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Elon Musk's Pravda: "'Rate My Professor' but for Journalists"

posted by martyb on Monday May 28 2018, @02:30PM   
from the takyon++ dept.

takyon writes:

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.

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Original Submission

• Politifact is comedy, I think Politifact is comedy, I think (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @05:47PM (4 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @05:47PM (#685241)

  You gotta love this:
  https://i.redd.it/af2wlx3w5g011.png [i.redd.it]

  Bias? Nah...

  Parent

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		0
  Interesting=2, Overrated=2, Total=4
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		0

• Re:Politifact is comedy, I think Re:Politifact is comedy, I think (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:34PM (3 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:34PM (#685295)

  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]

  Parent

  • Your links prove his point. Your links prove his point. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:52PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:52PM (#685304)

    It's exactly as bad as that image shows.

    Parent

    • Re:Your links prove his point. Re:Your links prove his point. (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @09:06PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @09:06PM (#685310)

      Amazon is a monopoly: False
      Amazon pays no taxes: False
      Amazon paid no federal taxes in 2017: True
      Parent is a deplorable: True

      Parent

      • Re:Your links prove his point. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @12:14AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @12:14AM (#685361)

        I'd rather be a deplorable than an incel like parent!

        Parent