this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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World News

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For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

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[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 60 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (8 children)

Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with the article at hand which is worthy of discussion in it's own right but does anyone know how BBC is considered left centre? There are sources there on the media bias site for the factual reporting rating but in terms of the bias this is all that they had:

These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by appeals to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes.

...

Overall, we rate the BBC Left-Center biased based on story selection that slightly favors the left.

These two statements don't seem to be in agreement unless I'm misinterpreting something. The actual reason seems to be that the BBC doesn't run stories that the media bias folks feel they should but they give no examples.

It may be true but based on the media bias website I have no reason to believe their rating is in any way accurate.

EDIT: I missed the part further down on the site that goes into more detail onto the bias rating but the sources there say the BBC actually has a slight right bias. There's nothing in there at all about a left bias except they claim the BBC can be overly negative when it comes to Trump, citing one single article titled "Trump: Is the President a Sex Pest?" which investigates some of the allegations against Trump at the time. Maybe I missed something again but I still didn't see it justified sufficiently.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 38 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"Left-centre" by USA standards, I guess? Lol

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Whilst I agree 'left-centre' by USA standards is going to be different from other places in the world. I have to concede that this community is created for a US audience in that no internal US news is allowed.

If I'm right about the above, that would mean it make sense for this bot to be basing it's data on how a US person would see it.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

This isn't created for a US audience. There are other reasons to segregate US news.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 25 points 3 months ago

They also have AP as left center, I think it's just a case of "reality has a well-known left bias".

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 21 points 3 months ago

This media bias website is pretty biased itself. BBC should be centre-right at best.

[–] CTDummy@lemm.ee 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

~~Lemmy just allows random bot that are 7 days old to start auto posting on political post as a self declared fact checker?? I’m probably missing a community announcement but what’s to stop me writing a “fact checker” and loading it up with my biases on particular outlets.~~

Got it the mod rammed it through despite the announcement thread being full of pushback about MBFC. Good stuff.

Bonus galaxy brained mod reply to pushback:

Overwhelmingly negative? Those are the 24/7 negative users. We do anything: Those guys: THIS IS IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY So you stand alone in that statement. See the post vote score.

[–] wurzelgummidge@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by appeals to emotion or stereotypes)

This is true of all your favourite news outlets

[–] zabadoh@ani.social 14 points 3 months ago

If you read the list of news sources that MBFC considers "Least Biased" they're mostly local newspapers, or local broadcast stations, or specialized industry publications.

With the notable exception of the Christian Science Monitor.

i.e. Pretty much any org that covers national news uses loaded language, because that's the language of politics.

[–] 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Every single post it makes will draw attention away from the actual post from OP. The bot gives us nothing of value.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Media Bias Fact Check has all the trimmings of a Propaganda Op - what better way to have centralized control of information in the Era of the transnational information access network that's the Internet than to control Trust in the multitude of information sources from all over the World - from some entity deep into the Right side of the political spectrum plus it's based in the US, whose Overtoon Window is already way to the Right than the rest of the World, so you end up with hilarious takes like BBC being Leftwing which is a common belief of Brexiters and other Far Right types in the UK.

(Curiously, the BBC themselves about a decade ago commissioned a study about it by the University of Nottingham and it turns out the BBC is pro-"whatever party is in Government": note that there is no electable leftwing party in Britain since New Labour - currently in Government - is at best Center-Right. Also as a foreigner who lived in Britain for over a decade I can tell you the BBC reeked with nationalism, especially in their coverage of foreign affairs).

And that's without going into the whole pro-Zionist slant of MBFC's "bias" "fact" "checking". I don't know who is funding that operation but it certainly isn't the likes of the ACLU.

That it is being given very special treatment by some mods in "World News" is very interesting.

[–] roboto 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I agree with this and I don’t think this bot adds any value given that it’s so damn biased itself. I would love to consume more left wing mass media, but from a Western European perspective sadly something like that barely exists. I also wouldn’t call The Guardian Centre-left like MBFC but rather centrist, as they are imo balancing the sides for as much as anyone can, but they are not my idea of a leftwing media outlet.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The UK's own Overtoon Window is much more to the Right than the rest of Europe (at least in my experience living in a couple of countries) and the only real Left-of-Center news media they have there is the Private Eye, which is actually a satirical magazine.

From my own point of view as somebody who has lived in both Southern and Northern Europe as well as the UK, the BBC is at best Center-Right, probably reflecting the control by the upper echelons of British society (the kind of people who frequented £30k a year private schools as children) of both its Board and its Editorial layer.

Don't get me wrong, they make great programs. It's just that their news programs are shaped to push certain perspectives and suppress certain views - normally by pushing a two-sides falacy and making sure both sides are from the Right. For example, during the political campaign to oust Corbyn - who was an actual leftie rather than a neoliberal from the New-Labour faction - from leader of the Labour Party, the BBC helped spread the anti-semitism slander and at one point even had a photoshopped picture of him with a russian-army cap used as background in a news show.

The TV channel closest to unbiased in terms of news over there is ITV, not BBC.