talk \\ 00:50, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
- Re-read what I said please. On your Business Insider link, click the link to the source, it goes to Buzzfeed, but the Buzzfeed article doesn't mention Russia at all. I've reverted your edit, if you wish to remove it please clarify on my Talk page first to avoid an edit war. 151.229.53.102 (talk) 21:38, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
- Problem solved. Used many other different secondary sources. Now extensively documented in its own separate subsection in the article. Sagecandor (talk) 01:38, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Rhododendrites:Incredibly revealing investigation by two separate expert research groups as reported by The Washington Post:
- Timberg, Craig (24 November 2016), "Russian propaganda effort helped spread 'fake news' during election, experts say", The Washington Post, retrieved 25 November 2016
- Added and incorporated into the article and the introduction section. Sagecandor (talk) 03:44, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: I misunderstood the IP's original objection, but it looks like you've addressed it. Thanks. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 16:07, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Rhododendrites: Glad you approve! Sagecandor (talk) 16:11, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: I misunderstood the IP's original objection, but it looks like you've addressed it. Thanks. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 16:07, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Rhododendrites:Incredibly revealing investigation by two separate expert research groups as reported by The Washington Post:
- Problem solved. Used many other different secondary sources. Now extensively documented in its own separate subsection in the article. Sagecandor (talk) 01:38, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Re-read what I said please. On your Business Insider link, click the link to the source, it goes to Buzzfeed, but the Buzzfeed article doesn't mention Russia at all. I've reverted your edit, if you wish to remove it please clarify on my Talk page first to avoid an edit war. 151.229.53.102 (talk) 21:38, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
Over-reliability on single source
This article relies heavily on Buzzfeed citations. Is this considered a 'reliable' source to use anyway? The irony of criticising false news and citing Buzzfeed isn't lost on me. Given that it's predominantly left-wing, is it safe to assume that Buzzfeed is fine to quote? (I jest) 151.229.53.102 (talk) 23:06, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
- Buzzfeed does widely respected investigative reporting, in addition to the lists, gifs and other nonsense on the site. See, for instance, this piece by the Poynter Institute about Buzzfeed's investigative journalism[1]: how it has won and been nominated for journalism awards and how its journalists are highly esteemed. Or this piece about how CNN hired an entire investigative journalism team from Buzzfeed[2]. The stories that were broken by Buzzfeed in this article have been widely reported on elsewhere in reliable sources. So we're not being overly reliant on a bad source. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 23:34, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
- The New Yorker significantly relied upon the investigative reporting by BuzzFeed News, at "The Failure of Facebook Democracy". Sagecandor (talk) 02:24, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
respected by whom? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.111.11.118 (talk) 21:31, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
Geographic Bias
I added a couple of templates to the article because, after reading it, I noticed a very strong geographic bias. That's not necessarily surprising given how many US-based contributors there are on Wikipedia (myself included), but writing an article using primarily US-based research and sources gives a US-slanted article.
For example, in the lead section alone, the following sources are mentioned: BuzzFeed, US News & World Report, PropOrNot and Foreign Policy Research Institute, GWU, RAND, and President Obama. All quite clearly American sources, and no viewpoints from any countries outside the United States. The article itself does provide a greater diversity of sources, but they too are limited to pretty much just the United States and Western Europe.
I'd also like to point out that "fake news" is a broader concept than just the US presidential election, so it's not fitting (and US-biased) for the lead section to solely focus on that topic. --Slon02 (talk) 21:01, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Strongly disagree. The article cites issues involving Russia, Macedonia, Romania, Sweden, Germany, Indonesia, and Philippines. Slon02 has provided zero secondary sources to back up his spurious claims of bias. The article presents a global focus already. Sagecandor (talk) 21:46, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Indeed. You'll need to show some sort of evidence other than your own research/belief to support that. This has been a major story in the United States recently, so a large number of available sources will be based in the US. It's also a neologism that, while it refers to something broader, is specific enough and contentious enough that we'd need sources specifically calling things "fake news" (rather than simply incorrect, sensational, conspiracist, etc.). You may be right, but there needs to be a better justification/explanation for placing a tag like that. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 22:31, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Thank you, Rhododendrites, for your helpful explanation here. In addition, I've taken care to make some edits to improve the global and worldwide focus on multiple different countries of the article. Hopefully this shows, right from the introduction itself, that this is a global issue impacting multiple different countries throughout the world, and that the article now covers this. Sagecandor (talk) 22:34, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
I was interviewed by Vice about fake news
I don't know if this is useful for the media section? I certainly won't add it, but wanted everyone to know it's here:http://www.vice.com/en_se/read/a-wikipedian-told-us-how-wikipedia-stays-reliable-in-the-fake-news-era Victor Grigas (talk) 19:33, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Wow, thanks ! Sagecandor (talk) 19:35, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- I saw that, great job Victor! And thank you.Volunteer Marek (talk) 23:11, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- In an article about the reliability of Wikipedia, it's somewhat less-than reassuring to see the words: "How deep is the Mariana trench? Forty-three miles." --Hillbillyholiday talk 23:49, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Someone on my facebook feed mentioned that too. Want to reach out to the writer for a correction? I don't think I should, and a Wikipedian doing it would have more weight and would further prove the point of the article.Victor Grigas (talk) 00:47, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
Trump vs. Clinton
Pretty much every source I've seen emphasizes that the fake news purveyors tried out both anti-Clinton and anti-Trump stories but it was only the former that took off. This should be reflected in our article.Volunteer Marek (talk) 23:26, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- Yes, I saw that reported on by lots of secondary sources also. It's already in the article in multiple places. Quite strange times, I wonder why that pattern was? Sagecandor (talk) 23:27, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- Just a comment, but fake news websites are specialists in telling people what they want to hear. You shouldn't necessarily believe them when they speak to a liberal newspaper and tell its liberal journalists how smart they are. Although it is certainly true that they particularly seem to have targeted Trump voters. Blythwood (talk) 07:53, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Yeah I wonder why that was. Sagecandor (talk) 08:29, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Just a comment, but fake news websites are specialists in telling people what they want to hear. You shouldn't necessarily believe them when they speak to a liberal newspaper and tell its liberal journalists how smart they are. Although it is certainly true that they particularly seem to have targeted Trump voters. Blythwood (talk) 07:53, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
PropOrNot called 'experts'
Who can independently verify that PropOrNot are actually 'experts', as opposed to Fake News themselves? So far, Washington Post is refusing to reveal the identity of anyone behind this shadowy, mysterious group that popped up overnight, has claimed endorsements that have been rejected, and has been trashed by respected journalists like Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept as "Garbage journalism".
Until then, I don't think we should refer to these people as 'experts', and DEFINITELY not non-partisan, as they have done nothing to prove any such claims except their own word, and widely-discredited story by the Washington Post. Solntsa90 (talk) 19:40, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Already being discussed here on this page, above. Please see Talk:Fake_news_website#Criticism. Sagecandor (talk) 19:42, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
Praise and a topic to consider
In my school's journalism class, I'm learning about the integrity of news sources, and I found this Wikipedia article to be extremely informative to my work. Nice job to all who have contributed to this page!
