Trump Accuses Google of Rigging Search Results To Favor 'Bad' News About Him (cnet.com) 1024
President Donald Trump says Google search results for "Trump News" show only negative coverage about him. From a report: The results present "only the viewing/reporting of Fake New (sic) Media," the president tweeted early Tuesday. He said it's a "very serious situation" that "will be addressed!" "In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of ... " he wrote in the first of two tweets at 5:24 a.m. ET. Update: White House probes Google after Trump accuses it of bias.
Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
The simplest explanation is probably the true one. Conspiracies are rarely the simplest explanation.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:4, Insightful)
The president will get negative press no matter what.
Sometimes it will be partisan, sometimes it is just based on fact.
For the news, Pain sells, so the president will be shown for all his mistakes over the successes.
We need a responsible adult to realize that, and move forward.
Being President of the United States is the worlds most thankless job.
Re: (Score:3)
Google is a single entity; they don't need to "conspire" with anybody to rig search results. And Google is a highly progressive company and takes strong political stances, so they certainly have motive to change search results to promote their preferred politics.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:4, Insightful)
Anything not that's not sychophantic is liberal to you yokels.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that these people tend to be the noisiest as well, which makes those extremes appear far larger or more important than they really are.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Up until his tweet today, Google's first page of results for 'Trump News' did indeed return 'only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media.'
But since Trump's tweet that crucial first page is now 100% news about his tweet, replacing the voice of the news with noise from Trump.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Right on. I've been saying that for a while, people are focused on whether what Trump said is true or not, where all that matters is what effect it achieves. He tweets something and the idea enters the public consciousness, typically further polarizing people, but those are sometimes ideas worth discussing.
I go to Google news to check the pulse of the left world, though occasionally a Fox News article slips in, then I go to Fox News for the pulse of the mainstream conservatives, and occasionally check Breit
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Trump benefits from hostile mainstream news
I see very little "hostile" trump news on the google news front page. If you want that, you have to go to twitter feeds and the like. What you apparently mistake for hostile news is actually horrified news, in reaction to the horrific actions of a horrible person.
One thing is clear: today's "google news is fake news" trump troll is just a brazen attempt to switch the focus away from John McCain and back to him. Same with yesterday's fake trade deal. Sigh, this week is going to be along week from trump. Expect another troll tomorrow morning.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Informative)
#1 link on Google News right now: "Trump slams Google search as rigged -- but it's not: CNN". That is a fairly hostile title
You apparently have your own private definition of "hostile". Did you read the article? (I doubt it.)
The central point in that article is: "Google's most fundamental interest is returning search results that users find helpful, because that's how it gets them to come back. It does that, in part, by prioritizing results from trusted news outlets with large audiences." The headline summarizes the thesis, the article supports it.
By the way, Google personalizes all news results according to what its algorithms say you are interested in, and you don't need to be logged into gmail for Google to get an accurate read on who you are. Google fed you that article at the top of your new page because you frequently search for and click through to similar content.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Interesting)
While you are googling, try "worst president" and set the time frame to "past year". Hilarious, if it wasn't so sad.
In particular, there is this link: The White House's Disastrous Reaction to McCain's Death [twimg.com]
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
That would be the problem with people at the political extremes. They are so far to their own side that everything else looks far left or far right by comparison.
I think that these people tend to be the noisiest as well, which makes those extremes appear far larger or more important than they really are.
That is indeed a huge issue nobody in the US except a very few seem to acknowledge. Conservatism and traditional values in the US have gone to shit.
The US had a conservative president who embodied traditional values. He was a married, religious family man from the middle-class with a spotless political career and social engagement, he reached out to the opposition party to move forward on bipartisan issues... but conservatives hated him because he was a Democrat and he was black.
Now the US has a "conservative" president who was divorced two times, he did not serve in the military or a political career, has had various affairs with porn stars and models, grew up as an entitled rich-kid, frequently disrespects women with sexually charged commentary and is so self-centered that he spends most of his days checking what people are saying about him on the news... but conservatives love him because.... I don't know. He's as morally depraved as they are?
There was time of real Republican conservatism as embodied by the likes of senator John McCain. This conservatism cared about the middle-class and lower incomes, about traditional family values and also about international alliances, fairness towards partners, the rule of law, honoring treaties and also listening to facts and reason.
