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Elon Musk has floated the idea of creating Pravda, a web site that would allow users to rate/review the credibility of media organizations and journalists. Pravda Corp. was formed in Delaware and incorporated in California, according to an October 19, 2017 filing. Jared Birchall, a director at Musk's Boring Company, is President of Pravda Corp., and the addresses are identical:
Musk's idea quickly raised concerns that the reputation of news organizations and reporters could be determined by what could be an easy to manipulate online popular vote.
"Elon's next company: Rate My Professor but for Journalists. What a great idea that won't be gamed immediately in extremely predictable ways," Rene DiResta, who researches computation propaganda and is a policy lead at Data For Democracy, wrote on Twitter.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia, told CNN such a service might might make sense if it employed a careful methodology and was overseen by an independent journalism foundation.
"It's not a crackpot idea," he said. "The question is why should Elon Musk be the one running it and how trustworthy would it be if he ran it."
Musk has been criticized a lot lately.
Also at The Verge, New Statesman, and The Washington Post.
(Score: 3, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 28 2018, @02:36PM (17 children)
"Soros Management Fund, founded by George Soros, bought $35 million worth of Tesla convertible bonds in the first quarter of 2018, according to 13F documents the firm filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Convertible bonds are a type of debt security that can be exchanged for a predetermined amount of company shares. They are usually issued by companies seen as high risk, high reward.
.........
Meanwhile, at its Fremont, California, plant, Tesla is being probed by the state's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), following reports that it failed to disclose serious injuries at the job site. Tesla has denied any wrongdoing." foxbusiness.com/markets/soros-elon-musk-and-a-35-million-vote-of-confidence [foxbusiness.com]
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @02:41PM (16 children)
Just $35 million is a "big investment" for billionaires? That is like 10 Mar-a-Lago golf trips: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/apr/18/center-american-progress-action-fund/how-much-do-donald-trumps-trips-mar-lago-cost/ [politifact.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 28 2018, @03:29PM (15 children)
People don't open links. And possibly you're counting on that. Because even VERY LIBERAL Politifact says that's only half true. Because the Fake Number for that, it has nothing to do with me, and it has nothing to do with my presidency. It has to do with former President Obama, with one of his trips. He went to Chicago and he went to Palm Beach, he didn't go to Mar-A-Lago, my Southern White House. He can go if he wants to. Because I let in the blacks & Jews. At the same price as everyone else. And Mar-A-Lago was the first club in Palm Beach to do that. Because of me. I would never join a club that doesn't allow blacks & Jews. And neither should you.
But the Fake Number -- it's from a fake website put up by John Podesta's Center for American Progress. The same outfit that put up the ThinkProgress Fake News website. John Podesta, as everyone knows, ran the Crooked Hillary campaign. He's terrible with cyber, his EMAILS got hacked totally. And maybe his websites are hacked too. Many people have tried to find out, where does the money come from for the Center for American Progress? But John won't say. It may be George Soros or Elon Musk, Russia or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.
And let me tell you, when you invest, very smart to DIVERSIFY. I'm a big believer in diversity. In investments, in clubs, in many things. Because I'm a smart guy. And Soros is a smart guy. That's why we're billionaires!!!!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @03:49PM (9 children)
This is what soylentnews is reduced to. Petty bickering and troll posts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:41PM (8 children)
Was it ever anything else?
Well, perhaps, we also engage sometimes in enlightened, erudite debate, in addition to those things. But we've always had to scroll past the trolls and partisan bickering to find it.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 28 2018, @04:56PM (7 children)
I've had it with this asshole. I'm going to go on IRC and ask Ye Powers That Be (TM) at what point exactly we can start Spam-modding him. Just because it isn't the exact same message over and over again doesn't mean it's not Spam.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Touché) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 28 2018, @05:53PM (2 children)
You can Spam mod me at the point when you're a Moderator. At the point when a tweet that's 100% on topic is Spam. And at the point when you want to silence me because I don't make you laugh. Because you don't agree with me, with what I say and what I do. And because you have no better answer than to call me an asshole. Let me tell you, you'd make a great dictator. Because a big part of being a dictator is silencing folks. Like you're trying -- very successfully -- to silence me. You, or the other Spam modders who listen to you, put 2 Spam mods on me. And many, many, many other down mods. And this is a great time to do it. I proclaimed Memorial Day. And the Administrators are enjoying a beautiful holiday, beautiful weather and beautiful country. They promise to look at all the Spam mods -- big waste of their time -- I assume they're not going to do it today. And the Spam modders know that too. It's Censorship Day for them. Maybe they'll censor you too. And maybe you'll censor them.