However, there should probably be a section about traditional fake-newspaper websites like The Onion. It's mostly a fake newspaper but has transitioned to a web-only paper in recent years. "Although satire sites like The Onion are not the target of the policy, it is not clear whether some of them, which often run fake news stories written for humorous effect, will be inadvertently affected by Google’s change."
epicgenius (talk) 22:03, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Epicgenius:Thank you very much for the praise and thank you for the helpful copy editing. As for The Onion -- Is that not already covered by the top note link to News satire ? Sagecandor (talk) 22:05, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: Yes, it's linked from news satire. But the recent crackdowns on fake news may also affect "traditional" news-satire sites, which is the only reason I'm suggesting this. I'm just suggesting this, but if it's not included, I think the "news satire" Wiki page covers this topic. epicgenius (talk) 22:06, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- What would a suggested title for such a section be, and what order should it appear as a section? Sagecandor (talk) 22:13, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- I actually just integrated some information on this in the "Responses" section. Although it's a start, I think we should mention satire sites in the "Responses" section if applicable. Otherwise, we can create a whole new section near the bottom, in regards to how fake news and news satire differs. epicgenius (talk) 22:21, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- Looks good as integrated version so far. Sagecandor (talk) 22:30, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- I actually just integrated some information on this in the "Responses" section. Although it's a start, I think we should mention satire sites in the "Responses" section if applicable. Otherwise, we can create a whole new section near the bottom, in regards to how fake news and news satire differs. epicgenius (talk) 22:21, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- What would a suggested title for such a section be, and what order should it appear as a section? Sagecandor (talk) 22:13, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: Yes, it's linked from news satire. But the recent crackdowns on fake news may also affect "traditional" news-satire sites, which is the only reason I'm suggesting this. I'm just suggesting this, but if it's not included, I think the "news satire" Wiki page covers this topic. epicgenius (talk) 22:06, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
Fake news website discussed by Wikipedia news
Semi-protected edit request on 29 November 2016
the article states "After journalists from National Public Radio identified Coler"if possible it would nice to make it clear that it was "a journalist from National Public Radio and an independant software engineer identified coler"To our knowledge this is the first such identification of someone who has deliberately hidden their identity, to the extent that I was required to forensically analyse present and past data from many sources.
It seems relevant since fake news creators go to immense trouble to hide their identities
Thank you for your considerationJohn Jansen (software engineer and the one who found Coler) 71.202.158.81 (talk) 04:17, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
Done. It is verified by this source, but I worded it a little differently. Let me know if you want to change the wording; I had to fix the grammar a little bit. epicgenius (talk) 04:41, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
- @FallingGravity:Maybe we could discuss this edit, here, as that material was in direct response to above, and was change made by Epicgenius ? Sagecandor (talk) 07:15, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
Wake up please
I would issue a challenge to the editors of this website, and the editors of articles like this one in particular, to examine their own biases and reality bubbles.
Look, this article is currently full of slanted sources which are viewed by your own confirmation biases as "reliable", such as Full Frontal, PropOrNot, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, among others.
Your own article states "PropOrNot is a nonpartisan foreign policy expert group composed of persons with prior experience in international relations, warfare, and information technology sectors." A rephrasing of a quote right on their own website. The fact is we just cannot say that this website is nonpartisan until we know who these "persons" running it really are. But they do have a clear detectable agenda: to list and condemn as "propaganda" all sites and media which do not bow to the narrative presented by western governments and NGOs.
This article reads like a conspiracy theory, only one which supports the western establishment and paints the Russians as a secretive, all-controlling cabal. Neo-McCarthyism at its finest.
So this is my advice, you may take it or leave it: always question everything. This includes the western establishment's narrative, and especially your own, sometimes subconscious, biases. Keep your reality bubble permeable.
May you find the Love and Light of the Infinite Creator whom you are. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.1.158.251 (talk • contribs) 14:50, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- The article uses WP:SECONDARY sources for that information. None of those WP:PRIMARY sources mentioned above are relied up on as sources for this article.
Sagecandor (talk) 17:08, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- exactly, looking at the amount written of this article and how it is poping out from nowhere makes it obvious people are getting paid for writing these articles. Its really questionable lately and this article is not neutral at all, it was created in 20:00, 15 November 2016 just some days ago. Who has so much free time in their hand writing all this out of no where, and why now all of the sudden for such vague and random term like Fake News which could mean a lot of things?--Crossswords (talk) 05:08, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
Overabundance of images
There are frankly just too many unnecessary and redundant images in this article, that mostly seem like a way to imprint the 'message' of this article into the mind of someone who will just skim it, and look at the pictures. The images of Russia on the map, and the Russian flag, are just ridiculous. They don't add anything to the article, and only serve to make more transparent the POV of the cadre of editors in control of this article. Likewise the images of Obama, or of the logo for a website, are superfluous. I know my recommendation will be ignored because it goes against the bias of the editors-in-chief, but hopefully others who see this absolute mess of an article, and go to the talk page, will find some encouragement in knowing they are not alone in their outrage at this abuse of Wikipedia. 73.20.33.105 (talk) 16:27, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- What sources do you have to support your claims of bias and POV of this article, please? Sagecandor (talk) 16:52, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Prior comment by same user appears to show support for White nationalism at link. Sagecandor (talk) 16:55, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- There were ten images in the article on 25 November 2016. The Current version has 12 images and only one (town of Veles, Macedonia) is not USA or Russia related.
- And that's not proof that the IP supports White nationalism (as if that were a bad thing). He is simply pointing out racism and sexism against certain group (White/European males). Emily Goldstein (talk) 12:29, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Free-use images are used when relevant to the text directly next to the text where discussed in the article by secondary sources. Sagecandor (talk) 14:35, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Prior comment by same user appears to show support for White nationalism at link. Sagecandor (talk) 16:55, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
Screenshot
This is a great article. It really needs an example image of some fake news website to document the problem - this would be acceptable under fair use. Any suggestions for a really blatantly false story? I looked for "Pope Endorses Trump" pages but they all seem to have been deleted now their purpose has passed. Blythwood (talk) 08:26, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- I see that someone has added a screenshot of endingthefed.com. I don't think it's accurate to say it's a valid fair use claim to take any example of a site listed as a fake news site. It would need to be the subject of critical commentary in the article. To that end I grabbed PolitiFact's screenshot of 70news, which is explicitly covered in this article. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 15:27, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- It's preferable to have all images on the page be under a free use license. Sagecandor (talk) 18:55, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/RealTrueNews_home_page.jpg/220px-RealTrueNews_home_page.jpg)
- I uploaded this screenshot from realtruenews. FallingGravity 19:21, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- Free is preferable indeed, but screenshots typically don't work that way. :) Except, of course, when there's nothing copyrightable (as is probably the case with this Realtruenews screenshot, which is just text, not laid out particularly creatively). When it's just text, however, it's unclear how much it adds in terms of illustrating the subject (unless it's e.g. a logo of a company in an article about the company). More options is better, and it doesn't hurt to have, but it looks like Realtruenews is another that we don't talk about at all in the article. That matters for non-free rationales, but also just insofar as images connect to the text. Also, the subject is just as much the fake news stories as it is the sites, which is why the 70news screenshot seemed ideal (mentioned in the text, well covered by sources, displays the site along with a well-known headline). — Rhododendrites talk \\ 22:00, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- Realtruenews was covered here when some online communities passed a fake Hillary speech transcript as a real one. Additionally, the screenshot contains the admission "Everything on RealTrueNews Was A LIE", illustrating the article's subject. Maybe it could use some more cropping, though, to focus on that text. FallingGravity 22:18, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- Thank you very much to user:FallingGravity for the suggestion. Replaced the fair-use-asserted picture with the Free-Use-Licensed picture. Sagecandor (talk) 23:04, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- Realtruenews was covered here when some online communities passed a fake Hillary speech transcript as a real one. Additionally, the screenshot contains the admission "Everything on RealTrueNews Was A LIE", illustrating the article's subject. Maybe it could use some more cropping, though, to focus on that text. FallingGravity 22:18, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
