Trump’s wild imaginings promulgated in tabloids alongside equally fact-challenged celebrity “news”

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/09/trumps-wild-imaginings-prom.html

Don’t forget all those Muslim spies within the Obama administration. I have here a list…

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It is tempting to say that the problem is Americans lack the critical thinking skills to separate reality from fiction.

But in truth it’s even worse than that; we live in an age when many Americans don’t seem to think there IS such a thing as objective reality so they just choose their own and reject anything that contradicts it as partisan propaganda.

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It’s worse still to me, they have the capabilities, they know the difference and don’t fucking care.

His demo are all the people I explain Snopes articles too and say “Snopes is bias!” without reading the facts.

Of course tabloids are going to be his new press pool.

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Who wants to bet this article was originally written by Cory, but another editor felt it was just too ironic?

Seriously BB, you post as much click bait bullshit as the enquirer these days. Stones and glass houses.

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Thanks for the sockpuppet complaint.

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Yes, Trump’s houses are made mostly of glass, and yes there are a lot of stones just… well… lying around I guess. But thank you for the post from your brand new profile made just as a way to troll this post. I’m replying, so I guess this is a success for you. Congratulations! Welcome to the ranks of shills for the Shemp!

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@Phrenological @ficuswhisperer

I can assure you all I have 0 affiliation with trump. Just a regular reader getting fed up with the double standard. It’s getting embarrassing and I’m not the only one that’s pointed it out. Sure right wing crap like breitbart is worse - but I’d rather not be making any comparison at all. Wouldn’t you?

And yes, apologies for the grey username - I don’t hang out in forums, just wanted to voice my ‘dissapointment in boingboing’, I guess.

Edit: I mean, Cory’s top post right now is full of confused regulars asking what the hell he’s talking about. Same as every one of his other posts.

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What, you mean Corey’s post on Bernie Sanders calling out the Democrats for losing the election? I assume you mean top post by number of comments since there’s no other measure I can find, and that one has almost 300. A lot of agreement with him in there. And I note when there IS disagreement, most folks simply disagree with the author’s take on a subject, not on Boing Boing posting it.

The only double standard is the one on the right, where real news sources are ignored and replaced by false flag operations like Chokebart and Disinfowars. Good of you to note that the Enquirer is right in there with those sources, though, since I didn’t bring them up at all. And here’s how I show my “disappointment” in a site that cow tows to conservative ideals of "fairplay’ (ie, give us equal time for lies and bullshit and treat it as truth): I stop frequenting them. I don’t feel any need to concern troll their forums to make them change. Why should they if the folks who go there prefer that sort of stuff? I prefer facts, with links to sources that are authoritative, not made up crap. And I enjoy stuff like this where they poke fun at Trump’s idea of Pulitzer prize winning journalism.

In other words: if you’re not happy with Boing Boing, why don’t you take your toys and go play elsewhere? I’ve been coming here for a good ten plus years now and I’m never disappointed and greatly appreciate this tabloid article which, you seem not to realize, has been a regular feature for a while now. No Cory involved with these, so I’m not sure why you’re bringing him up at all, but I’ve enjoyed his work as an author and a contributor here.

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It was the post at the top of my list of posts at the time, sorry I don’t know what the metric was. Go through the last couple of weeks of Cory posts and play spot-the-fact if you like.

But look if you want to pretend that Cory doesn’t mostly post a stream of clickbait nonsense that’s your bag. Even when what he posts about is true he still manages to sensationalise it to the point it lacks credability. I’ve been reading BB for about 8 years now and I like the liberal slant because I happen to be liberal. But disinformation is a serious problem of our times, and it is a shame that we can’t point it out even when it confirms our biases.

I won’t ‘take my toys’ elsewhere, sorry, and I resent this dismissive approach to any complaint a publication receives. I can enjoy most of the content while resenting some of it, and wishing that Cory went back to posting about steam punk trinkets and fiction instead of the half-researched inflammatory junk he posts these days is hardly anarchistic.

But yea, I’ll sign out now. Not a friendly place here unless you’re patting each others backs.

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Cory posts about true things. I haven’t seen him ever double down on a hoax. But yes, he reliably sensationalizes, and takes an almost teenager-like stand every time. He does sometimes misrepresent. But he doesn’t make shit up out of whole cloth.

You know who does tell outright lies to the point of denial of recordings of their own speech and writing all the time? Donald Trump.

He LITERALLY denies that he’s said things when presented with the original recording with a chain of custody and everything.

That’s unacceptable. He doesn’t even try to justify it. Reality is not subjective. Don’t tell me that someone who lives in a fantasy of their own making makes a better president than someone who at least acknowledges the reality every single one of us lives in.

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Who said anything about Trump?

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I can’t say I disagree with this.

Not true. Many of us don’t want to see BB be an echo chamber. That said, if you’re gonna come, come correct.

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There’s also the difference that Cory doesn’t claim to be a journalist*, while Trump is the president elect of the most powerful country in history, whose words and opinions have global repercussions.

*I do still hold him to some journalistic standards though - less than the New York Times, but more than someone on Facebook (who I’d also challenge if they were spreading fake or overly sensationalised news).

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Were you looking to make friends?

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It’s interesting to me that in virtually all other contexts than BB, Cory uses “journalist” as a prominent part of his bio, but on here, it’s not mentioned.

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Are you channeling Joe McCarthy?

Far’s I know, Mr. Sheridan from the UK’s been writing this feature ever since it started.