According to you, for me to say the Center for American Progress and their ThinkProgress website look very corrupt, in a story -- a topic -- about "the credibility of media organizations and journalists" counts as Spam. I assume that's what you're saying on IRC. Because that's the tweet you replied to. Let me tell you, you're totally unfair. And you have nothing to say. You're a self-appointed censor. And maybe the Administrators gave you permission to take it to the next level, somebody's taking it to the next level. With all the Spam mods. Which are a way for the Administrators -- sometimes with help from their flunkies -- to keep people from tweeting. They call it an algorithm, they call it free expression. I call it censorship.
Believe me, I'd love to silence the Fake News media. And the Fake websites. ThinkProgress and many more. But I don't do it, you don't see me doing that. But if you were in my place, I think you would. And I think you'd shut down the (few) honest ones too. Because my little tweets are enough to make you totally blow your stack. Where you're writing nasty tweets in my journal. And in the stories. Your tweets have nothing to do with what I wrote or with the story. Just, you saw I wrote something and you're angry that I'm still writing. I'm a waste of space, according to you. Terrible way to talk about another person. Such a nasty woman!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @09:31PM
Mr. President, I am glad you are here setting the record straight with your tweets on this cyber. Haters are just going to hate. MAGA!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 29 2018, @03:33AM
Just improve the signal-to-noise ratio and get some new material. You have potential to be both funny and insightful, but you're squandering it. It's becoming impossible to tell how much of this is satire and how much you actually believe, and we have a prime example (Ethanol-Fueled) below who *started* as a troll and seems to have become consumed by his own "irony." Janrinok below more or less agrees, and he's someone whose opinion you *should* take seriously.
Sorry if I'm scaring you by being a "nasty woman," cupcake. I'm sure you're tough enough to handle it, aren't you? Well, aren't you? :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Monday May 28 2018, @06:52PM
I agree with your sentiment - I too find that he has little of interest to say anymore. Initially it was funny, but it soon grew stale and uninspired so I just skip over his comments.
However, we give everyone the right to speak here until they start to affect the operation of our site. Unfortunately, I cannot honestly say that this is the case with RDT - it is just an annoyance. Muting someone whom you dislike is, I suppose, the beginning of censorship. You can always mod his posts down. You log in as yourself with an account so you must receive the necessary mod points each day. If enough people share your view and do likewise perhaps he will eventually either up his game or, preferably, just stop posting the rubbish that he does so often. Occasionally, oh just so occasionally, he actually says something intelligent but waiting for it seems to take such a long time nowadays.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday May 28 2018, @09:42PM
Afraid I'm with janrinok on this one. It's not satire that I particularly appreciate but it's normally on-topic to either TFA or what he's replying to. If you find one that's not, feel free to use the Spam mod as his satirical style is too rambling and nonsensical to be simply Offtopic.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Mykl on Tuesday May 29 2018, @12:03AM (1 child)
Gotta say that I disagree with you on this one Azuma.
RDT does post a fair bit of 'filler', but he has some very witty and insightful things to say at times. He's a very effective caricature account (very occasionally showing us what the author really thinks about Trump) and sometimes offers us all a bit of insight into how MAGA voters might view topics differently to us.
I've come to view RDT as one of those quirky features of SoylentNews. He's certainly less offensive than some of our other quirks, like Ethanol-Fueled.
