Deception Watch: AstroTurf, Lobbying, and Dirty Politics
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-01 13:42:51 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-01 13:42:51 UTC
Media Bias
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The BBC has been accused of yielding to political pressure since the last election and allowing a right-wing bias to emerge in its journalism.
The serious criticism by a distinguished media professor suggests that the BBC has compromised its impartiality by depending too heavily on sources from business, the media, law and order and politics.
Covert Marketing
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Two-time "Worst Company In America" winner Electronic Arts isn't doing its publicity department any favors. The company's new freemium game Dungeon Keeper tricks frustrated players into leaving bad reviews on its own site, instead of on the Google Play Store, Gamasutra reports.
Politics
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Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., is defending his actions after he physically threatened a reporter at the Capitol after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
The confrontation began Tuesday when Michael Scotto, a reporter for New York cable news station NY1, asked Grimm about a Justice Department investigation into his campaign finances.
After cutting the interview short, Grimm told Scotto, "You ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this (expletive) balcony." He also threatened to "break (Scotto) in half."
NY1 posted video of the incident on its website.
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The Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity (through its Wisconsin Reporter and Watchdog.org websites) has aggressively attacked the "John Doe" probe into possible campaign finance violations during Wisconsin's 2011 and 2012 recall elections. Its outlets have also published new information about the apparent targets of the investigation, but they have omitted an important detail: Franklin Center has close ties to individuals and groups that may be caught up in the John Doe.
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Google, the tech giant supposedly guided by its “don’t be evil” motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers.
Organizations that received “substantial” funding from Google for the first time over the past year include Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union (best known for its CPAC conference) and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation that led the charge to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act: Heritage Action.
South Korea
Revisionism
Consumerism and Distraction
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This ad strongly promotes the values of consumerism, and implies that consumerism leads directly to happiness. In the ad, the girls bought these shoes, are wearing them, and are now fashionable, popular, and happy. This message encourages the belief that spending money and obtaining material goods is the only path to happiness for girls. This big lie will lower girls’ self-esteem and perhaps cause them to purchase unnecessary goods in their quest to appear cool and likeable.
Recent Techrights' Posts
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- This is the kind of contribution companies like Microsoft and Google have to offer to society
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- Their first 'article' in over two weeks is 52% "AI-generated" (slop), 33% mixed (edited slop), 18% human-written, says an advanced scanner.
- Double-Dipping the Docket for Microsoft Glory and Censorship of Microsoft Critics
- same lawyer, same barrister, all US, all Microsoft
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- GNOME Does Not Campaign Against Microsoft, KDE Does
- It's good to see that KDE is still active in promotion of Free software - a term that it uses
- Slopwatch: BetaNews, Linuxsecurity, and Other Prolific Slopfarms
- name and shame the sites that establish such proliferation of slop
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- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Tuesday, June 17, 2025
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- The LLM slop "bros" are a lot like fake-money bros; they lie to people, they boast that they lie to people, and they're generally bad people, BS artists in colloquial terms
- TheLayoff Censorship of IBM Threads Has Gone Truly Ludicrous
- we do not argue that TheLayoff should not cull LLM slop
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- There's some good news from the FSF
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- Links for the day
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- July 2 or 3 mark the start of a very long weekend in the US
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- If IDG (now controlled by China) does that in at least one site, why not the rest? Only a matter of time?
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- Links for the day
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- Yes, decade!
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- If Microsoft sabotages systems of judges at the Hague (in order to appease the insane man who wanted to invade Greenland), why won't its neighbour Iceland take note?
- BetaNews Has Just Deleted Its Latest 'Article' or Got Cracked Again and Restored From Outdated Backup Again
- BetaNews seems to be in some serious trouble right now
- Software Freedom is "Activism" Because the Corporate Agenda Revolves Around Bribery, Deceit, and Betrayal
- At the end Software Freedom will win because it's on the same side as truth and lawfulness
- The EPO, Europe's Largest Patent Office, Admits Outsourcing to Microsoft Slop
- Their sole goal is to make more money
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- The Better the Understanding or the More Nations Understand the Threat Posed by Microsoft, the Faster It'll be Eradicated
- We believe that the thing to advocate is self-hosting and Free software... A lack of simplicity or absence of alternatives is a form of vendor lock-in
- A Week of Sunlight
- They say transparency is like sunlight to a vampire
- "Linux" Sites That Went Astray
- there are even worse things than shutdowns
- Links 16/06/2025: Climate, Wildfires, Breaches, and Monopolies
- Links for the day
- Links 16/06/2025: Summer in Finland and Misunderstandings
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 15, 2025
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