SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the just-make-sure-the-data-isn't-classified dept.
Common Dreams reports
Facing a presidential administration committed to waging war on Science, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) this week launched a website to help scientists blow the whistle on government interference in their work.
[...] The website encourages scientists employed by state and federal agencies to share "memos, emails, directives, or any other documents;" to send "datasets or other information that has been altered or removed from public view;" and adds: "You can also describe anything that has been communicated orally or even rumors that you have heard, and we will investigate."
The UCS urges potential whistleblowers to use encrypted communications, anonymous email, and the postal service to send materials, and encourages following the Electronic Frontier Foundation's advice for protecting privacy.
Related:
NASA's Earth Science Datasets and Others May be Disappearing From Public Access
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2017, @02:43AM
...and because USAians have the attention span of a gnat.
For example, letting the dude get away with calling an entire group of people criminals and rapists because he followed it with "and some, I assume, are good".
...then there's allowing him to get away with flip-flopping on minimum wage 3 times in 3 days. [motherjones.com]
It's clear that a USAian "hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest".
USAian public schools exist to produce compliant laborers, not critical thinkers.
Lamestream Media gets plenty of blame here as well.
We had the fake news story here a while back where the gal showed up, wrote down what the Reactionary gov't officials said, and took it back to her TeeVee station which aired/published it without any actual investigation.
Legacy media has become such crap.
Ronnie Raygun's decision to stop enforcing the Fairness Doctrine (and O'Bummer's scrubbing it from the books) signaled to them that actual reporting/analysis is optional.
...and USAians still consume their crap.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:46PM
Is it that Americans have the attention span of a gnat or that most people do not hang on every word coming from hyperventilating TV reporters, because they have better things to do?
There has arisen a conceit that those who do not buy into the media narrative are ignorant Philistines. To those who harbor that conceit i would counter that the "facts" used to construct that narrative are quite cherry-picked, and the narrative is purposeful, not objective or in any way "The TRUTH." If you believe it is, go and spend some time in a press department or major publication and think again.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 20 2017, @12:31AM
TV reporters
As stated, Lamestream Media is a DUBIOUS source of information.
As with anything where -profit- trumps all other considerations, they aren't really interesting in truth, just maximizing profits.
Similar deal with "public" broadcasting where they are hanging on by their fingernails because of Neoliberal/Reactionary funding cuts.
Those places have turned into just another source of corporate ads (even if they call those sponsorships/underwriting/whatever) and corporate propaganda.
Actual criticism of a gov't which might, on a whim, further cut their funding is not to be expected either.
The only broadcast model from which you should expect veracity is listener-funded/viewer-funded.
Americans [...] have better things to do
...like consume "reality" TeeVee.
major publication
If USAians would invest a tiny bit of effort into locating one or more New Media outlets which aren't concentrating their efforts on making profits to pay for incredibly expensive office space and fancy furnishings and such, those USAians could quite easily find a bunch whose mission is veracity.
Websites which monitor Lamestream Media and use multiple outlets as sources and CRITIQUE them when they go off the rails do supply a useful service and should be sought out.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 19 2017, @05:51PM
Ronnie Raygun's decision to stop enforcing the Fairness Doctrine (and O'Bummer's scrubbing it from the books) signaled to them that actual reporting/analysis is optional.
The Fairness Doctrine is a violation of the First Amendment. So there are legal and reasonable grounds for getting rid of it. I allow that this may have contributed to a decline in the quality of news reporting, but in addition to these legal issues, I don't think quality of US journalism is any business of the governments of the US. That responsibility is solely of the viewer/reader who as you noted is apparently just fine with this crap.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2017, @11:43PM
For-profit businesses do NOT have a right to the public airways.
In the past, that privilege was -EARNED- via a commitment to operate "in the public interest".
It's been decades since I have seen that commitment from for-profit broadcasters or from "public" broadcasters.
I haven't done TeeVee for 8 years and have never thought that cable was worth the price they were asking for it.
As such, I don't consume Free Speech TV, which I am given to believe is the rare example which DOES live up to that old standard.
I do consume Pacific Radio which I know lives up to the standard.
There's an open invitation to Reactionaries/Neoliberals to be guests.
They know that they won't get away with the nonsense they do on Lamestream Media so, of course, as a rule they don't participate.
Thom Hartmann sometimes gets a brave soul to appear.
As you might expect from one of the smartest guys on radio/TV, he shreds their obsolete/dumb notions easily.
Surprisingly, he occasionally agrees with a point made by one of the representatives of the Bourgeoisie.
THAT is the kind of thing that -used- to happen in media (e.g. William Buckley and Gore Vidal).
I don't think quality of US journalism is any business of the governments
I view your model as a path to Fascism.
I experience it daily when my "public" broadcasting Smooth Jazz station puts on their top of the hour "news" from the (Reactionary) Associated Press.
If I'm quick, I can change the station before I'm exposed to too much unchallenged Fascist propaganda.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 20 2017, @03:58PM
For-profit businesses do NOT have a right to the public airways. In the past, that privilege was -EARNED- via a commitment to operate "in the public interest".
The First Amendment doesn't make exceptions for privileges or the public interest.
I don't think quality of US journalism is any business of the governments
I view your model as a path to Fascism.
And I have the opposite viewpoint. Fairness Doctrine is just another means of government control of private business and thus, another pathway to fascism.