@FallingGravity:Thanks for that valuable source. I've added it to the article. Look good? Sagecandor (talk) 23:28, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- I strongly disagree. The free option doesn't automatically take precedence if it doesn't actually serve to illustrate the subject. You've replaced an illustration of the subject via an actual fake news story headline that has received extensive coverage such that it's representative of what the entire article is about... with an image of a header we could just as easily describe in article text (i.e. the caption says everything the image says -- very little is actually illustrated). — Rhododendrites talk \\ 23:31, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- I'm going to have to say I agree here with the suggestion by FallingGravity and I think we should try to have the entire article be Free-Use-Licensed-Pictures-Only, if at all possible. Sagecandor (talk) 23:32, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: You didn't reply to anything I said. Being free isn't sufficient justification. It needs to be free and actually illustrate the subject. Non-free is perfectly acceptable if you cannot otherwise illustrate the subject that way. Again, you've removed an illustration of a well-covered fake news story in a fake news site with text taken from a site intended to mock fake news sites. If a huge caption that makes the image redundant is necessary, it's not the best way to illustrate the subject. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 23:37, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- I gotta go with the recommendation by FallingGravity on this one — this is a website that was actually reported by a major media source, The Kelly File on FOX News, as if it were completely a factual source. That is remarkable. And unique for this particular fake news website, where the other story was a high Google search result, but was not falsely picked up by a major news outlet as factual. That is a major feat. Sagecandor (talk) 23:40, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- It's funny cause the contents of this website were supposed to be so obviously fake that no one could possibly accept it as true. A similar thing happened the same month, though I don't think that's within the scope of this article. Another thing I might add is that the "Everything on RealTrueNews Was A LIE" message was only recently added to the site. FallingGravity 00:27, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- I gotta go with the recommendation by FallingGravity on this one — this is a website that was actually reported by a major media source, The Kelly File on FOX News, as if it were completely a factual source. That is remarkable. And unique for this particular fake news website, where the other story was a high Google search result, but was not falsely picked up by a major news outlet as factual. That is a major feat. Sagecandor (talk) 23:40, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: You didn't reply to anything I said. Being free isn't sufficient justification. It needs to be free and actually illustrate the subject. Non-free is perfectly acceptable if you cannot otherwise illustrate the subject that way. Again, you've removed an illustration of a well-covered fake news story in a fake news site with text taken from a site intended to mock fake news sites. If a huge caption that makes the image redundant is necessary, it's not the best way to illustrate the subject. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 23:37, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- I'm going to have to say I agree here with the suggestion by FallingGravity and I think we should try to have the entire article be Free-Use-Licensed-Pictures-Only, if at all possible. Sagecandor (talk) 23:32, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
- As comment, I think the 70news screenshot is worth having. It's good to have a specific example of a specific fake news website making a specific fake story that we can show to people a case study. Blythwood (talk) 07:57, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- I agree, Blythwood, and I like where you added it to the article in that location. Thank you ! Sagecandor (talk) 08:28, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
I still say the Realtruenews screenshot is a terrible one to lead with. That's not to say it shouldn't be anywhere, but we start off saying "it's distinct from satire" and then show a picture of a site "intended to show reader gullibility" that's pointing out its own lies. I still say it doesn't actually illustrate anything, and seems contrary to the entire lead it accompanies. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 14:20, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- I dunno about that -- because in one picture we have represented the idea of being labelled as "news" and also pointing out to the reader it is a "lie" on the same picture. Seems to be a basic summary of the whole idea right there in one image. Sagecandor (talk) 15:02, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- Now replaced with template {{Computer security}}, which has links to many relevant topics in this article. Sagecandor (talk) 16:56, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
Article is way slanted to the US 2016 election and Russia(?)
Are Wikipedia editors biased against Russia or is it just the "reliable sources"? And why does every image have to be related to Russia or the US?
It's clear from the images in the current vision of the article that something (or someone) is going on with the "fake news" phenomenon.
- 1) Image says "Standing For America Until They Shut Us Down Or We Take It Back"
- 2) "European Union parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs drew greater attention to the problem — when it passed a resolution in November 2016, condemning: "pseudo-news agencies ... social media and internet trolls" used by Russia."
- 3) "The United States Department of State spent 8 months creating a unit to counter Russian disinformation campaigns against the U.S. before scrapping their own program in September 2015."
- 4) This one has the least connectction to the USA or Russia, even then the section this picture is for claims that a BuzzFeed "investigation" found "100 websites spreading fraudulent articles supportive of Donald Trump were created by teenagers in the town of Veles, Macedonia."
- 5) The Swedish Security Service issued a report in 2015 identifying propaganda from Russia had the goal to "create splits in society."
- 6) U.S. President Barack Obama said, "If we can't discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems."
- 7) "A screenshot of a fake news story, falsely claiming Donald Trump won the popular vote in the 2016 United States presidential election."
- 8) "Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said there should be "no situation where fake news gets distributed" and that it is possible fake news had some effect on the 2016 election. "
- 9) "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg specifically recommended fact-checking website Snopes.com as a way to respond to fraudulent news on Facebook." (Both are American companies, section mentions 2016 election)
- 10) "Fact-checking website PolitiFact.com was praised by rival fact-checking service FactCheck.org and recommended as a resource for readers to check before sharing a potentially fake story." (Don't they only "fact check" American politics?)
- 11) The section this picture is for says "Zeynep Tufekci wrote critically about Facebook's stance on fraudulent news sites in a piece for The New York Times, pointing out fraudulent websites in Macedonia profited handsomely off false stories about the 2016 U.S. election"
- 12) "Samantha Bee went to Russia for her television show Full Frontal and met with individuals financed by the government of Russia to act as Internet trolls and attempt to manipulate the 2016 U.S. election in order to subvert democracy." Emily Goldstein (talk) 14:06, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- The article reflects the weight given to the issues in over 100 secondary sources. Sagecandor (talk) 14:27, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:Systemic bias. The best way to fix is to add more sources. (; FallingGravity 05:56, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- Currently the word "Russia" appears 121 times in the article. If editors want to rely on US media hyperbole and US intelligence service allegations to create an collaborative opinion piece called "Evil Russian plots to ruin the 2016 US election" and present it as a balanced encyclopedia article about veracity in news reporting and the purported sudden appearance of "fake news", they could at least try to be honest about what they are doing rather than hiding behind the old lame excuse of "it's what the sources [I've chosen to cherry-pick] all say". As the Taibbi piece about the joke Washington Post article points out, conspiracy theorising comes from all sides these days. N-HH talk/edits 08:41, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- There were complaints, above, that this article was too USA centric. Now it focuses on many different countries. So now there are new complaints that it is too focused on other countries other than USA. In any event, we take our emphasis from the over 100 secondary sources themselves. Sagecandor (talk) 17:01, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- The criticisms do not contradict each other. Indeed, rather obviously, they're all part of the same overall point. The entirely consistent complaint, as voiced by multiple other editors and observers, is that this page is predominantly built up of one-sided criticism of *alleged* Russian actions in respect of the US, mostly sourced to US media, and with any countervailing evidence deleted, all masquerading as some kind of neutral examination of the broad, purportedly new phenomenon of "fake news". N-HH talk/edits 21:28, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- Perhaps that is a wider condemnation of all news media and all reliable secondary sources, but on Wikipedia the sources used are guided by WP:RS. Sagecandor (talk) 21:40, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- See my point about lame excuses, as in specious appeals to "RS!", and cherry-picking. This is not what all the media say. Thanks. N-HH talk/edits 21:46, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- But it is represented in a significant portion of WP:RS sources, and this article brings together over 100 sources giving multiple different pieces of information about the topic as a whole. Sagecandor (talk) 21:52, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- See my point about lame excuses, as in specious appeals to "RS!", and cherry-picking. This is not what all the media say. Thanks. N-HH talk/edits 21:46, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- Perhaps that is a wider condemnation of all news media and all reliable secondary sources, but on Wikipedia the sources used are guided by WP:RS. Sagecandor (talk) 21:40, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- The criticisms do not contradict each other. Indeed, rather obviously, they're all part of the same overall point. The entirely consistent complaint, as voiced by multiple other editors and observers, is that this page is predominantly built up of one-sided criticism of *alleged* Russian actions in respect of the US, mostly sourced to US media, and with any countervailing evidence deleted, all masquerading as some kind of neutral examination of the broad, purportedly new phenomenon of "fake news". N-HH talk/edits 21:28, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- There were complaints, above, that this article was too USA centric. Now it focuses on many different countries. So now there are new complaints that it is too focused on other countries other than USA. In any event, we take our emphasis from the over 100 secondary sources themselves. Sagecandor (talk) 17:01, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- Currently the word "Russia" appears 121 times in the article. If editors want to rely on US media hyperbole and US intelligence service allegations to create an collaborative opinion piece called "Evil Russian plots to ruin the 2016 US election" and present it as a balanced encyclopedia article about veracity in news reporting and the purported sudden appearance of "fake news", they could at least try to be honest about what they are doing rather than hiding behind the old lame excuse of "it's what the sources [I've chosen to cherry-pick] all say". As the Taibbi piece about the joke Washington Post article points out, conspiracy theorising comes from all sides these days. N-HH talk/edits 08:41, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:Systemic bias. The best way to fix is to add more sources. (; FallingGravity 05:56, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- The article reflects the weight given to the issues in over 100 secondary sources. Sagecandor (talk) 14:27, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
Subtle vandalism by Emily Goldstein
With this change here by Emily Goldstein (talk · contribs) = subtle vandalism broke links to many citations by removing the domain names from several different links to sources.