That Republican party is no more. It has been hijacked by the right-wing populists who push agendas and fake news (all the while accusing their opponents of doing exactly that in attempt to muddle the minds by pulling everyone else to their low standards). It has solemnly sacrificed logic, reason and the traditional values for some kind of modern, right-wing dadaism that rejects all social norms and values.
The current president and his favorite news channel (Fox) embodies this state that conservatism has morphed into, perfectly.
What I don't understand is, why nobody in conservative America is standing up to all of this bullshit. John McCain was, and now he's dead.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Interesting)
Not so long ago, there was another conservative, ex-military officer, a technologist who stood down Russia over Afghanistan, and battled the oil cartels. He was a white guy from the South.
His name was Jimmy Carter.
Carter did what he thought was right, and wasn't interested in polls. During his office, the primordial tech soup evolved into the first microcomputers. The long peace process with Vietnam was started. The Cold War got colder.
And conservative as he might be, he was also a Democrat.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait, are you saying McCain was given cancer because he stood up to this bullshit!?! That makes so much sense!!!
No, what I'm saying is, that if, figuratively speaking, traditional conservative values were an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, John McCain was the last of the Mohicans.
Re: (Score:3)
His term was indistinguishable from someone who tried to do the right thing but was easily swayed by propaganda (or maybe partly by classified info that we don't have). I don't know how much was malice or incompetence or just naivete. Donald Trump is clearly NOT trying to do the right thing. That's the difference.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, it certainly doesn't make him a conservative as the GP claimed.
I have no idea what Donald Trump is "trying" to do. But unlike Obama, Trump so far has reduced regulations, appointed/nominated better justices, and lowered taxes. On the other hand, he has done nothing to hurt me (I'm a gay immigrant) and started no new wars. Drone strikes are also way down under Trump. So, whatever Trump is (and he is certainly no conservative or libertarian either), I have no cause to complain.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Informative)
Obama ... caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs...
Not according to fact check:
https://www.factcheck.org/2017... [factcheck.org]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Obama also caused ...
Correlation !=causation
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not blaming Obama for the financial crises (other progressives are responsible for that). What Obama did was to turn what should have been a normal recovery into a long and drawn out stagnant economy that kept millions who lost their jobs from regaining their jobs.
That is not at all what you originally said, and what you're saying is still false. The 2007 recession and financial crisis was not a normal recession, and there was never going to be a normal recovery. There was too much damage, and it was spread too widely. The GOP capture of the House in 2010, and complete intransigence in the Senate (check how often the filibuster was invoked after 2010) was what stymied the recovery. After the Democrats passed the ARRA in 2009 there was no further opportunity to improve the economy, thanks to Republican dogma.
As for ACA, it's easy to cover more people in the short term if you borrow to pay for it; that's not sustainable. It's the lack of sustainability and financial responsibility that makes the ACA so crappy.
In 2010 the CBO estimated that the 10-year cost of ACA reforms would be $940B, and that taxes and cost reductions would yield revenue of $1044T. Since then overall costs have come under projections, and have been below pre-ACA estimations. In other words, the ACA has saved the federal government money vs. doing nothing.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Informative)
Obama never claimed what you claim he did.
He promised to wind down the war in Iraq and focus on the war against Al Queda. He accomplished this.
He promised to end the indiscriminate drone killings of civilians and low level fighters that was endemic during the bush years (the Bush admin actually fired a hellfire at a guy because he was tall and people deferred to him, seriously, this action killed a high level tribal member not affiliated with the Taliban and caused them to ally with the Taliban) and to use more aggressive targeted drone strikes against the al queda and Taliban leadership, something he was lambasted on the right for during the campaign. He was in fact immensely successful in this, the leadership of both groups was forced to break all communication and their war effort and coordination fell off a cliff for a number of years because they were forced into hiding and unable to communicate except through hand delivered couriers. These targeted strike were about 100X more effective than the Bush's indiscriminate attacks were and the anger in Pakistan about the Bush drone attacks largely faded because of it which allowed the drone program to continue.
Obama talked about the NSA and did change his mind once he had access to the intelligence. I don't consider that a broken promise, I consider that an example of willing to admit you were wrong.
Obama oversaw that biggest cut to federal spending in a LONG time when he signed the bill that authorized the sequester. The vast bulk of the debt accumulated during the Obama administration was the debt created by Bush. Two unfunded wars and an economy in a tailspin. Within 1 year Obama was able to bottom out the recession. Job growth began almost immediately afterward and proceeded until the end of his term.