And I think that it could be perceived that you are operating in a similar fashion to modern left-wing fascists, who love to shut down anything they disagree with by labelling it 'hate speech' or whatever. The left should really think about being more open minded, the way they want the right to be.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 29 2018, @03:26AM
He's degenerating. He needs to up the signal-to-noise ratio, as he's starting to trip peoples' Poe alarms, and not in a good way. Satire has to be recognizable as satire for it to be effective.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @05:47PM (4 children)
You gotta love this:
https://i.redd.it/af2wlx3w5g011.png [i.redd.it]
Bias? Nah...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:34PM (3 children)
Parent comment is full of shit, just like his boy Trump.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jul/26/donald-trump/amazon-no-tax-monopoly-donald-trump-said/ [politifact.com]
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/may/03/bernie-s/amazon-paid-0-federal-income-taxes-2017/ [politifact.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:52PM (2 children)
It's exactly as bad as that image shows.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @09:06PM (1 child)
Amazon is a monopoly: False
Amazon pays no taxes: False
Amazon paid no federal taxes in 2017: True
Parent is a deplorable: True
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @12:14AM
I'd rather be a deplorable than an incel like parent!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by coolgopher on Monday May 28 2018, @02:47PM (23 children)
Many of the media outlets who have been very vocal about how thin-skinned Musk is and how he rants on Twitter, have now been found with those precise attributes. Hilarious, except it's so sad that it's all come to this. If the media can't be trusted to hold those in power to account, we have lost our perhaps most valuable asset in the defense of democracy.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by quietus on Monday May 28 2018, @02:53PM (2 children)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @03:54PM
It's protected by CloudFlare. Archived here: https://archive.is/jeSG3 [archive.is]
(Score: 5, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday May 28 2018, @04:18PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday May 28 2018, @03:10PM (16 children)
The gist of your comment is basically a generalization of the media in general, especially since around the election time.
I have said over and over again that I was a faithful NPR listener for years, but if there is one thing this election proved, it's that even the classiest news outlets will resort to tabloid-style journalism and lower themselves to the level of crude ad-hominem attacks and otherwise exaggerated sensationalism.
It also doesn't help NPR that, being mostly Jews, their voices are grating and annoying even before they become audibly irritated.
Unfortunately, even if Musk and his Pravda staff were pure of intent, the human element (and especially language in particular) leaves too much wiggle-room to make totally subjective judgement. If you want to see exactly why this is a bad idea, look at Politifact. The beauty of human language is that you can write a truth while simultaneously convincing the reader of the opposite truth.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @03:31PM (6 children)
.. and people keep saying there are no nazi's here.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 28 2018, @04:57PM (5 children)
But Eth is an *ironic* Nazi. You know? The ones who say and do all the neo-Nazi stuff but don't actually mean it (while you're looking directly at them). Imagine a Boo Diddley, except when Mario turns away it does the Heil instead of sticking its tongue out...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Monday May 28 2018, @05:16PM (4 children)
Trolls are not, typically, nazis, but they will do whatever they think will get a rise out of the audience. If it's nazism that causes the audience to lose their shit, the trolls will play nazis. If a troll finds an audience of nazis, he'll pretend to be Jewish instead. Or perhaps Neil deGrasse Tyson. You get the idea.
The internet is infested with trolls. There may be some nazis too, but they're statistical noise next to the trolls.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday May 28 2018, @05:41PM (3 children)
A good writing exercise, one practiced by debate teams even, is to defend a point in which you don't believe. To become your enemy makes you more acute in defending your point. Unfortunately, the more you stare into the abyss, the more the abyss stares back at you.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Arik on Monday May 28 2018, @06:32PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @06:54PM
EF just being stupid again.
(Score: 3, Funny) by coolgopher on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:06AM
So... you're saying that all these assholes on the internet are because of goatse?!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Arik on Monday May 28 2018, @03:54PM (3 children)
I had the same experience. They're still on my dial in the car, and there's still interesting content, but all too often I tune in to one of the 20 minute hates and tune right on over to something else instead. It's not even that I like Trump, I disliked him before it was cool and I still think he's a chump :P but they don't go after him for anything rationally defensible even, it's just a reflexive, tribalized, almost ritualized exercise in hatemongering. That shit turned me off to certain talk radio hosts when it was Obama that was the target and it turns me off just the same when it's aimed at Trump.
It should be beneath them to act like this, and the fact that it is not robs them of all respect in my sight.