Not sure why that was done or what the intent behind that was here.
Sagecandor (talk) 14:43, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Result was blocked by Ritchie333. Sagecandor (talk) 17:24, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
As I've said on the user's talk page, such a regex option should be available on every page to see the pattern of sourcing more clearly (though without having to press "save").
Since then, the following paragraph has been removed (this is a much more serious disruption):
- The Washington Post and PropOrNot received criticism from other media including The Intercept,[1] Fortune and Rolling Stone.[2] Matthew Ingram of Fortune magazine felt that PropOrNot cast too wide a net in identifying fake news websites.[2] The Intercept journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ben Norton were highly critical that the organization included Naked Capitalism on its list.[1] The Intercept called the reporting by The Washington Post as "shoddy",[1] and Fortune magazine called the evidence "flimsy".[2] Writing for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi described the report as "astonishingly lazy" and questioned the methodology used by PropOrNot and the lack of information about who was behind the organization.[3]
One person's vandalism is another's positive contributions. Anyone interested in the sourcing of this article should look at the link above. SashiRolls (talk) 10:44, 2 December 2016 (UTC)→→
Copy edits to intro section
I'm doing copy edits to intro section to make more succinct.
Please can we discuss instead of wholesale reverting all the copy edits?
What is good, what is objectionable, Florian Blaschke ? Sagecandor (talk) 18:30, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- Made more copy edits, but this time, for every single copy edit used a very detailed and specific edit summary to document each exact change made. Primarily the purpose was to reduce excess verbiage within the introduction section, while retaining the exact same meaning for each individual sentence. [3]. Sagecandor (talk) 19:14, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Corinne:Thank you for your interest to this article. Unfortunately, your revert which you may have done from your view to make grammar changes as you had been previously summoned to do so and make that revert -- but your revert also undid massive amounts of content additions. Instead of reverting, could you please discuss individual concerns with me and others, at the article's talk page? Maybe that way we could come to a better understanding? Perhaps we can be more specific and hammer out a good consensus that way? Thank you ! Sagecandor (talk) 02:11, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Epicgenius and Neutrality:Not sure what the rationale for this change is? For example, phrase "websites are websites" in the first sentence. That appears quite redundant. Edit also appears to have undone lots of copy editing and adding extra verbose verbiage to the introduction section that is unnecessary. For example, "One Sweden newspaper, The Local," replaced prior wording of: "Swedish paper The Local". As I have no idea what the reasoning is for these edits, I'll wait here for an explanation, please? Sagecandor (talk) 02:41, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: you insist on discussing, yet you re-reverted two other editors, who explained their objections. You're aware of WP:BRD? Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 04:56, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Joshua Jonathan:I believe I reverted in order to add back in additions of content that another copy editor Corinne had mistakenly removed in their wholesale revert. (See examples [4] and [5]). And, Joshua Jonathan, you will note you are the first user to comment in this section on this talk page asking for talk page participation from the other parties involved in the WP:BRD cycle. Sagecandor (talk) 05:08, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Joshua Jonathan:The 3rd step in WP:BRD is called "discuss". Kinda hard to "discuss" when one tries to post repeatedly to the article talk page, and user talk pages, and gets ignored, and users refuse to respond. Kinda eliminates the "discuss" step. Not sure what to do in that situation when one has tried to start a new section on the talk page, ask the other party to come to the talk page, and get ignored instead. I've actually had GREAT experience recently in a different situation where the other party to a dispute did come to the talk page. We worked it all out, and it was great, and wonderful. So talk pages are much better places to discuss and work things out than instead relying upon edit summaries as the sole means of back-and-forth communications. Sagecandor (talk) 05:14, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Joshua Jonathan:I believe I reverted in order to add back in additions of content that another copy editor Corinne had mistakenly removed in their wholesale revert. (See examples [4] and [5]). And, Joshua Jonathan, you will note you are the first user to comment in this section on this talk page asking for talk page participation from the other parties involved in the WP:BRD cycle. Sagecandor (talk) 05:08, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: you insist on discussing, yet you re-reverted two other editors, who explained their objections. You're aware of WP:BRD? Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 04:56, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Epicgenius and Neutrality:Not sure what the rationale for this change is? For example, phrase "websites are websites" in the first sentence. That appears quite redundant. Edit also appears to have undone lots of copy editing and adding extra verbose verbiage to the introduction section that is unnecessary. For example, "One Sweden newspaper, The Local," replaced prior wording of: "Swedish paper The Local". As I have no idea what the reasoning is for these edits, I'll wait here for an explanation, please? Sagecandor (talk) 02:41, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Corinne:Thank you for your interest to this article. Unfortunately, your revert which you may have done from your view to make grammar changes as you had been previously summoned to do so and make that revert -- but your revert also undid massive amounts of content additions. Instead of reverting, could you please discuss individual concerns with me and others, at the article's talk page? Maybe that way we could come to a better understanding? Perhaps we can be more specific and hammer out a good consensus that way? Thank you ! Sagecandor (talk) 02:11, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
Two reverts [6] [7]; Corinne's revert surely wasn't mistakenly, as she already explained at Florian's talkpage. I took a look at the reverts; I'd prefer "Fake news websites are websites that," and I don't know the word gullibility, so probably a lot of readers don't either. And "newspaper" is to be preferred above "paper." So, I've got the impression that Florian and Corinne have got a point. which they already did discuss at Florian's talkpage, in response to you. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 05:14, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Joshua Jonathan:They refused to come here to this talk page to discuss. And you are the first person to bring up those specific copy edits in particular. Sagecandor (talk) 05:16, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Epicgenius:My thanks to Epicgenius for the subsequent copy edits. Sagecandor (talk) 16:20, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
Good survey source
- Kate Connolly, Angelique Chrisafis, Poppy McPherson, Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Benjamin Haas , Dominic Phillips, and Elle Hunt (2 December 2016), "Fake news: an insidious trend that's fast becoming a global problem - With fake online news dominating discussions after the US election, Guardian correspondents explain how it is distorting politics around the world", The Guardian, retrieved 2 December 2016
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Good survey source.
Describes impacts in multiple different countries.
Good for global overview and improved worldview of issue.
Sagecandor (talk) 17:32, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- SnooganssnoogansThis source, above, also has more info on Italy. Sagecandor (talk) 18:00, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
Discussion about Italy section
[8] = Italy page blanking from section by SashiRolls.
Originally was added by Snooganssnoogans.
Can we discuss?