Handed wall street and corporations vast amounts of money? Really, when did Obama do this? And this in comparison to Trump who just gave the average corporation, millionaire and billionaire a 20% tax cut? Seriously, that's your talking point?
As stated before the Job losses were in place when Obama took office, peak losses were in the first quarter of the Obama administration (after growing consecutively for the past 8 quarters) and began to grow net jobs within his first term. Frankly an amazing achievement given the depths of the great recession with 10-20% of the population unemployed.
The healthcare reform Obama "saddled" us with provided insurance to millions of uninsured and arrested the price increases. Prior to the passage of the ACA health costs were increasing at 20% a year for the past 2 decades. Cost growth was in the single digits when he left office even with the number of retiree's growing every year. It's also point out Obamacare was in fact a proposal created by the Heritage foundation (Koch) created as an alternative proposal during the attempt by President Clinton to reform the healthcare system. It IS the conservative plan.
You have no memory for history.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Informative)
Obama was an inexperienced community organizer who got elected because he promised to end America's wars, targeted killings, and NSA spying, and because his opponents were war mongers and imbeciles.
He was a senator, he was working towards getting out of 2 major wars he inherited. Targeted killings are the best option out of the crap shoot of terrible options in war. See Dresden Bombing or the Battle of Verdun for examples of what all out war is about. Then come back and complain about targeted killings.
Obama ... massively added to the federal debt, handed vast amounts of money to Wall St and corporations
You do realize that was only completing what was started under Bush and Republicans, right? And started because Bush and Republicans deregulated wall st to the point that they needed the bailout.
, caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs,
Again, Bush and Republicans. You do recall how much Bush was considered the worst president ever? How I miss those times.
and saddled us with healthcare reform that by its own architects was unworkable.
Actually, it is workable, if you take it to its conclusion: single payer. I'm not sure any of the architects were forward thinking enough to realize the end game though, so I'll give you this one.
Are you describing Trump?
Re: (Score:3)
Obama did little to end the wars or NSA spying, but he expanded drone killings, massively added to the federal debt, handed vast amounts of money to Wall St and corporations, caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, and saddled us with healthcare reform that by its own architects was unworkable.
It is quite funny seeing people complain about Obama not achieving all the things that he couldn't get passed through Congress despite actually staying true to his promise.
Obama tried to end the war, congress got in the way. Obama tried to close gitmo, congress got in the way. Federal debt spiked but hardly as the result of anyone in government, as all over the world they pulled all stops to limit the damage from fucking huge economic mess that unfolded, your American jobs likewise. As for the healthcare re
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You're gonna have to keep your angry racist off-topic tirade down to 2 paragraphs max or I'm just not gonna even read it, ok?
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Many of these people are the same people who give money to prosperity ministries.
Rubes. Yokels. Marks. Suckers. Dupes. Chumps.
Trump is playing them for the fools they are. He's not conservative, he's a damn con man & thief.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:4, Insightful)
95% of the country is urban or suburban.
Have you been to most of this country?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I haven't been to the Sun but I am pretty certain it's mostly Hydrogen.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:4, Insightful)
The policies that help a huge cosmopolitan area typically not that well thought out for people in the less populated areas. Many of the social safety nets that are there to help people in overpopulated areas do not properly help people in lower cost of living areas.
handful of retrograde hicks
You really don't know that many rural people. I grew up in a rural area and the split is nearly as wide there as it is in the cities. Just because a city goes blue doesn't mean that much more than 50% of the population is on that side.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Interesting)
So maybe instead of being a bunch of hateful fucks, those yokels could work together with the hated city folks to address those issues. Instead, they'd rather be spiteful shitheels doing shit like rolling coal.
The only hate I see is coming from your post. You may (and I'm sure you do, from your perspective) have personal reasons to be angry at them but you are the only one who can decide if you'll let it consume you or not is yourself.
Imagine if an academic wrote this about practicing software engineers: "So maybe instead of being a bunch of hateful fucks, those yokels could work together with the hated university folks to address those issues. Instead, they'd rather be spiteful shitheels doing shit like using NoSql databases." What would you think of him?
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:4, Insightful)
LOL you know something like 95% of the country is urban or suburban.
Someone has never been to the midwest.
Re: (Score:3)
"Something like 95% of the country" may not be farmers, but that does not make them urban or suburban, either.
You're just full of bad logic today, aren't you?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
> Being unable to spell words the words you choose to use makes you look like a yokel....
