Facebook made a $300 million pledge to help journalists — just like Google did last year
Facebook says it is going to spend $300 million over the next three years to support journalism.
Does that sound familiar?
Here's why: Ten months ago, Google said it was going to spend $300 million over three years to support journalism.
Facebook says it's just a coincidence that it landed on the same dollar amount that its primary competitor landed on last year. But I'm not complaining. In part because I want Google and Facebook to spend money supporting journalism. And also because it means I don't have to rewrite this piece, from March 2018: "Google and Facebook can't help publishers because they're built to defeat publishers."
Previously: Google Pledges $300 Million for "Google News Initiative" to Fight Fake News
Related Stories
Google News Initiative announced to fight fake news and support journalism
Google is announcing new efforts today to support the media industry by fighting misinformation and bolstering journalism, which will live under a newly announced umbrella called the Google News Initiative. Google already offers something similar in Europe through the Digital News Initiative, but the Google News Initiative is intended to be a wider worldwide expansion of those kinds of efforts.
There are three specific goals of the Google News Initiative: highlight accurate journalism while fighting misinformation, particularly during breaking news events; help news sites continue to grow from a business perspective; and create new tools to help journalists do their jobs. Google is serious about supporting these goals, too, pledging to invest $300 million over the next three years.
Fighting fake news is obviously one of the most crucial parts of Google's forthcoming efforts. The company has had several brushes with disinformation propagating through search following events like the Las Vegas shooting last fall, making this an area where Google has room to improve. According to Google, the company is working to train its system to be better at recognizing contentious breaking news and adjust toward displaying more accurate results, using the recently added "Breaking News" section on YouTube as an example. But even with those improvements, Google still has problems with search results on YouTube, including issues where conspiracy videos topped the trending results last month following the Parkland shooting. It's good to see that Google is working to improve this, but it'll have a long way to go to regain users' trust.
Also at Bloomberg.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @06:24AM (2 children)
The first thing that comes to mind is how google destroyed firefox, but current journalism is in such a sad state that Im not sure I care.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Friday January 18 2019, @12:16PM
Firefox did a pretty good job of destroying itself.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 20 2019, @01:16PM
Oh I see! It was gooooògle who was behind the plugin system purge and other atrocities!!
All this time I thought it was Mozilla burning down their own ship.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Arik on Friday January 18 2019, @06:44AM (4 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Spamalope on Friday January 18 2019, @06:58AM
To be fair, some will go towards political advocacy and at least some outright propaganda as well in addition to Gawker/Enquirer level stuff.
An ever so slightly cynical read might be: Facebook and Google pledge 600 million* towards political campaign funding disguised as news. * 600 million for placement on their own sites, based on ad rates needed for similar placement
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 18 2019, @07:09AM (2 children)
Zuck is one of the smarter Jews out there. He can reinstate Alex Jones, because if you were a "crackpot conspiracy theorist" then you would be so crazy and stupid that nobody would believe you, right? And if people were so crazy as to allow you views because a few others would buy your "anti-Fluoride sperm increasers," right? Come on now, why would you disregard a large readership, from a businessman's perspective, simply because that readership were "conspiracy theorists?"
Come on, Zuck: you wouldn't shitcan a large advertising demographic of conspiracy theorists whose beliefs could not possible have any effect on reality? Why would you do that? Conspiracy theorists are nothing but crackpots.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday January 18 2019, @09:13AM (1 child)
He's one of the very-most intelligent people I have ever met in my entire life.
But he is paranoid as all get-out.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 18 2019, @09:34AM
Jews are not intelligent as much as they are good businessmen with a knack for shorter-term gains. I wouldn't call him "paranoid" but I would call him intelligent in the short-term in that he can "get-out."
He can escape the political whirlwind and "get-out" with political moderation to avoid getting assfucked if the political tides change rapidly in the short-term.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @07:20AM (5 children)
This won't include low-bias fair reporting as seen from Tim Pool or OANN.
This won't include right-biased but factual reporting as seen from Breitbart, Project Veritas, and Judicial Watch.