"It also doesn't help NPR that, being mostly Jews, their voices are grating and annoying even before they become audibly irritated."
Lol, sure. Jews have grating voices (is this genetic jews, religious jews, either/both? just how does that work?) and that's why there are no famous jewish singers.
Wait, what?
I really think you are an intentional parody sometimes.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday May 28 2018, @04:50PM
I'm surprised you didn't juxtapose his "lower themselves to the level of crude ad-hominem attacks" with his "being mostly Jews, their voices are grating and annoying".
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmorris on Monday May 28 2018, @06:15PM (1 child)
Yeah, wouldn't generalize such a think and think eth really wouldn't either and is trolling. But I can certainly think of one good perfect "canonical" example. Mark Levin. On the radio he seems to be near a rage stroke about half the time and I can't stand the sound of his voice. So I don't listen much and the Mrs also agrees that she can't stand his voice and changes the station so I often don't get a say in the matter. :) But we watched the premiere of his new FNC show and agree it is a great thing, deemed it DVR worthy after the 2nd episode. The difference? He does a sit down interview with a guest for the whole hour and is calm and rational. So few long form programs on TV (lots online of course) and without the shouting the guy really gets a chance to show he really knows his stuff. Makes one wonder if the shouting is a gimmick and there is simply an audience for it on both sides.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Monday May 28 2018, @06:35PM
A few decades ago, a guy that screeched and raved had a relatively hard time finding an audience. It was perceived as crude and boorish.
Now, it's perceived as free and unfiltered, and lots of people cynically play that. The stigma on boorish behavior in general seems to have pretty much evaporated, and outrage mobs are not a replacement.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:22PM (4 children)
How do you tell when EF is being stupid? ... He is.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:45PM (3 children)
Apart from blaming it on the Jews for it, he does have a point. One of the two issues where you can assume they have a massive bias is in reporting on Israel. The other is reporting on women's issues. Both of which they don't bother to even pretend like they're being objective the reporting has gotten that skewed. But, for most other stuff, they seem to do a pretty good job of covering things based on the facts.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday May 28 2018, @05:10PM (2 children)
Assuming 'they' refers back to 'the Jews' in the prior sentence, that's overgeneralization at best. There's considerable tension and division, and you'll find that some of the sharpest critics of that state have been and are today Jews. On the other hand of course the state does have considerable institutional support by inertia and many positively enraptured supporters, and many of them are Jews of course, but the "evangelical Christians" actually seem to outshine even Jews here, assuming you are talking about the US. Jewish communities are traditionally liberal and current events are sapping support from that quarter, while evangelicals are much more numerous and instead of being turned off by current events they revel in them. Look at Nikki Haley. Certainly not a Jew, and I doubt she has any actual concern for Jews either, but many evangelicals believe in an interpretation of Revelations which has "the Jews" gathered together in the holy land, just before they're all slaughtered and Jesus returns, and you can see how this would motivate a sort of unreasoning and unconditional support.
"But, for most other stuff, they seem to do a pretty good job of covering things based on the facts."
I think you may be exposing a little naïveté there. How often do you fact check them on the other things?
In my experience, every time I've been 'on the ground' for an event and then watched mainstream coverage of it, the coverage has been inaccurate. Every single time.
It doesn't always appear to be bias - there's room for good old fashioned sloppiness, and incompetence, but the more cases I've been able to fact check the media on, the more convinced I am that traditional news sources almost never get anything right.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @05:17PM (1 child)
You're not literate if you don't think that the "they" refers to some sort of organization that engages in reporting. Last I checked, Jews are not known for reporting on various current events.