Rule #1 of calling people out for their misuse of the English language on the internet: make sure your own house is in order first.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Seeing as 96 percent of google search results about Trump come from liberal media outlets
You may wish to rethink you naive view of this.
If you apply some critical thinking then the results make sense. You have most of the entire English literate world using Google, not just the US. Very few outside the US think US conservative media outlets are reputable and therefore avoid them. Google ranking is a convoluted feedback loop so you inevitably are going to end up with results people look at which aren't US conservative media outlets.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Google's search results are also influenced by how many other sites link to a given article. Theory being that well linked articles are considered good by other people. When offering up evidence people tend to link to sources with a reputation for impartiality (aka "extreme far left bias").
Google weights links from less reputable sites lower too, so all those blogs and forum links don't really help Trump supporting sites.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Re-posting a link to a conservative news source is not a refutation. They told you what trends in worldwide traffic might be driving the popularity of less conservative news sources and this is not an argument against that.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
You do realize Google customizes its search results by the location the query is submitted from ?
For local matters, yes. News is certainly more regional and national news tends to take precedence over regional news when it comes to national matters.
But that just gives extra weight to the location of the site (or its intended target area). It doesn't change its relative importance on the Internet in the rest of their algorithm. It would make no sense to do anything beyond that with location information. If web sites worldwide are linking to a web site its overall relative importance is still going to be much higher.
Re: (Score:3)
Specifically on a survey of sites that are reporting non-stop about Trump? Why would they even make the list? They simply don't write a lot of articles about his antics compared to most sources.
Their location is only relevant in that they're not writing a lot of stories about the topic, and they're not in the country where this is taking place so fewer people are looking to them or sharing from them about that subject.
Re: (Score:3)
I am sorry are you now reversing yourself on the amount of coverage being important as opposed to the prominence and global reach of the site ?
How is a page supposed to appear if it doesn't exist? Fewer pages indexed means fewer pages that can rise to the top. Do you think I'm saying "look here, CNN has lots of articles so let's promote all their pages"? No, each page/article gets their own weight and rank.
The BBC having far, far fewer articles on the subject (and being further removed from what they're reporting on) means they have fewer pages that are going to rise in the search results and even fewer that are going to be sought after and sha
Re: (Score:3)
Did I say they had no articles on the topic? I did a search for Trump on their own web site and there were relatively fewer results and of course their contents are a rehash of sites that reported before them. Good chance that Google ranks pages higher that report sooner on a specific event, as later pages are duplicate or potentially plagiarized.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Interesting)
I looked at your link, read the entire thing,
so I asked myself, why are the results this way...
Well, I came up with some theories, most likely wrong but might be true.
you have a few sites like infowars what are sensational sites having a narrative of hate and conspiracies.
They are adding negative values of trust to the trump name within certain search terms
While sites like CNN are adding positive value to the trump name under the same rules
CNN put's out more content on a daily basis than fox and google is scanning both.
it's coming down to truthiness and trust. I trust CNN over infowars, I can trust Barrons over stars and stripes. I can see that CNN seems more truthful than Fox, and it starting to show.
so yes, the leaning to non-trump side.
Also, the non-trump side propaganda machine is designed differently than the trump side. that could also be an issue.
( because it sound smart people think it's smart concept )
the rightwing media self protrait as unreliable (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: the rightwing media self protrait as unreliabl (Score:3, Informative)
Am in London, have traveled through 63 countries and 42 of US states (+DC & PR); Iâ(TM)m less afraid for my safety here than many places, and Iâ(TM)ve had more dicey situations in the US (once in a mall during shooting for instance) than almost anywhere else.
Aside from war zones, the world is in general reasonably safe. The US isnâ(TM)t as developed in that regard as those who live there and never leave would think.
I have LIVED in one such area (Score:3)
Re:I have LIVED in one such area (Score:4, Informative)
What's more the fact that london now has a higher crime rate and murder than NYC is further proof you are wrong.
Fucking moron.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-... [bbc.co.uk]
It was slightly above in Febuary and less every other month this year and the yearly rate is well under half.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure you'd love that to be the reason, and not the fact that the loudest conservative media outlets in the US are demonstrably terrible at being actual media outlets. Those media outlets do it to themselves with their constant bullshitting and scaremongering.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
"Very few outside the US think US conservative media outlets are reputable"
And one significant reason for this is the relentless and universal portrayal of US conservative media outlets as disreputable by the US Leftist media.
