A Small Investigation into "Fake News" and "Alternative Facts."

Bernie Sanders recently had this to say about Donald Trump.

"I use the term 'delusional' with regard to Trump when he said there were 3 to 5 million 'illegals' who voted in the last election ... That is delusional," Sanders said. "Nobody in the world believes that is the case. There is zero evidence to back it up. But he makes that statement. So I think the word 'delusional' is correct."

CNN

This has been the dominant thought process among Democrats. But what if this was an alternative fact? And what if these alternative facts were on right-wing websites or even just conspiracy websites?

It turns out that Trump may have been reading InfoWars instead of relying on the CIA for intelligence.

"Report: 3 million votes in presidential election cast by illegal aliens," reads a headline on InfoWars, a conspiracy website ran by Alex Jones. The article has been shared via Facebook more than 48,000 times when we last looked.

Where did InfoWars get its data? It did not make it up, in fact, it got its data from a tweet made by a Republican named Greg Phillips who operates an app called VoteStand, which is used to help report illegal voting. Here is the tweet.

Gregg Phillips @JumpVote We have verified more than three million votes cast by non-citizens. We are joining .@TrueTheVote to initiate legal action. #unrigged 8:47 AM - 13 Nov 2016

He offered no data to back up his claim, and he also refused to say how he arrived at the numbers. There is the possibility that he will release his data. If he has any and if his procedure is done well, then that could change the game. Is this an example of how alternative facts are formed? It is a system that is highly speculative and not reliant on reliable data. However, they could also be generated by partisan studies that have data that is at odds with the official record.

Meanwhile, everyone should read this report on fake news by NPR. They tracked down the CEO of a fake news site and interviewed him.

He was amazed at how quickly fake news could spread and how easily people believe it. He wrote one fake story for NationalReport.net about how customers in Colorado marijuana shops were using food stamps to buy pot.

"What that turned into was a state representative in the House in Colorado proposing actual legislation to prevent people from using their food stamps to buy marijuana based on something that had just never happened," Coler says.

Coler says his writers have tried to write fake news for liberals — but they just never take the bait. Coler's company, Disinfomedia, owns many faux news sites — he won't say how many. But he says his is one of the biggest fake-news businesses out there, which makes him a sort of godfather of the industry. At any given time, Coler says, he has between 20 and 25 writers. And it was one of them who wrote the story in the "Denver Guardian" that an FBI agent who leaked Clinton emails was killed. Coler says that over 10 days the site got 1.6 million views. He says stories like this work because they fit into existing right-wing conspiracy theories.

NPR: We Tracked Down a Fake News Creator in the Suburbs

You forgot the most interesting bit of the interview.

CNN is fake news!

a reply to: muSSang

What was that?

And as the stories spread, Coler makes money from the ads on his websites. He wouldn't give exact figures, but he says stories about other fake-news proprietors making between $10,000 and $30,000 a month apply to him. Coler fits into a pattern of other faux news sites that make good money, especially by targeting Trump supporters.

This part? Or that the guy is a Democrat who spread fake news against Hillary Clinton during the election?

"I use the term 'delusional' with regard to Trump when he said there were 3 to 5 million 'illegals' who voted in the last election ... That is delusional," Sanders said. "Nobody in the world believes that is the case. There is zero evidence to back it up. But he makes that statement. So I think the word 'delusional' is correct.

Delusional eh.

Popular vote 8,753,788

en.wikipedia.org...

Popular vote 7,854,285

en.wikipedia.org...

Anyone care to explain how Clinton got more votes than O did ?

Since he was more 'popular'.

There was a study done by a University on one of Obama's elections and I think some 800,000 non-citizens voted in that election. So, after Obama stated in an interview that could be construed as illegals can vote without repercussions to them it is possible that 3 million + cast votes in 2016. If the non-citizens didn't speak English well they may have thought that is what Obama said.

I guess we will see after the investigation. CNN said the is NO evidence. Well, that is fake news after the previous study said 800,000 voted in Obama's election. There are no absolutes that can be said until that is looked into.

a reply to: neo96

Well he isn't really delusional if he's getting his facts from alternative websites, it's just that the sources might not be reliable or true. I'm not interested in how the votes between Obama and Hillary compare, or am I missing something about how that relates to this thread?

Coler says his writers have tried to write fake news for liberals — but they just never take the bait.

Yep, a lot of conservatives just eat it up. They love their tabloid patriotism. Just take a gander at the majority of sources used on ATS. Obscure blogs, facebook, and nonsense "news" sites like Breitbart and Infowars are the rule of the day now.

Is the journalistic integrity of CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc in question? I think so, and for good reason. However, most of the integrity in question is because of omission more than lies. The major media outlets will just omit uncomfortable facts if need be. We're entering new territory where these news sites and blogs just make things up whole cloth.

There have been a ton of nonsense stories coming out from this genre.

Obama birth certificate
Obama intends on nuking South Carolina
Obama will declare martial law
Obama will cancel the election

Just google search any of those and it's a who's who of right wing blogs and "news" sites. This is a whole new ball of wax.
Bad enough we have to weave our way through the mainstream media bias's, now we have to combat complete nonsense as well.