As far as their accuracy goes, I get my information from numerous sources and what they're covering is generally consistent with what other media outlets are covering. Especially ones that are also not taking corporate money. We don't have time to fact check absolutely everything, which is why critical thinking skills are so important. The news available from NPR is much better than what you see in many other outlets, even if it isn't perfect. For example, the coverage they gave of the great recession was one of the few places that took the time to actually explain what was going on and place appropriate blame on credit default swaps and the ability of corporations to take them out as a wager rather than as insurance on assets they actually owned.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Monday May 28 2018, @05:26PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday May 28 2018, @06:42PM (2 children)
Did you even read Musk's tweets on that topic? How can the media hold the powerful to account when the media ARE the powerful? They are both the watchmen and the watchers. The statement that "all "media" is created by six multi-national corporations" is not quite true but close enough for a first approximation because so little gets created outside those six that combined with those same six also controlling distribution that they control The Narrative. Amazon is on the verge of muscling in and becoming number seven. Those same six corporations are also heavily intertwined with the ruling Party both on the official org charts and by blood and marriage between the people who run them and those who rule us. The only question is, "does the media push the Party line or does the Party now obey the media?" Considering the media attracts much dumber people and The Party has increasingly exhibited a lot more idiocy in its governing the fear is the mouthpieces have become the brains of the outfit.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:15AM (1 child)
Your comment and mine are not mutually exclusive. I do however remember a time before the media solely became the playground of the powerful. Or at least, a time when they weren't so blatant about it.
Do I think Pravda will work/be a good idea? No, odds are it'll be trolled, flamed, botted, heckled and hacked into oblivion, just like any other brightly painted target on the internet. Might it still be a worthwhile exercise despite that? Possibly. The Streissand Effect could potentially lead to some changes, but what they would be and if they'd be for the good, I cannot guess.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:53AM
Agreed. Sometimes failure can be a great teacher - not just to the person but others observing. What's worse is to not even try. Musk maybe cuckoo and/or have his own sinister agenda, but I applaud him for at least trying not matter how futile or dumb. In this regards, he's done more, no matter how infinitesimally small, than the armchair critics. Even if the news of this stupidity makes a single person realize a tiny bit that they may have to learn to exercise some doubt to their daily news feed is potentially a seed worth planting.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @02:56PM (3 children)
So Musk really wants to have the same kind of coverage from the mainstream media, that Trump is getting? His formerly "brilliant ideas" turning into "crackpot schemes", his car brand going from "21st century technology" to "unsafe at any speed", his hyperloop going from "the next generation of travel" to "rabbit warrens under LA", his Facebook becoming MySpace?
Good luck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @03:11PM (2 children)
Too bad that there isn't so much overlap between those who write professionally, and those who think professionally. If Musk can make progress, it would be a good thing. Interesting that he is getting attacked before going live with the new site. The guy is smart enough to know that people will try to game the scores.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @03:42PM (1 child)
Just add up the number of big money interests in the military industrial complex, and then it's not too difficult to imagine one of the CIA contacts who feeds propaganda for uncritical reprinting in the same news media that is too arrogant to accept that people are beginning to see through its inadequacies also feeding it clever propaganda about Tesla (not all propaganda), SpaceX (definitely propaganda), SolarCity (small sample size), the Boring Company (ditto), Neuralink (ditto), and Hyperloop (ditto).
We should be just as suspicious of the Musky One as we are of all people who control such a disproportionate amount of the wealth the average American gets paid shit per hour to create.
However, the news media sells itself as a bastion of credibility, nay the gold standard of credibility. A (nearly) libelous hatchet job on the part of the media is not excused no matter who their target is.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:10PM
The 'media' flip flops so fast on who is in favor and who is not you can not keep up.
They are an outrage hate machine designed to keep you mad at all times. Turn it off and you will feel better. I did. I used to hoover up every last little tidbit I could. I lived for how my team was sticking it to the other team. Once you realize it is not about news but selling you an idea, or at best some crazy drug with a long list of side effects, you feel better.
I remember the 24/7 news cycle when it first came out. People had said 'what are they going to do with the other 23.5 hours of the day? There is not that much news'. Well those people are still right (sorta). The 'news' orgs found out how to fill that other 23 hours. With opinion pieces disguised as news, and commercials for overpriced drugs and pillows. Talking heads taking on the 'point counterpoint' style of 'news' arguments. Talking heads who magically can read the minds of politicians and 'the common folk' sometimes at the same time! Talking heads who make sure whatever news that does show up is cherry picked to fit their demographic. Then when it does not fit re-write it so you still look like you were right.