Sorry, but no. By European standards, Fox News is a conspiracy theorist right-wing tabloid. Pretty much every Fox News opinion host is perceived as a populist, fear-mongering, right-wing extremist. We form this opinion based on our own cognitive abilities and critical thinking skills - no "leftist media" required.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Funny)
And one significant reason for this is the relentless and universal portrayal of US conservative media outlets as disreputable by the US Leftist media.
Nope, there is NOTHING that other media can do to make US conservative media outlets seem more disreputable.
Euro-perspective (Score:4, Interesting)
And one significant reason for this is the relentless and universal portrayal of US conservative media outlets as disreputable by the US Leftist media.
No, it's the relentless nonsensical bullshit coming from US conservative media that is US conservative media's own enemy across the rest of the world.
If even 1/10th of all the bullshit spewed by US conservative media was true, the whole European continent would be utterly bankrupt, over run by barbarians and on fire.
When I look out of my window, that's not what I see.
Hence, their bullshit isn't informative, we outside the US might as well skip it.
(Yes, I know, we're all evil depraved euro-communists over here...)
Travel much, do you ? (Score:3)
Actually, the PIGS, massive Middle Eastern immigration, and car fires in France and elsewhere in Europe make your point less than obvious.
Have you actually *traveled* to "France and elsewhere in Europe" ?
Oh, let me guess : Nope, you never left your house, because the media you've been watching has always been telling you that Europe is a scary communist place and too dangerous to travel to.
I'm not saying that there has never ever been a single car on fire in the whole Europe ever.
But it is extremely far from being any frequent thing to begin with, unlike what the media would like you to think.
It's not a common part of the landscape, at all. J
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
It took me a few minutes to be sure that it wasn't a piss-take on a statical news show. The amount of distortion would be flat out illegal in a lot of countries I think (as shown when they do have news from outside the US, and get it so hilariously wrong [telegraph.co.uk])
I'm afraid to say it's reality's well known liberal bias, raising it's head again.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Seeing as 96 percent of google search results about Trump come from liberal media outlets
https://pjmedia.com/trending/g... [pjmedia.com]
You may wish to rethink you naive view of this.
This only makes sense if you provide objective evidence that ) there's a number of non-liberal (mean conservative) news sources that cover trump comparable to those liberal news outlets you refer to, and/or B) conservative news outlets produce media and news at rates and quantities comparable of those produced by the liberal news outlets.
Until then, the simpler explanation should stand.
Re: (Score:3)
Prolific is not a useful metric (the plague was prolific). Also, Facebook shares are not usually indexable by Google. Even though it's "only" a magazine, The Atlantic has been publishing for over 150 years.
Being a number 1 rated news channel is not a prize to be proud of. There are only two large enough to be in the running and both are extremely sensationalist and should not serve as a primary news source to anyone with a rational mind.
Re: (Score:3)
Citation found:
https://www.alexa.com/topsites... [alexa.com]
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:4, Interesting)
That's useful
Just looking at that, the WSJ has more sites linking in than either the WAPO or USA Today but isn't represented in the top 100 search results while the the others were.
Are you out to demonstrate my premise for me ?
Re: (Score:3)
That listing doesn't show how many of those inbound links are to Trump articles. You really don't understand how Google's search algorithm works, do you?
Re: (Score:3)
I'm on your side, but to be fair, no one outside of Google really understands how their algorithms work. There could actually be a "Google execs like this" input. Probably not, but we can't really know for sure.
I say this not to argue against your point but to point out that no one really has all the answers here. We're all debating on observations.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
CNN can't beat ancient aliens on the history channel
And now you know how someone like Donald Trump gets elected in the first place.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
What's more comparing news organizations FOX is the number one rated news channel,
No, Fox is the #1 rated channel on cable news, as watched by people ages 25-54.
The fact that a bunch of angry shit-for-brains are glued to their tube for large portions of the day doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
If you were remotely honest instead of trying to push a narrative, you'd have acknowledged that when you tried to use that shit ass metric of "truthiness"
CNN can't beat ancient aliens on the history channel
You've touched upon the point right there, buddy. Cable news ratings favor bullshit programming for the simpler folk who don't know how to get off their couch, and like being told fantastical conspiracy theories.
despite having similar standards with regard to factuality.
Yes, that must be it.