Sagecandor (talk) 18:00, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- My edit summary was very clear. If Snoog speaks Italian well enough to read the blog, he can provide us with a fluent translation. SashiRolls (talk) 18:02, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- You are at or more likely over 3RR, please refrain from any further edit-warring. diff1, diff2, diff3, reversion of signature / talk page refactoring here, comment: since Corrine's two reversion were not related to copy edits to the intro, I corrected the section title to reflect its content. SashiRolls (talk) 18:43, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Neutrality:, I see that Neutrality has added [9] the info on Italy back to the article. So my thanks to Neutrality for these helpful edits. Please also notice we have more sources for info on Italy, with The Guardian, as noted above. Sagecandor (talk) 20:04, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Yes, the text is improved. Thank you for doing what I asked the OP to do, Neutrality. SashiRolls (talk) 20:12, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Glad we both agree on something, SashiRolls. Nice to find common ground on the edits by Neutrality. Thank you for your constructive talk page comments here about that. Sagecandor (talk) 20:16, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Yes, the text is improved. Thank you for doing what I asked the OP to do, Neutrality. SashiRolls (talk) 20:12, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Neutrality:, I see that Neutrality has added [9] the info on Italy back to the article. So my thanks to Neutrality for these helpful edits. Please also notice we have more sources for info on Italy, with The Guardian, as noted above. Sagecandor (talk) 20:04, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- You are at or more likely over 3RR, please refrain from any further edit-warring. diff1, diff2, diff3, reversion of signature / talk page refactoring here, comment: since Corrine's two reversion were not related to copy edits to the intro, I corrected the section title to reflect its content. SashiRolls (talk) 18:43, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
FYI, it's generally considered bad form to delete edit warring notifications from your talk page. (Just a heads up for someone who has a lot of skillz for a "newbie"...) SashiRolls (talk) 20:24, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Thank you, SashiRolls, but I'd rather receive input from a previously uninvolved neutral admin who does not have a vested interest in a particular ongoing dispute. But I read your posts and I appreciate your concern for my interests. Sagecandor (talk) 20:28, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
Citations in introduction of Fake news website
@Crossswords:, thank you for your interest in Fake news website !
Previously every single sentence in the introduction was cited with a citation.
But Epicgenius moved those citations out of the introduction.
This conforms with WP:CITELEAD.
Everything is cited lower down in the body text of the article.
Hope that explains it okay !
Sagecandor (talk) 04:56, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Previous version had citations for every single sentence in lead section, then removed by Epicgenius who cited the page WP:CITELEAD with this edit [10]. Sagecandor (talk) 04:59, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- And again by Crossswords (talk · contribs) at [11]. User also appears to be engaging in subtle vandalism by removing mentions of Russia. Sagecandor (talk) 05:08, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- what has a single country to do with anything for it to deserve its own links below? And if you did it before why not making it back to it again? And it doesnt conform with CITELEAD at all, you dont see any article written this way unless its extremely short where the introductions are so short that it is next to the sources.--Crossswords (talk) 05:17, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- You are incorrect on all points. The article explains in detail the particular importance of Russia. Moreover, citations are often omitted in the lead when the content is sourced in the body. Neutralitytalk 05:19, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Please see [12], temporarily added back all citations to the introduction section pending further discussion. Due to the topic of this article being contentious perhaps by those representing the Russian government, might be best to keep in all the citations in the introduction section to avoid such complaints in the future? Sagecandor (talk) 05:23, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Fine by me. Neutralitytalk 05:25, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Okay thank you ! Sagecandor (talk) 05:27, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Fine by me. Neutralitytalk 05:25, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Please see [12], temporarily added back all citations to the introduction section pending further discussion. Due to the topic of this article being contentious perhaps by those representing the Russian government, might be best to keep in all the citations in the introduction section to avoid such complaints in the future? Sagecandor (talk) 05:23, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- You are incorrect on all points. The article explains in detail the particular importance of Russia. Moreover, citations are often omitted in the lead when the content is sourced in the body. Neutralitytalk 05:19, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- what has a single country to do with anything for it to deserve its own links below? And if you did it before why not making it back to it again? And it doesnt conform with CITELEAD at all, you dont see any article written this way unless its extremely short where the introductions are so short that it is next to the sources.--Crossswords (talk) 05:17, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- And again by Crossswords (talk · contribs) at [11]. User also appears to be engaging in subtle vandalism by removing mentions of Russia. Sagecandor (talk) 05:08, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
The citations are explicitly not needed in the intro as per WP:LEADCITE, unless the exact statement in the lead is extremely controversial. Moreover, I don't see why {{citation needed}} ever needs to be added to the lead. If the information is not sourced to the body, {{citation needed (lead)}} should be used. Otherwise, the citations in the lead is redundant, given that the lead is supposed to be a summary for the rest of the article (and thus doesn't need a citation). epicgenius (talk) 18:45, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- I see where the problem is, now. In the lead, I think that only the statement about Russia should be cited. The rest of the lead is already explained in detail in the body section. epicgenius (talk) 18:47, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- WP:CITELEAD says: "The verifiability policy advises that material that is challenged or likely to be challenged, and direct quotations, should be supported by an inline citation." In this case, unfortunately, due to the incoming interest by Trolls from Olgino, best way to avoid arguing over cites is to keep the cites in the intro. Otherwise we risk drive-by cite tagging again. Sagecandor (talk) 18:54, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
- Note: I have removed this discussion from Wikipedia:Third opinion because there are now four participants in the discussion. Scolaire (talk) 10:34, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @SashiRolls:Please read this section to see why every single sentence in the lead section now has a citation. Sagecandor (talk) 21:56, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Neutrality, Epicgenius, and Scolaire:Strongly disagree with this edit [13] by SashiRolls done without discussion here. See above discussion of cite-tagging in the intro previously by Crossswords (talk · contribs) for why we should keep all citations in the intro. Sagecandor (talk) 22:09, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
I have indeed brought the first two paragraphs of the lead in line with NPOV and LEADCITE. If you wish to restore your point of view and add back all sorts of unnecessary blue links, that's up to you... but please wait 24 hours before reverting anything. Others should feel free to continue cleaning up the article which is -- I agree -- quite biased. A systemic bias tag could also be added in the meantime. SashiRolls (talk) 22:33, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- We should keep all citations in the intro because of this [14]. Sagecandor (talk) 22:35, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
Alphabetical order for sections by country name
Changed order for sections:
Alphabetical order for sections by country name.
No content itself changed or removed. [15] [16]
Hopefully this particular change will be seen as an uncontroversial improvement.
Expand Macedonia to add some balance
It seems a significant number of users are arriving at this page complaining about the Russia content. That's okay, and thank you for your interest in this article.
We have some good sourced content here to reliable, independent sources, and it's a well researched article. I'd suggest we expand other sections instead of deleting sourced content.
To that end, I'd like to expand the "Macedonia" section a bit, as it's true as mentioned above on this talk page that there were lots of sources analyzing influx of fake news websites from Macedonia -- specifically Veles, Macedonia.
We have at least one new really good source for this, Associated Press published by CBS News, at: "In Macedonia's fake news hub, this teen shows how it's done".
- "In Macedonia's fake news hub, this teen shows how it's done", CBS News, Associated Press, 2 December 2016, retrieved 3 December 2016
Hopefully this is another helpful step on how to improve the article and satisfy at least a majority of respondents to this talk page. Sagecandor (talk) 01:44, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- Expanded Veles, Macedonia info in Macedonia section. Have a look at the expansion and hopefully this supplements and balances some of the Russia info. Please see: [17]. Thank you ! Sagecandor (talk) 01:58, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
Is PropOrNot over-weighted in this article?
PropOrNot could probably have its own wiki article at this point.
But it is way too overweighted in this article.
This article is about fake news, not PropOrNot.
PropOrNot has at this point been thoroughly debunked by Adrian Chen of The New Yorker at [18].
At the most it could merit a two sentence mention.
One sentence saying PropOrNot was used by The Washington Post.
And another listing a few other news outlets that debunked it.