Anyone who thinks they can fix the news has to remove the opinion hit pieces that *all* of the news pumps out at a high rate. That is not going to happen. That junk is fairly cheap, gets good ratings if you get a pretty/funny enough person doing it, and fills up the time for when real news may show up.
I think Elon is just having a bit of fun at the medias expense. Calling it 'pravduh.com' is him poking fun at them. That he could not get pravda.com just makes it a bit more funny. I am sure the 'news' will tell us how this is a terrible thing and a attack up the very foundation of the world.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday May 28 2018, @03:09PM (2 children)
Is this going to be yet another SPLC?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:39PM (1 child)
If it's porn, then it's probably going to be me.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday May 29 2018, @03:22AM
You fan of peep shows bruh?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @03:26PM (8 children)
But the media has definitely been running a biased smear campaign. "Dorks on a couch" constituting a rape party--get the misandry out of the fucking news. Men are human beings, not sex objects. Feminism ceased to be humanism a long time ago. Humanism does not consistently and viciously reduce half the planet's population to nothing more than a sex organ.
Moving on....
The concerns about being gamed are good concerns to have. I see that they immediately dismiss the idea that these concerns can be answered, because they are afraid of their own lies, propaganda, and general lack of credibility being exposed.
I don't know if the Musky One can deliver a product that's critical thinking in the cloud. That's what Politifact and Snopes aim to be: cloud services for critical thinking. Let the cloud do your critical thinking for you, and then all you have to be is a thin-client that parrots somebody else's analysis, point of view and interests.
However, we need a credible and oppositional critical thinking cloud service. Everybody in the alt-right knows the media is full of shit. Read wswswsws long enough, and again one must conclude that the media is more or less full of shit from a leftist point of view. There are so many basic things that the media uncritically accepts and then proceeds to take for granted in subsequent coverage of the same story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @03:30PM (1 child)
Oops. s/basic/extraordinary/, as in extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Monday May 28 2018, @03:42PM
The fundamentals are of incredible importance, a house doesn't stand long if the foundation is shaky.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Monday May 28 2018, @04:30PM (5 children)
She took on Tesla for discrimination. Now others are speaking up. 'It's too big to deny' [theguardian.com]
Tesla workers claim anti-LGBT threats, taunts, and racial abuse in lawsuits [theguardian.com]
Early investor Steve Jurvetson leaves Tesla and SpaceX boards after sexual harassment claims [electrek.co]
I don't remember Tesla being hit with any sexual harassment related stuff other than the above. All of which may have merit.
Musky himself hasn't been accused of anything sexual, although his recent relationship status with Grimes has been greatly scrutinized [vanityfair.com]. And there was this [rollingstone.com]:
SOUNDS LIKE A
I think the real concerns about Tesla are the following:
1. It's ramping up spending and debt.
2. It has/had a greater market value than GM and Ford despite selling 1% as many cars.
3. It has had production problems, or isn't hitting production targets.
4. It continues to sell its cars at luxury prices. More expensive versions of the Model 3 [thestreet.com] are being pushed first, and $35k is a lot in the first place.
5. The other automakers are catching up and will be offering many new electric vehicles. Tesla won't be able to compete on price and the quality may only be marginally better (compare to SpaceX which has the best value in the industry and is building the most powerful rocket in history). Tesla probably can't offer anything that can't be quickly replicated by other automakers, with the possible exception of its vertically integrated battery packs.
Point #2 is due to the company being hyped up so damn much. So it's natural for some in the media to push back against what they see as the Musk bubble.
The Musk bluster, like that recent conference call, isn't necessarily bad, but it seems very distracting and not worthwhile. It's not bad to have a passionate CEO, but he can save his passion for the many favorable interviews and conferences he attends, and maybe stop pretending that everything is rosy.
The concerns about the media are hyped. Media outlets have problems, but most have different biases or problems, and these can be exaggerated by self-serving Trump shills and now a combative Musk. If he had this idea brewing since before October 19, 2017, it will be interesting to hear exactly what set him off.