Answer me this- how the fuck do you hold down a job being so unforgivably stupid? I know that's a crap word to use, but what the hell else do you call someone so incapable of applying even fundamental logic to an argument they're trying to make?
Re: (Score:3)
This may trigger you. Hug your therapy dog in your safe space and maybe close your eyes
May 2018 Ratings: Fox News Is Most-Watched Cable News Network for 197 Straight Months
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewse... [adweek.com]
Didn't you think it a little pathetic to crow about one day ?
These days reality has a liberal bias (Score:5, Informative)
Evolution, global warming, the facts about Trump... All these aspects of reality that mainstream media is willing to embrace, conservative media largely rejects. The result of these processes is that, to the conservative eye, reality appears to have a liberal bias. Is it such a bad thing that Google reflects that reality?
Re:These days reality has a liberal bias (Score:5, Insightful)
So if reality has a liberal bias then GMOs are the devil, vaccines cause autism and there are no biological differences between males and females? Oh, and a new one I found out yesterday is that apparently race isn't based on biology either.
Idiot.
There are certainly falsehoods believed by groups on both sides of the political spectrum, and in the recent past it could be argued the crazies on both sides were fairly equal. But unfortunately today the far right has went so far off the deep end there is no comparison. Lets look at some of your examples.
Liberals do tend to have unfounded anti-GMO biases, which while misguided are still based on some solid scientific concerns. Compare that to Conservatives and their antagonistic views on global climate change, which go against an effectively unanimous backing from the scientific community.
Anti-vaccination concerns started out with a tiny section of liberals, but today these concerns are roughly equally shared by the far left and far right. Even here, one side is merely anti-corporation where the other is more generally anti-science. Both are misguided, but the far right is driven as usual from its anti-intellectual beliefs.
No liberals I have ever read about believe there are no biological differences between men and women. They simply follow the research which shows biology is not a prime driver of gender inequities in our society. Compare that to conservatives who still believe gender is a binary condition, and the far right is clearly less educated in their beliefs here as well.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a lot of reasons this can happen. Google ranks pages higher when they are shared / linked to more often. Google is not "neutral" in the fact that they let more popular pages rise to the top. Not being neutral in that respect is what made them what they are vs. search engines that only rank on keywords - it weeds out spam. But not being neutral is not the same as intentional bias.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Most media outlets are rather centrist. However we have a President treating the presidency like a Reality TV Show, and not government.
So every time he has a temper tantrum, or trolls on twitter, the Media needs to call him out on this for clarification. However he doesn't want to answer the tough questions. So it leads his intentions up to interpretations.
While I am all for an open government, A presidents internal monologue shouldn't be broadcasted. Because it distracts from the issues at hand, and less on substance we are focusing on intent.
Trump is doing it to himself. Sure some site may be left leaning, however even most left leaning site will not go out of the way to to hinder the president unless they feel what he is doing is that wrong.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
What about George W Bush in the middle of that?
or George H Bush before
Ronald Regan
Jimmy Carter
Harold Ford
Richard Nixon
The president being an elected official, will take opportunity to be in the spotlight, but that is different from being a Reality Star.
Obama had star status, I bet he loved it too, but he kept it under control and used it to actually lower the drama, with self deprecating humor.
Presidents have been unofficial entertainers from the TV era onward. But it wasn't a daily dose of scandal and scorn.
Re: Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup, left wing media constantly smears Trump
It is completely impossible for anyone to smear Trump more than his own tweets and speeches.
Trumps behavior is the simple explanation (Score:5, Insightful)
Bias is simple, and doesn't require any conspiracy.
Just because you don't agree with something doesn't mean it is bias. Believing all news sources are biased against you is indistinguishable from believing in a conspiracy. The simple explanation here is just that Trump doesn't like news that isn't flattering to him and that there is a LOT of factual news that makes him objectively look bad. His own behavior is the simplest explanation, not bias. Some people like his behavior - many many more do not. Ergo a lot of of news isn't favorable to Trump.
It's not bias - it's behavior (Score:5, Insightful)
All I said is: bias is simple.
Bias is simple but Trump's behavior and dislike of unflattering news that results from it is a proven fact. Occam's razor only applies when it isn't clear what the answer is between two choices. While there are clearly a minority of news sources that are biased against (and for) Trump, many more are simply accurately relaying facts without any significant bias for or against. The fact that these facts make Trump look like an asshat is a second order effect. There is a reason his approval ratings are generally historically low - the majority of people don't approve of his actions and it should surprise no one that the news reflects that disapproval.
