SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Gizmodo writes that FCC emails show that the agency spread lies to bolster false DDoS attack claims. Their system became overwhelmed in early 2017 after John Oliver directed his audience to flood the agency with comments supporting net neutrality. A similar surge had happened for similar reasons back in 2014. However, the current FCC team appears to have lied about both occasions.
Internal emails reviewed by Gizmodo lay bare the agency's efforts to counter rife speculation that senior officials manufactured a cyberattack, allegedly to explain away technical problems plaguing the FCC's comment system amid its high-profile collection of public comments on a controversial and since-passed proposal to overturn federal net neutrality rules.
The FCC has been unwilling or unable to produce any evidence an attack occurred—not to the reporters who've requested and even sued over it, and not to U.S. lawmakers who've demanded to see it. Instead, the agency conducted a quiet campaign to bolster its cyberattack story with the aid of friendly and easily duped reporters, chiefly by spreading word of an earlier cyberattack that its own security staff say never happened.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @12:26PM (8 children)
Is there a list of these "easily duped reporters"?
(Score: 2, Redundant) by Thexalon on Thursday June 07 2018, @02:18PM (7 children)
The list of easily duped reporters is basically all reporters. The personality that tends to go into journalism is one that so wants to get the story that they will accept any information that they can get their hands on and will treat it as fact so long as it fits their "narrative".
To get an idea of how easily reporters can be duped, read up on and/or watch the antics of The Yes Men: They've impersonated spokespeople for all kinds of businesses, agencies, and organizations. For example, these guys pretended to be the US Chamber of Commerce [youtube.com], and you can see a bunch of reporters in the room taking what they have to say seriously until they're stopped by a guy who actually works for the US Chamber of Commerce.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Thursday June 07 2018, @02:39PM
Yeah, that and the pressure they're under to publish quickly. A slight paraphrase of a Mark Twain quote:
"Never let facts get in the way of a good story."
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 07 2018, @04:31PM (5 children)
The list of easily duped reporters is basically all reporters.
No, in this case it was entirely Fox "News." Your false equivalency is false.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday June 07 2018, @06:41PM (4 children)
I have yet to encounter a news organization that hasn't either been duped or willingly published propaganda at least once. Saying "Only Fox News is duped / a propaganda outlet" allows you to be duped or propagandized by other outlets, like the New York Times or CNN.
In this case, Fox was the one duped. But I'm never going to suggest that they're the only ones who get duped, or that only the outlets that lean in a different political direction than my own are the only culprits. In the clip I linked earlier, the person being duped by the Yes Men was from the Washington Post.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 07 2018, @08:58PM (2 children)
If you expect perfection out of humans you're always going to be disappointed.
Science also gets things wrong from time to time but that doesn't invalidate the entire pursuit. The important bit is what happens after they figure out they were wrong.
Real journalists improve their vetting process, fire anyone they consider negligent and issue a retraction.
Pretend-journalists (like Fox) issue the retraction but don't bother with steps 1 and 2.
Pretend-pretend-journalists like Alex Jones and Breitbart don't bother with 1, 2 or 3.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday June 07 2018, @09:33PM (1 child)
MSNBC's Chuck Todd has by all appearances taken orders from the Democratic National Committee [wikileaks.org]. And yet he's not been fired.
Your implication that conservatives are always pretend-journalists and liberal media outlets are at least trying to get the story right is belied by the evidence. The fact is, any media outlet can be wrong, and the right thing to do is treat any source as suspect without independent confirmation of what they're saying.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 07 2018, @10:52PM
MSNBC's Chuck Todd has by all appearances taken orders from the Democratic National Committee [wikileaks.org].
Oh boy, what a smoking gun! A political commentator scheduled a meeting to talk to somebody in a political campaign!
And the orders where what, exactly, to use his mind control powers to make Mika Brzezinski say nicer things?
Your implication that conservatives are always pretend-journalists and liberal media outlets are at least trying to get the story right is belied by the evidence.
I didn't say conservative, I said Fox.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Thursday June 07 2018, @09:35PM
Now see, we have identified the error!
Fox has no reporters, so no reporters were duped, thus leaving the question of how many are gullible still unanswered. (Now if the question concerned blondes of a "certain" look, maybe we could reach "closure".)
This assertation is dubious, very dubious. Could it be that there was collusion between the FCC and Fox? They are both agencies of the current crooked administration, after all. . . .