Summary: One of the big themes of the FM website is that we can better learn about our world, which I consider a vital skill for 21st century citizens swimming in a sea of propaganda. Today’s post gives a fun case study from the current news, showing how for the unwary the information superhighway acts like a children’s game of “telephone”. {2nd of 2 posts today.}
Spoiler of the conclusion: Fox News is the model for news in America.
The government doesn’t have one, so we built our own.
Contents
- Why do a forensic analysis of news?
- Today’s hot story
- Conclusion
- For More Information
(1) Why do a forensic analysis of news?
Following a story back to its source reveals so much about us and America. It shows how we have become so easily manipulated, and how the information superhighway doesn’t help the credulous as much as it does propagandists and businesses. In the last section you’ll find links to more forensic analysis of the news.
(2) Forensic analysis of today’s hot story
(a) The Fars News Agency (Iran’s semi-official news source) publishes a typical bit of propaganda. It’s useful for them. We cannot tell if it’s 100% true or false. But then few of us read Fars. “Thousands of Saudi Forces Flee Bases“, 26 April 2015. We’ll consider this the primary source (i.e., we don’t know if this is invented or reporting).
This “news” story supports a hot theory that the Saudi Princes run a house of cards that might quickly collapse. For examples see “Saudi Arabia Plunges into an Abyss” by John Robb (Global Guerrillas, 15 January 2015) and “Will Saudi Arabia survive the Yemen War?” by Pat Lang (Colonel, US Special Forces, retired). Full disclosure: I consider Robb and Land to be serious people, but their analysis strikes me as a few steps beyond speculative.
(b) The Global Research (Centre for Research on Globalization, a far Left research and media organization based in Montreal) reposted the Fars story with a link and citation. I’m not a fan of their work, but this was professionally done.
(c) Others news websites pick up the story. Some cite Fars as the primary source, as does Uprooted Palestinian. Some cite the secondary source (Global Research), as does Almanar. Some, like News786, present it as their own work (i.e., citing no source).
(d) Analysts pick up the story. When reading analysts I use as a reliability “litmus test” how well they research sources — and communicate their reliability in their writings. Some do this very well (e.g., Stratfor). For an example of posting a story without checking sources — because it matches preconceived theories see this by Pat Lang (Colonel, US Special Forces, retired) at his website: “Saudi Forces Desert Rather Than Invade Yemen“, 29 April 2015.He quotes without cautions the News 768 article, which grandly states “Here is the real reason why Saudi Arabia halted operation `Decisive Storm’ and failed to launch a ground invasion of Yemen.”
Lang is an experienced analyst and often gives excellent advice about evaluating sources. Readers should remember this, because he often presents dubious information. See the comments for an audience that accepts this information as gospel.
(e) General interest websites pick up the story, as in this mention of Lang’s post at Naked Capitalism. It’s the new news misinformation ecology, as this story benefited everyone who passed it on (clicks!) down to the end consumer. Readers are misinformed not just by lack of information about the source (e.g., it might be propaganda), but also by the accretion of commentary attached to it along the way.
(3) Conclusions
What’s happening here? We see what might be the biggest result of our shift from news organizations to websites as sources of information about the world. That’s not an inherently bad policy, but for our uncritical acceptance of these off-brand sources. It’s an example of how the information superhighway can make us less well-informed if we’re not careful and skeptical.
Look at this chain of information in terms of value-added at each step. It’s like the children’s game of telephone: the information content is less at the end than the beginning since key information gets lost (e.g., the source is Fars) and biases attach to the story at each step.
Let’s look at this chain in terms of value given. Iran disseminated its propaganda. Each intermediary website generated clicks for revenue and readers who might absorb some of their message.
What did the news “consumer” at the end gain? They gained what they sought: entertainment. The managers and professionals that comprise most of the outer party are politically impotent but like to feel relevant and engaged. So they consume information.
This explains something otherwise baffling: our credulous attitude and disinterest in our experts’ past record of failed predictions and bad advice. It need not be accurate since we have no intent to use this information. It’s just entertainment in the bin with TV soap operas and net-zine fan fiction. Fox was one of the first to realize this, and the most determined to provide what we want — and so the largest beneficiary from this evolution of Americans from citizens to subjects.
Everybody who seeks a mass market in the news and analysis business
must become info-tainers like Fox New.
I don’t know how to reverse this. A people with more political involvement — both time and money — might have more interest in accurate information. Or we might address the problem and become better consumers. For more about this “plan B” see…
- Learning skepticism, an essential skill for citizenship in 21st century America.
- Remembering is the first step to learning. Living in the now is ignorance.
- Swear allegiance to the truth as a step to reforming America.
(4) For More Information
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about information and disinformation, especially these with more examples of following hot stories back to their sources:
- This was a big story in 2009 (both Left and Right loved it): Today’s hot rumor: Fisk’s story about a conspiracy to wreck the US dollar. Six years later and the US dollar remains strong.
- Resolution of the Great Submarine Cable Crisis – and some lessons learned — Fun but fake news, widely circulated.
- Stop the presses: no naval armada has sailed to blockade Iran! — Another popular fake but fun story.
- Proposed legislation prepares the way for war with Iran! — Or not.
- Forensic analysis of propaganda: “Michelle Obama Keeps Socialist Books in the White House” — Or not.