Trump behaves like asshat = news reports asshattery is a FAR simpler explanation than assuming widespread and universally negative bias against Trump by google and news organizations.
Re:Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder with a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. Those affected often spend a lot of time thinking about achieving power or success, or on their appearance. They often take advantage of the people around them.
...
...
Self-confidence (a strong sense of self) is different from narcissistic personality disorder; people with NPD typically value themselves over others to the extent that they openly disregard the feelings and wishes of others, and expect to be treated as superior, regardless of their actual status or achievements. Moreover, the person with narcissistic personality disorder usually exhibits a fragile ego (self-concept), intolerance of criticism, and a tendency to belittle others in order to validate their own superiority.
The DSM-5 indicates that persons with NPD usually display some or all of the following symptoms, typically without the commensurate qualities or accomplishments:
1) Grandiosity with expectations of superior treatment from other people
2) Fixated on fantasies of power, success, intelligence, attractiveness, etc.
3) Self-perception of being unique, superior, and associated with high-status people and institutions
4) Needing continual admiration from others
5) Sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others
6) Exploitative of others to achieve personal gain
7) Unwilling to empathize with the feelings, wishes, and needs of other people
8) Intensely envious of others, and the belief that others are equally envious of them
9) Pompous and arrogant demeanor
Re:There's no conspiracy (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, the fact is that Google only trusts big names in news, like CNN and Fox, never mind how ridiculous they may be.
As they should. They aren't analyzing the credibility of web sites, they're analyzing the credibility that the public assigns to these web sites. Giving equal weight to a random conspiracy theorist web site with 5 followers makes no sense for very good reason.
AT&T from the 1920s; Hayden; Snowden; Wu; Ajit (Score:3)
Yeah, so what? You can't draw any conclusions from anything without first estimating the base rate.
Not a bad baseline for comparison—not if you compare Google in the 2010s with AT&T from the 1920s.
History of AT&T [wikipedia.org]
me again, with data (Score:3)
site:slashdot.org "net neutrality"
9,520 results
site:slashdot.org "Snowden"
8,340 results
site:slashdot.org "NSA"
7,070 results
site:slashdot.org "Google"
50,900 results
site:slashdot.org "Facebook"
61,700 results
I suppose you still think a regular stream of lobbyists and geeks (counted in public view) and generals and policy wonks (not counted in public view) into Obama's White House was situation irregular during his eight-year tenure?
Here's another seismic view of the Obama presidency:
Global Apple iPhone sales f [statista.com]
Hey Trump (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
I can't get that mental image out of my head. Curse you, olsmeister! Curse you to a hell full of naked Trump lookalikes!
It doesn't matter whether it's true (Score:5, Insightful)
This statement is probably bullshit, but it serves its purpose: His die hard fans will simply believe it and any bad news is simply propaganda against him. What is or what isn't doesn't really matter either way.
In a way, it's genius. What astonishes me, though, is that for him works what didn't for the commie leaders of old: Saying that the media in the liberal west are just spreading lies.
I refuse to believe that Russians are smarter than Americans.
Preaching to the choir (Score:5, Insightful)
What astonishes me, though, is that for him works what didn't for the commie leaders of old: Saying that the media in the liberal west are just spreading lies.
It works (on some) because he's saying it to his tribe who are already predisposed to believe it is true. Trump is basically preaching to the choir. That's why his ratings have bottomed out - his supporters don't care what he says and everyone else knows he's full of shit.
I refuse to believe that Russians are smarter than Americans.
Hard to tell if electing Trump or Putin is the dumber move so you're probably right. Technically Trump lost the popular vote which makes it harder to pick a "winner".
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I will agree to a certain degree, but when Russians are given profit motive, they perform as good or better. I know too many ex-USSR people that now highly paid engineers in most fields here in the USA.
I'm thinking of a quote from Cryptonomicon, which I suspect was based on some actual quote from the setting of that part of the story (WWII).
"Ask a Russian to design a shoe, and the box it came in will make a better shoe. But ask a Russian to make something to kill Germans, and suddenly they're Thomas <deleted> Edison."
Motivation matters.
This is just more alternative facts... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the record doesn't reflect what you want, toss it out and supply your own "facts". Trump is mad that he's forced to face criticism and not allowed to make up his own facts.
And beyond all that, Google ranks pages essentially based on their popularity. If a lot of sites---especially popular sites---link to your content, then it gets ranked more highly regardless of how "good" or "true" it is. In that sense, Google's rankings simply reflect an unfavorable opinion of Trump.