Sagecandor (talk) 22:19, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Could you please try to write in paragraphs and try to choose section titles that are not leading? (I've changed the title to a question.) Discussion of PropOrNot, along with the conservative think tank the WaPo journalist cited (Foreign Policy Research Institute) are exactly the sort of balance this article needs. Of course the Russians engage in propaganda. It is necessary to counter our own (which is quite often uncritically echoed in Wikipedia due to a very narrow vision of WP:RS ). Thankfully, for once, mainstream RS are debunking the WaPo... as they have been more and more frequently in the last year. SashiRolls (talk) 22:42, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Agreed, but this is not the right article to do that. That would be --> The Washington Post and/or PropOrNot. Sagecandor (talk) 22:47, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- The WaPo was pushing fake news. So they have their place here. Don't hesitate to create that page on PropOrNot. That would show you were a dedicated Wikipedian, to be sure! SashiRolls (talk) 22:52, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- They have their place, sure, but a two sentence mention would be plenty. Sagecandor (talk) 22:56, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Thankfully, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Fortune, the Intercept and the co-owner of the Nation gave it more than 2 sentences. IMO, *this* article is way too long, and way too biased, cut it by at least half, "and then", to quote MelanieN, "we'll talk". ^_^ SashiRolls (talk) 23:03, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Biased how? It is telling that you wrote in your words, quote "Western institutions" ? Are you trying to put in Wikipedia's voice in main article space that the article is biased somehow towards "Western institutions", as you say? Sagecandor (talk) 23:10, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Thankfully, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Fortune, the Intercept and the co-owner of the Nation gave it more than 2 sentences. IMO, *this* article is way too long, and way too biased, cut it by at least half, "and then", to quote MelanieN, "we'll talk". ^_^ SashiRolls (talk) 23:03, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- They have their place, sure, but a two sentence mention would be plenty. Sagecandor (talk) 22:56, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- The WaPo was pushing fake news. So they have their place here. Don't hesitate to create that page on PropOrNot. That would show you were a dedicated Wikipedian, to be sure! SashiRolls (talk) 22:52, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Agreed, but this is not the right article to do that. That would be --> The Washington Post and/or PropOrNot. Sagecandor (talk) 22:47, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
My hope is that you did not write the copy "in an attempt to lessen democratic values", because I'm really not sure what that might have meant. The notion of weakening (European) institutions is indeed in the article that we source to. (facts, just facts) SashiRolls (talk) 23:24, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Clearly you have not checked the cited sources before blatantly removing or changing information. That is quite inappropriate. Sagecandor (talk) 23:28, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- "D. whereas information warfare is a historical phenomenon as old as warfare itself; whereas targeted information warfare against the West was extensively used by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and has since been an integral part of modern hybrid warfare, which is a combination of military and non-military measures of a covert and overt nature, deployed to destabilise the political, economic and social situation of a country under attack, without a formal declaration of war, targeting not only partners of the EU, but also the EU itself, its institutions and all Member States and citizens irrespective of their nationality and religion;" [19] Apologies will be accepted for the false accusation.SashiRolls (talk) 23:43, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Wow that's misleading and disinformation. That is the WRONG LINK. The citation you changed was from source Deutsche Welle. Sagecandor (talk) 23:46, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Wow, that's misleading disinformation! Indeed in DW, you can find the words "eroding confidence in European institutions", which are in turn -- in different form, of course -- in the resolution that DW makes reference to (cited above). A simple ctrl-f should suffice. Also, we should include the fact that the majority of deputies did not vote for the resolution. (over 200 abstained...) SashiRolls (talk) 23:52, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Wow that's misleading and disinformation. That is the WRONG LINK. The citation you changed was from source Deutsche Welle. Sagecandor (talk) 23:46, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- "D. whereas information warfare is a historical phenomenon as old as warfare itself; whereas targeted information warfare against the West was extensively used by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and has since been an integral part of modern hybrid warfare, which is a combination of military and non-military measures of a covert and overt nature, deployed to destabilise the political, economic and social situation of a country under attack, without a formal declaration of war, targeting not only partners of the EU, but also the EU itself, its institutions and all Member States and citizens irrespective of their nationality and religion;" [19] Apologies will be accepted for the false accusation.SashiRolls (talk) 23:43, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
Way overweighted--the influence of this source should be curtailed. Solntsa90 (talk) 00:39, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- Great! Thank you, Solntsa90, for commenting here. So how about the model I proposed, above? What about one sentence about PropOrNot, and one sentence criticizing it? Sagecandor (talk) 00:41, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- With this addition, we now have 3 times more about criticism of "PropOrNot", than about PropOrNot itself, in an article that is not titled PropOrNot. I agree with Solntsa90 that we should significantly trim down size devoted to PropOrNot in this article, both content and criticism of it. Sagecandor (talk) 18:29, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- Created new article with content from this article, at PropOrNot. Hopefully that will make it easier to trim down info here, and instead refer readers there for more info on that topic. Sagecandor (talk) 18:59, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- I went and created the new article on the group PropOrNot. Then, as proposed on the talk page here in this section, and agreed to on the talk page by user Solntsa90, I've trimmed down the info on PropOrNot in the Fake news website article to one sentence on the organization, and one sentence listing many publications that criticized it --> [20]. Sagecandor (talk) 19:07, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- Created new article with content from this article, at PropOrNot. Hopefully that will make it easier to trim down info here, and instead refer readers there for more info on that topic. Sagecandor (talk) 18:59, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- With this addition, we now have 3 times more about criticism of "PropOrNot", than about PropOrNot itself, in an article that is not titled PropOrNot. I agree with Solntsa90 that we should significantly trim down size devoted to PropOrNot in this article, both content and criticism of it. Sagecandor (talk) 18:29, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
Created new article on organization and website PropOrNot
I went and created the new article on the group PropOrNot.
This was as suggested to me by SashiRolls at Don't hesitate to create that page on PropOrNot. That would show you were a dedicated Wikipedian, to be sure!.
Please help and go improve and expand the article at --> PropOrNot.
Thank you! Sagecandor (talk) 19:09, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- Done. Look forward to reading more about their qualifications. SashiRolls (talk) 11:45, 4 December 2016 (UTC)
Propaganda / Scare-mongering
I've restored two quotes that you keep deleting Sagecandor. As is, this page, as many have commented, reads like propaganda or scare-mongering intended to bring us back to a Cold War mentality. While this should still be pretty obvious to the casual reader, it might be wiser to allow those who have criticized this hysteria to be cited directly rather than paraphrasing their words euphemistically. The two examples I've chosen to take a stand on (among the many I have not) are here. If you can get consensus for neutering that criticism below, go ahead, that way we will have Wikipedians on record on the talk page... but please do not change without further discussion of the quotes on the talk page.
I would note that you seem particularly concerned about paraphrasing these very short quotes, but not the much longer quotes such as:
- "But once Zuckerberg admits he’s actually running one of the most powerful media brands on the planet, he has to get more aggressive about promoting real news and weeding out hoaxers and charlatans. The alternative is to watch Facebook’s own credibility decline."
- "It’s not a crazy idea. What’s crazy is for him to come out and dismiss it like that, when he knows, and those of us at the company know, that fake news ran wild on our platform during the entire campaign season."
- In the same blog post, he stated that "News and media are not the primary things people do on Facebook, so I find it odd when people insist we call ourselves a news or media company in order to acknowledge its importance."
- "It's really remarkable to see how big news operations have come around to challenging false and deceitful claims directly. It's about time."
- "Fact-checking is now a proven ratings getter. I think editors and news directors see that now. So that's a plus."