Keep bothering yourselves with meaningless bullsh# while real newsorwthy stuff gets buried... Maybe wake up a little???

I am seeing a lot of news where the information is interpretted by left wing people and the interpretation is not correct. They aren't looking at the whole picture, they do the same thing as some of the people do, take one sentence or statement and not the whole conversation so it is out of context. This happens all over the news and beliefs that are not real flow from passing this information along. False news is common all over the place nowadays, but mostly it is being spread by the Democrats this time.

I guess science is the same way, they interpret the evidence often to fit their beliefs. The evidence is collected properly, based on special parameters and the evidence is utilized outside those parameters a lot. We are living in a world of deception, We have been conditioned to believe a lie and right now, the far left is spewing more misinformation than the right and by doing so forcing the right to mess up while protecting themselves. I guess those guys in the white house should have come to ATS for training in how things work in the new world.

So my opinion is that the Democrats are spewing way more misinterpreted information than the White house is.

originally posted by: Illumimasontruth
Keep bothering yourselves with meaningless bullsh# while real newsorwthy stuff gets buried... Maybe wake up a little???

That is a perfect statement for the ears of CNN executives who choose the news stories of the day. They take the most insignificant negatives (usually President Trump related), and run hours and hours with them, while ignoring the important stuff. CNN is as FAKE as a news network can be.

a reply to: darkbake

The guy actually admitted to creating the stories (being the source) which is amazing itself. Really amazing is the people who fell for it are insisting his stories are real even after being slapped by reality.

Alternative fakes are still actual facts.

More than one thing can be true at once.

That is why courts specify the truth, the WHOLE truth amd nothing but the truth.

Here is an example.

It is a fact that Onama ended his term with low unemployment numbers.

Here is an alternative fact that puts it into perspective. The numbers Obama uses no longer include a large segment of the population who gave up looking for work so unemployment using the traditional parameters is actually up.

Obama did not lie, he just did not tell the whole truth and ignored alternative facts.

a reply to: darkbake

or am I missing something about how that relates to this thread?

Yep ,that . Now think about this .In a election ,many things are said and hardly anyone agrees with the other side .Its a he said she said fest and as it turns out the one who can win the war of words wins the election .They all say things they are going to do but usually they don't or if they do it looks nothing like the picture that was painted when they said it .The news lol MSM seems to be in one camp or the other during a election. This thing about giving equal time only seems to work when tptb has both bases covered as to the two sides of the same coin party system .

Well this last election changed all that .The MSM were deep and dirty into the Hillary camp and they were as anti Trump as that could be . The Americans were watching all this playing out and taking notes and not really saying much .The biggest and loudest voices were the anti Trump gang . The people didn't buy it then and are not going to buy it now .If you are singing ,its only to the loosing crowd .Stop triggering them ...fake news report by CNN ...lol

originally posted by: Deny Arrogance


Obama did not lie, he just did not tell the whole truth and ignored alternative facts.

If he did that wittingly then thats a LIE.

originally posted by: Deny Arrogance
Alternative fakes are still actual facts.

OMG if that isn't the most delicious (and telling) Freudian slip! *__-

a reply to: the2ofusr1

The news media showed bias against Trump this election by reporting on every single mistake he made and not giving as much critical attention to Hillary. However, the MSM rarely fabricates an entire story just to get more clicks, or at all. CNN may be biased against Trump, but they have been reporting facts.

wait, so you qoute sanders saying

"Nobody in the world believes that is the case."

and then you qoute two different souces of poeple who do believe thats the case

"Report: 3 million votes in presidential election cast by illegal aliens," reads a headline on InfoWars,

Gregg Phillips @JumpVote We have verified more than three million votes cast by non-citizens. We are joining .
@TrueTheVote to initiate legal action. #unrigged 8:47 AM - 13 Nov 2016

and we all know sanders knows better then that. so this makes sanders statement a delusional lie....

the irony. and hypocrisy is reaching comedic levels

a reply to: pryingopen3rdeye

Personally I think Alex Jones is too intelligent of a guy to actually believe most of the things he says.

a reply to: darkbake

Alternative facts are just BS painted by someone in hopes of deluding you. Like saying the Nazi operation Barbarossa was a success for them because the Russians lost nearly 5 million me to Germans 1 million losses.

The numbers are facts, the German's retreated. No painting can deny those facts.

It's not all too different from what media does if used as an example, people even apply such delusion as I may call it to science, something ATS members know well.

Facts are facts, if people don't like how the facts have been spread on the table then I urge people to gather the intelligence to interprete the facts how they see fit.

A lot of people are inherently too lazy to do that, hence why so many people believe utter fabricated nonsense... Even senators ha!.

I don't know man, fake news and alternative facts is a mug's came and many of us are clearly mugs. Sad isn't it?

originally posted by: PistolPete
a reply to: pryingopen3rdeye

Personally I think Alex Jones is too intelligent of a guy to actually believe most of the things he says.

Why would he?

He doesn't have too, he's making a killing. I know he isn't as thick as two short planks I know that much.

He is entertaining too, that's a fact.