This is more of the same attitude on the part of the President, and I scarcely see it as newsworthy. He's been at war with the media practically since his campaign started.
I see a business opportunity here... (Score:3)
Someone should really build a "conservative alternative" to Google, which only has nice things to say about him and his Republican buddies. It seems that there is now a market for such a site.
Maybe they can call it "Redsearch.com" or something like that... although that URL might be a bit too close to some other web sites that conservatives wouldn't approve of :)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You asked, you get: https://www.conservapedia.com/... [conservapedia.com]
Extract:
https://www.conservapedia.com/... [conservapedia.com]
"The Second Law of Thermodynamics disproves the atheistic Theory of Evolution and Theory of Relativity, both of which deny a fundamental uncertainty to the physical world that leads to increasing disorder."
Mild stuff.
Let's try https://www.conservapedia.com/... [conservapedia.com]
"Conservative principles are based on reason. So why do non-conservatives still exist?"
You can read the rest yourself.
How about https://www.conservapedia.com/ [conservapedia.com]
Re:I see a business opportunity here... (Score:4, Funny)
...Maybe they can call it "Redsearch.com" or something like that... although that URL might be a bit too close to some other web sites that conservatives wouldn't approve of :)
1. Buys domain.
2. Redirect users to redtube.com
3. ???
4. Profit!
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
They should sue for defamation (Score:5, Interesting)
This could damage their stock price. I'd sue for defamation - he is making a factual claim as the POTUS on an official communication channel.
Nixon, Anybody? (Score:3)
The man sounds like Nixon. He may not actually BE paranoid, but with media making reality in TrumpWorld, the man sounds as paranoid and off the rails as Nixon (or more-so).
Re: (Score:3)
There's a difference. Nixon famously recorded himself. Trump famously gets recorded by everyone covering their own arse when around him.
McCain (Score:4, Interesting)
I checked it out, and he's right. (Score:3)
Google search results make him sound like a moron.
Re:Some truth (Score:4, Interesting)
First item I see is their web site. You're the one making up fake news.
Re:trumpdot (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering that it's a site that is used internationally, and that in general international readers think it's funny you made Donald Duck the ruler of your country...
Re: (Score:3)
You may have missed it when the other leading candidate for POTUS joked and laughed maniacally about the gruesome death of Libya's leader after the US and its allies bombed and destabilized the country. This was even after providing jihadists weapons and support for the purpose of destabilizing and conducting war in another country called Syria.
Now we have the usual suspects in the media that goaded the public into supporting a war with Iraq under false pretenses, (remember that one?) now also wanting to
Re:trumpdot (Score:5, Informative)
Trump has improved the trends, with both a rising labor participation rate
Nope. It's been flat [bls.gov] since two years before Trump took office.
and low unemployment numbers.
Low unemployment numbers which continue the trend started a decade ago under Obama.
But, I truly do thank you for illustrating the issue: Trump's rhetoric is at odds with reality, and his supporters would rather believe him than their own lying eyes.
Re: (Score:3)
Well done on kind of proving his point.
There are multiple 'good news' stories relating to the work Trump is doing. That you can't reference any of them horrifically demonstrates the partisan echo chamber you occupy.
Maybe you should seek a broader set of news sources that can offer you a more balanced view. You'll still hate Trump, but at least you'll be able to do it from an informed position.
Re:Only bad news? (Score:4, Informative)
tax evasion, money laundering, obstruction of justice to start...look at all the folks who have flipped. its the entire list of folks who buried his bodies.
Re:News Feed (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
He is not thin-skinned at all. He only acts thin skinned as part of his trolling.
No, the thin skinned is real. It's the intelligence that is fake. He seems like someone of marginal intelligence when in reality he's even dumber. Similarly his hair is real but his height is not; he wears 3" elevator shoes so he can claim to be 6'3" when in reality he is less than 6' even.
Re: (Score:3)
The media isn't Trump's enemy, they're his enabler. He'll tweet something inflammatory, and they get to fill their pages and airtime with cheap and obvious reaction. Trump on the other hand thrives on the attention; that's why he does it.
Take the hiring and firing of Omarosa -- a woman who's whole schtick is creating shitstorms for her coworkers. It's not like they didn't know that about her when they brought in into the White House. So what can you conclude from that? That bullshit drama is what they