This will only add to our oversupply of leftist propaganda. ("Orange Man Bad!")
Even if these tech executives didn't desire to push a leftist agenda, they couldn't avoid it. Who could they hire? With offices in places like San Francisco, and a qualification filter (including low pay) that selects for fools who majored in journalism, there is no way to avoid a newsroom full of communists and SJWs and worse. These are people who hate America and all it stands for. They would be eager to burn it all down to create a Marxist utopia or something even more impossible, such as a utopia that miraculously has both Islam and LGBT rights.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @11:18AM (2 children)
HAHAHAH! So when are the Lizardmen coming??
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2008/03/02/is-the-lizard-man-of-scape-ore-swamp-chomping-cars-in-south-carolina/ [breitbart.com]
You have a fucked up president that's constantly lying. And then you don't even see it. What does that make you? Delusional comes to mind. But then believing Breitbart as "factual' .... yeah .... case and point.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 18 2019, @06:48PM
Oh damn, that link's going in my bookmarks!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @09:25PM
While not dead, your link is pretty empty. I suspect somebody managed to inject it into the web site via a security hole.
Also, it's just a click-bait headline. There is no claim being made that the answer is "Yes".
Breitbart does in fact cover breaking news, complete with court documents for you idiots that just want to dismiss Breitbart due to the slant.
You in your bubble can't see that CNN is slanted worse, in the other direction, and is literally making fake news. The protest coverage in London was great, with CNN caught transporting people around London to appear as crowds in various places. The Koi feeding incident with the Japanese prime minister was impressive fake news, with video cut to make Trump appear to be doing offensive things in Japan. It goes on and on.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by DannyB on Friday January 18 2019, @02:38PM (1 child)
"right-based but factual reporting" is an oxymoron. Or if it is indeed factual, then it isn't right-based. (Or left-based)
We can use some of the excess of our oversupply of leftist propaganda to air drop some to areas desperately in need of some. Like red states.
Tech executives have only one agenda. Money. Some of them are rightist not leftist because rightist propaganda tends to be "pro business" (translation: let business get away with anything no matter how horrible)
If you have a newsroom full of SJWs and communists, then find a way to turn them against each other and put television cameras in the newsroom to ensure best ratings.
The best way to achieve the utopia having both Islam and LGBT rights is to only populate it with people who are LGBT AND adhere fully to sharia law -- that is, zero population. A true utopia of peace and harmony with no conflict.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @09:43PM
Right-biased and factual: Our president Donald J. Trump continues to stand firm against Pelosi's stubborn refusal to fund America's border protection.
Left-biased and factual: House speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to stand firm against Trump's stubborn refusal to fund critical government services.
Both of the above are accurate reporting, though severely biased. Honest bias isn't so bad. At worst, some stories don't get covered.
The extreme pro-business position, disregarding American workers, is not right or left. It is libertarian. Libertarians end up in both parties and are thus a key feature of the uniparty. On the right, you have the Koch brothers. On the left, you have all the tech executives. The less-extreme pro-business position, focusing on jobs, is usually just given lip service... but Trump is more seriously taking that position.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday January 18 2019, @09:12AM
To suggest they use some of the money to bribe foreign officials to permit death-row journalists to flee their repressive nations.
Is there a graph?... Yes. [cpj.org]
While 2016 and 2017 were trending downward the reporter fatalities went up again last year.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @03:31PM (2 children)
300 Million, all of which was stolen from the public. They buy and sell your private (and public) data but produces nothing.
Nothing has changed about the jew. Still the universal sponger, the peddler of private data of other peoples. The great master of lies.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @04:54PM
Listen to yourself. Don't YOU like money, don't you need it to clothe, feed and house yourself?
If you are too dumb and can't recognize the value of what is in front of you, how is that a jew's fault?
You deserve to have someone eat your lunch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 20 2019, @01:23PM
You seem to have a problem with jews.
okay.
fine.
Can we fix the muslim problem first?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 19 2019, @02:23AM
Is this the kind of "journalism" they will be supporting? [mediacrisis.info]