If you wish to paraphrase quotes, these would be good ones to paraphrase or, more likely, identify as padding and delete (which would help cut down the tl;dr effect of this repetitive article which keeps repeating itself over and over again, repetitively). No offence, but we are striving for neutrality here, not to see how many times we can write the words "(Russian) propaganda" in a single WP article. SashiRolls (talk) 11:45, 4 December 2016 (UTC)
McCarthyism section
I notice that in the revert in question, your removal of criticism of the WaPo's poor practices was undone. Why don't you wish for people to know that the "fake news sites" meme has been used to advance a McCarthyist list published by the "venerable" Washington Post on the basis of a shadowy organization called PropOrNot? Looking forward to reading your response to this question, @Sagecandor:. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SashiRolls (talk • contribs)
- I was making those edits to directly address talk page complaints about having PropOrNot in the article. Funny how now there are complaints about the opposite. Sagecandor (talk) 15:56, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @SashiRolls:A lot of people complained about PropOrNot. So I removed it. And you can't just add an entire "McCarthyism" section, to add criticism of PropOrNot to this article, at the bottom, with no prior discussion of what PropOrNot even is. That makes us think you wish to inject "McCarthyism", with no actual discussion of substance from the sources themselves. Sagecandor (talk) 15:59, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Let's keep discussion above at Talk:Fake_news_website#Criticism. Sagecandor (talk) 16:09, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- @SashiRolls:A lot of people complained about PropOrNot. So I removed it. And you can't just add an entire "McCarthyism" section, to add criticism of PropOrNot to this article, at the bottom, with no prior discussion of what PropOrNot even is. That makes us think you wish to inject "McCarthyism", with no actual discussion of substance from the sources themselves. Sagecandor (talk) 15:59, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
No, I think it would be better to keep discussion of your "section blanking" in a section with the appropriate title. I notice you did not answer my question. Here it is again: Why don't you wish for people to know that the "fake news sites" meme has been used to advance a McCarthyist list published by the "venerable" Washington Post on the basis of a shadowy organization called PropOrNot? Looking forward to reading your response to this question, @Sagecandor:.SashiRolls (talk) 18:04, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Responded, and more comprehensive discussion of prior issues already, above at Talk:Fake_news_website#Criticism. Sagecandor (talk) 20:02, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
No. You did not respond concerning why you deleted the McCarthyism section. You mistakenly stated that I had objected to PropOrNot being in this article, which I certainly did not. I think it is very important for people to realize that the Washington Post is becoming an unreliable source regarding fact-checking. That's all. Shall we reinstate the original text that @Volunteer Marek: deleted and put them back in the section that you deleted? (I left a message on VM's talk page so that everyone could see that they were exactly the same sources, contrary to his edit summary. SashiRolls (talk) 20:10, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Already being discussed at Talk:Fake_news_website#Criticism. Please discuss up there. Sagecandor (talk) 22:16, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
No, actually it's not. Nowhere do did I see the word McCarthyism up there. Making a GF effort to organize with those resisting the POV-pushing in this article.SashiRolls (talk) 19:07, 4 December 2016 (UTC)
Anyone else find it incredibly suspicious that this page's creation date is exactly 1 week after the US presidential election?
What is the process for dealing with pages that are suspected to be outright propaganda? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:184:4601:2C4:F5D9:2FA5:28D4:564E (talk) 23:43, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
- That was about the same time coverage significantly increased on this topic from WP:SECONDARY sources. Sagecandor (talk) 23:49, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
- It just seems a little ironic that the article covers a topic that allegedly suddenly appeared during the election season, when the article itself suddenly appeared almost immediately after, promulgated by media outlets which were notoriously inaccurate during said election. Are we supposed to take their word for it now after they were wrong about everything else? 2601:184:4601:2C4:F5D9:2FA5:28D4:564E (talk) 23:57, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
- This talk page is WP:NOTAFORUM. Sagecandor (talk) 23:57, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
- I'm not sure we should be taking the word of someone who doesn't know the meaning of the word "ironic". --Calton | Talk 00:16, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
- It just seems a little ironic that the article covers a topic that allegedly suddenly appeared during the election season, when the article itself suddenly appeared almost immediately after, promulgated by media outlets which were notoriously inaccurate during said election. Are we supposed to take their word for it now after they were wrong about everything else? 2601:184:4601:2C4:F5D9:2FA5:28D4:564E (talk) 23:57, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
Too long
This article is too long. The whole thing can probably be cut by 50% — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.182.93.186 (talk) 01:56, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
- From time of above complaint as comparison at: [21] reduced size of article from 142.4 Kb to 132.4 Kb with this new version: [22]. Sagecandor (talk) 00:17, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
Fake news led to actual violence - added to article
Added section on fake news leading to recent violent attack with an assault rifle [23], with content from article Comet Ping Pong [24] and one sentence from draft page [25]. Sagecandor (talk) 18:05, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
Criticism section 1
This article urgently needs a criticism section. The unfortunately named propornot site is analysed by one of its targets at Nakedcapitalism.
An echo chamber for The Washington Post? The irony! Shtove (talk) 14:18, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Suggested source fails WP:Identifying reliable sources as it appears to be someone's personal blog that calls itself admittedly "commentary" with no editorial review. Sagecandor (talk) 17:06, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- I'm not sure if a "criticism section" is appropriate here (it's just the criticism of one group), but here's some better sources: The Intercept, Fortune. This information should be added per WP:WEIGHT. FallingGravity 17:14, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Thank you, FallingGravity, those are better sources. Added new highly critical content from both sources to this article. Sagecandor (talk) 17:24, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- The article still does a lot to promote PropOrNot, despite this new section. For example, Footnote A includes three sources that mostly parrot the Post's report rather than look into the matter themselves. FallingGravity 17:35, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Good point about the footnote, fixed it with attribution to the secondary sources that describe it. Sagecandor (talk) 17:39, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Sorry if I didn't make this clear, but my problem with the footnote is that it ignores the criticisms of PropOrNot and instead focuses on WaPo's favorable coverage, violating WP:DUEWEIGHT. FallingGravity 18:53, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Valid suggestion, thank you. Added that info into the Footnote as well. Sagecandor (talk) 19:00, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Sorry if I didn't make this clear, but my problem with the footnote is that it ignores the criticisms of PropOrNot and instead focuses on WaPo's favorable coverage, violating WP:DUEWEIGHT. FallingGravity 18:53, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Good point about the footnote, fixed it with attribution to the secondary sources that describe it. Sagecandor (talk) 17:39, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- The article still does a lot to promote PropOrNot, despite this new section. For example, Footnote A includes three sources that mostly parrot the Post's report rather than look into the matter themselves. FallingGravity 17:35, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Thank you, FallingGravity, those are better sources. Added new highly critical content from both sources to this article. Sagecandor (talk) 17:24, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- I'm not sure if a "criticism section" is appropriate here (it's just the criticism of one group), but here's some better sources: The Intercept, Fortune. This information should be added per WP:WEIGHT. FallingGravity 17:14, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