The actual idea of voting or reviewing outlets might work to an extent. The votes may have a lot less value than the written reviews. You go on Amazon, IMDB, etc. and you expect to run into some fake or dumb reviews, but you can compare a few to get a sense of what is really going on. Gamed/polarized numerical scores on the other hand could be less useful.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:55PM (1 child)
Haha, I love the spoiler.
tbh I'm not very confident that another Politifact or Snopes is what will help long-term. Short-term yes. Maybe. Probably. I hope such a thing might encourage a wider interest in critical thinking. It would be best if critical thinking were democratized, and that can only happen when reading multiple news sources that produce in-depth reporting from different points of view.
I think Pravduh will really succeed if, instead of being merely a Politifact or Snopes with a different (or even oppositional) slant (oppositional is still needed), it provides a way to pit different accounts of the same story from different publications against each other. wswswswsws has its head-scratching moments like any other news source.
Not everybody has somebody like you willing to respond and provide a cogent rebuttal backed by evidence!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 28 2018, @10:43PM
In the Rolling Stone interview, Musk says he is interested in a long term relationship (not sure if you are arguing he isn't).
Also, like other words, "incel" can be both a slur and a self-identified label [incels.me]. (Finally, let's take this opportunity to marvel at how ban-happy Reddit is [nytimes.com].)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Touché) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday May 29 2018, @03:25AM (2 children)
Are we in such dire straits that a man who a woman doesn't want to have sex with is considered pejorative by other men?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 29 2018, @06:15AM (1 child)
🐙 💕 🍇 🎀 𝒴𝑒𝓈 🎀 🍇 💉 💥
『For legacy viewers:』
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday May 29 2018, @03:01PM
How many percentage of men who commit suicide were incels? Makes me glad to know that this behaviour is limited to the 'developed' west. I actually had noticed this myself, that white men don't have friends. They either have girl friends or they are teetering close to death. Never knew people took pride in this phenomenon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @03:58PM (4 children)
It is so!
It's the same crap the Chinese are trying to pull with their 'reputation' bullshit, another form of mob rule.
I would suggest everybody turn their backs.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:22PM (2 children)
Yeah, turn your backs. Because we already know they are full of shit and this is a redundant thing?
Oh do not think so? A news org ran with a 2014 picture and pin it on Trump. Oooops. That was just yesterday and one in a *long* line of what they are doing.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday May 28 2018, @04:57PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:59PM
What's this about?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:47PM
This kind of site is mostly useful for preventing any sort of honest evaluation. It's bad enough that advertisers can pull their ad buys from an outlet if they don't like the press, having a site where they can use it to slander journalists that actually do their jobs is ridiculous.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @04:39PM (2 children)
WTF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravda [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 28 2018, @04:50PM
Yes, propaganda. Candidly admitted from the start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday May 28 2018, @05:00PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 28 2018, @05:02PM (1 child)
There is no *possible* way this could be abused, subverted, or in any way shape or form turned into the precise opposite of what it was supposed to be by, e.g., a small team of shadowy hackers receiving money from an interested source. Nope. Noooope.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Touché) by coolgopher on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:18AM
And then it'll be precisely what it says on the can. Traditional Pravda.
(Score: 3, Funny) by turgid on Monday May 28 2018, @09:12PM
The Devil reads Pravda.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday May 28 2018, @11:51PM
I don't see how it could hurt. It might get subverted, but then all of mass media has been subverted and morphed into propaganda arms of various moneyed political groups and amateur empire builders. The danger is that it's subverted and the majority do not recognize it. Which, I think, is a real danger considering how many people site politifact as if it wasn't anything but pure propaganda.
The media's shrill and shrieking opposition to Musk's proposal simply proves his point. End of argument. The very thought some outside group would rate their bullshit level has them frothing at the mouth. I hope Musk gets his site up and running and a 100 other sites follow suite. Then we can build a Metacritic of media bullshit artists. It would be glorious and oh such a bitter thing for them to swallow their own pill.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday May 29 2018, @03:38PM
If a corporation is already formed with a President... then it is a real entity and it is not "floating" anything, is it?
And if it's not a crackpot idea (though how one actually gets signal from that noise escapes me,) the name certainly is. Coming up next, the Konzentrationslager Center of Freedom and the Shock and Awe Peace Foundation.
This sig for rent.