This term/article definitely needs a criticism section, as I've seen almost nothing but regarding this newspeak. With that said, I don't think PropOrNot should be cited, as it cannot be independently verified, and may very well be 'Fake News' itself. Solntsa90 (talk) 19:45, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Agree that we should not cite PropOrNot, and we don't, we stick to WP:SECONDARY sources only. Disagree about having a "criticism" section, per discussion we already had about this, above in this section itself. Sagecandor (talk) 19:46, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- I don't see any reason given for why a criticism section should be excluded gleaning from the above statements. I continue to endorse a 'criticism' section, and will push for one on this page, hopefully going to a vote. Solntsa90 (talk) 19:48, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- I hear you and your opinions are valid and important. However we've already in response directly to suggestions in this section, incorporated "criticism", directly into the article content itself. Sagecandor (talk) 19:50, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- What would a criticism section even look like? Fake news is easy to criticize because it's fake. FallingGravity 20:33, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Agree here with FallingGravity. Separate sections for such things are discouraged, per "Avoid sections and articles focusing on criticisms or controversies". Sagecandor (talk) 20:37, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Disagree - this is a new article on a controversial subject and is being heavily edited by an editor who has little track record on wikipedia, although with much skill. A criticism section is appropriate, and as the concept of this article becomes clear that section may be distributed into the main text. Shtove (talk) 20:55, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- What else would you like to incorporate that is "criticism" into the main text? Sagecandor (talk) :56, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- No idea - editors will work it out over time. I expect this article will be deleted as a piece of crystal-ballery.Shtove (talk) 00:26, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- What else would you like to incorporate that is "criticism" into the main text? Sagecandor (talk) :56, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Disagree - this is a new article on a controversial subject and is being heavily edited by an editor who has little track record on wikipedia, although with much skill. A criticism section is appropriate, and as the concept of this article becomes clear that section may be distributed into the main text. Shtove (talk) 20:55, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- Agree here with FallingGravity. Separate sections for such things are discouraged, per "Avoid sections and articles focusing on criticisms or controversies". Sagecandor (talk) 20:37, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- What would a criticism section even look like? Fake news is easy to criticize because it's fake. FallingGravity 20:33, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- I hear you and your opinions are valid and important. However we've already in response directly to suggestions in this section, incorporated "criticism", directly into the article content itself. Sagecandor (talk) 19:50, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
- I don't see any reason given for why a criticism section should be excluded gleaning from the above statements. I continue to endorse a 'criticism' section, and will push for one on this page, hopefully going to a vote. Solntsa90 (talk) 19:48, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
Some of this can be mentioned but there's no reason to repost Ingram's column here.Volunteer Marek (talk) 00:37, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
- Thank you, Volunteer Marek, for your recent improvements to the article. As you can hopefully see, here on the talk page, my recent edits were in direct response to suggestions, above, to add more "criticism" to the article. I tried to do so by incorporating suggested sources, above. Sagecandor (talk) 01:47, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
Given that the original Washington Post article has even been criticized by the Washington Post, I'm removing the lede content which reference it while preserving the body text. FallingGravity 04:41, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- Okay that makes total sense, no problem here. But just to point out the column you linked to is an Opinion piece. Sagecandor (talk) 04:47, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- @FallingGravity:I've added that suggested source to the article body text. Sagecandor (talk) 05:04, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- I have no objections to including it (nor to excluding it) as an opinion, though the claims mostly echo The Intercept, which is already referenced. FallingGravity 05:51, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- @FallingGravity:New information from two new sources that it was likely a Russian intelligence operation in the style of Trolls from Olgino, see [26] and [27]. Sagecandor (talk) 05:58, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- I have no objections to including it (nor to excluding it) as an opinion, though the claims mostly echo The Intercept, which is already referenced. FallingGravity 05:51, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
- @FallingGravity:I've added that suggested source to the article body text. Sagecandor (talk) 05:04, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
Removed all references from the article based on any research by the group "PropOrNot" -- hopefully this goes a good way along towards improvements as suggested above in this section. Sagecandor (talk) 01:51, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- You've deleted the Rolling Stone article, the Fortune article, and the Intercept article ?! I do not think the solution to bad reporting by the WaPo is to cover up bad reporting by the WaPo at Wikipedia. SashiRolls (talk) 10:30, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- You complain about having PropOrNot in the article. Now you complain about having PropOrNot removed from the article. Difficult to please you. Alright, I added it back to its previously stable section within the chronology of the time line in that section of how events occurred. I will trim down emphasis on PropOrNot and keep in the criticism of PropOrNot in that section. Hopefully this will be satisfactory to you. Sagecandor (talk) 16:11, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- Added back the info that I had removed on PropOrNot, after it was complained about that I had removed it, having previously read complaints, above, that I had added it at all, in the first place. [28] Sagecandor (talk) 16:15, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
- You complain about having PropOrNot in the article. Now you complain about having PropOrNot removed from the article. Difficult to please you. Alright, I added it back to its previously stable section within the chronology of the time line in that section of how events occurred. I will trim down emphasis on PropOrNot and keep in the criticism of PropOrNot in that section. Hopefully this will be satisfactory to you. Sagecandor (talk) 16:11, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
This TWP+PropOrNot issue turned into affair and warrants proper section, which I suggests. Not only that, entire paragraph is now so large. Not sure, but it seems to me @Sagecandor: attempted to create section just moments ago, removing entire paragraph there, but other editor restored it to previous state?--Santasa99 (talk) 19:08, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- @Santasa99:Please see new article I created at PropOrNot. Sagecandor (talk) 19:11, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
Look, @Sagecandor:, it's troubling to have article on something/someone we don't have slightest idea what or who is it. It's happen to be quite controversial for now, as we can see and read online - other people operating in the same line of work, in attempt to distinguish "fake" from "real" news, are very critical of this PropOrNot. It would be less problematic (and probably less contested) if we had decent section on "Fake news website" article, which still doesn't mean we shouldn't, although I don't think the title is appropriate, and then in time separate article. But, OK, if other accept separate "PropOrNot" article at this point, what you put in it looks fine to me.--Santasa99 (talk) 20:55, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- Thank you, @Santasa99:, I'm glad you like what I've put in at PropOrNot ! Thank you for your compliment ! Sagecandor (talk) 20:59, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
- Yes, the propornot article is succinct and balanced. I wonder if propornot will be reintroduced to this article once its analysis is made clear, as an example of how entangling fake news can be.Shtove (talk) 11:52, 4 December 2016 (UTC)
- I've lobbied for a McCarthyism section. It's interesting how independent critical media have been taken down by the WaPo based on POV studies (from a hawkish neocon think tank, according to Ingram, and a fly-by-night shadowy group of people who, according to Chen don't think it's "cool" to "fuck with the American people."). Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Given the fact that the WaPo has been listed as an RS this is a bit of an emergency for WP:RSN. Reference to one bit of the criticism in the article "The Propaganda about Russian Propaganda" from the New Yorker[1] should be in the lead (no need for a footnote, as it is (was?) mentioned in the article already...) SashiRolls (talk) 19:18, 4 December 2016 (UTC)
- Yes, the propornot article is succinct and balanced. I wonder if propornot will be reintroduced to this article once its analysis is made clear, as an example of how entangling fake news can be.Shtove (talk) 11:52, 4 December 2016 (UTC)
I also think this article desperately needs a criticism section. There have been criticisms on this very topic and how its been covered in the media from leftwing[1] and rightwing[2] editorial outlets. 1Eternity1 (talk) 07:34, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
- Criticism of what? Fake news websites? Macedonian teenagers that create fake news websites? Clickbait profiteers that create fake news websites? That they exist is not in dispute. Examples include ABCnews.com.co and National Report. So yes, it is a good thing to have criticism of those types of fake news websites. And that is already integrated directly into the article throughout. Sagecandor (talk) 07:47, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
- Criticism of the media's coverage and focus on this topic. Honestly, this whole page needs to be reorganized and should include a section on the history of propaganda and yellow journalism. 1Eternity1 (talk) 07:54, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
- This article is about fake news websites. This article is not about "media coverage". As you note in your links, both history of propaganda and yellow journalism already have separate existing articles on Wikipedia. Sagecandor (talk) 08:08, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
- The only notable aspect of this topic is the media coverage of fake news websites. Otherwise, it's a POV fork that synthesizes information from hoaxes, propaganda and yellow journalism under one page and includes Russian conspiracy theories. Fake news isn't new. 1Eternity1 (talk) 08:29, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
- This article is about fake news websites. This article is not about "media coverage". As you note in your links, both history of propaganda and yellow journalism already have separate existing articles on Wikipedia. Sagecandor (talk) 08:08, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
- Criticism of the media's coverage and focus on this topic. Honestly, this whole page needs to be reorganized and should include a section on the history of propaganda and yellow journalism. 1Eternity1 (talk) 07:54, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
BuzzFeed News
BuzzFeed News is most certainly a good source for this article.
- BuzzFeed News received official statements from the FBI,[3] and have been cited as an authoritative source for information on this very topic by:
- The Hollywood Reporter,[4]
- The New York Times,[5]
- New York Magazine,[6]
- and FOX News.[7]