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[Jackpot]

The Daily Fail is the best selling UK newspaper and is dedicated to spouting the most spiteful vitriol imaginable, with none of the attempt at humor other tabloids occasionally go for. They also have very successful clickbait site that is banned from GAF.

Wednesday they had an article with this headline:

EXCLUSIVE: Facebook 'fact checker' who will arbitrate on 'fake news' is accused of defrauding website to pay for prostitutes - and its staff includes an escort-porn star and 'Vice Vixen domme'

• Facebook has announced plans to check for 'fake news' using a series of organizations to assess whether stories are true
• One of them is a website called Snopes.com which claims to be one of the web's 'essential resources' and 'painstaking, scholarly and reliable'
• It was founded by husband-and-wife Barbara and David Mikkelson, who used a letterhead claiming they were a non-existent society to start their research
• Now they are divorced - with Barbara claiming in legal documents he embezzled $98,000 of company money and spent it on 'himself and prostitutes'
• In a lengthy and bitter legal dispute he is claiming to be underpaid and demanding 'industry standard' or at least $360,000 a year
• The two also dispute what are basic facts of their case - despite Snopes.com saying its 'ownership' is committed to 'accuracy and impartiality'
• Snopes.com founder David Mikkelson's new wife Elyssa Young is employed by the website as an administrator
• She has worked as an escort and porn actress and despite claims website is non-political ran as a Libertarian for Congress on a 'Dump Bush' platform
• Its main 'fact checker' is Kimberly LaCapria, whose blog 'ViceVixen' says she is in touch with her 'domme side' and has posted on Snopes.com while smoking pot

Employs someone who smokes pot and likes sex!
Editor wants to be paid 1/5 of the Daily Mail's editor!

For the rest of the post I'll quote an Op-Ed critiquing their article:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/23/why-is-mail-online-going-after-fact-checkers-snopes

On Wednesday evening, Mail Online published a lengthy investigation into fact-checking site Snopes containing salacious details gleaned from legal battles between its recently divorced cofounders.

The claims, mainly about the sexual history and preferences of Snopes employees, but also allegations of financial misbehaviour by its founder, David Mikkelson, which he disputes, are titillating but not Earth shattering.

Far more revealing is Mail Online’s decision to go after Snopes and the way it has gone about it.

One week later and there, in a prominent position on the Mail Online homepage, is a 1,400-word article about Snopes’ founders’ finances and relationships.

There are obvious merits to the story for avid Mail Online readers – the headline includes the words “porn star-escort” and “Vice Vixen domme” for a start – and the financial claims give some justifiable news value.

But the way the story is written hints at what the publication thinks, not just of Snopes, but of any sort of effort to do something about false information on the web.

The key giveaway is its use of quotation marks around the phrases “fake news”, “fact check” and “fact checker”, despite the fact that previous Mail articles have regularly used the words without any.

It’s a tactic borrowed straight from the fringe sites that have reacted angrily to Facebook’s plans, including the unofficial cheerleader of the “alt right”, Breitbart. It’s designed to imply that the concepts of fake news and fact checking are themselves disputed.

The purpose of the article appears to be to sow doubt about measures to deal with, or at least mitigate, the impact of fake news and falsehoods on social media, long before they have even got off the ground.

The Mail, of course, has skin in this game. It is far from the worst offenders when it comes to falsehoods – those tend to be the sorts of sites set up by Macedonian teenagers to create completely fabricated stories – but it has come under Snopes’ microscope enough times to be called in July “Britain’s highly unreliable Daily Mail” by a Snopes writer who just happens to be named in the Mail story.

If Facebook’s plans go ahead and Snopes helps it fact check, the Mail would expect that some of its more tenuous stories will be flagged. That could make a small but not insignificant impact on its online audience, which is the largest for any English-language newspaper by some margin.

But rather than engaging in that debate, the Mail has attempted to cast doubt on the notion of fact checking. In the battle between those who profit from playing fast and loose with the truth and those trying to fix the fake news problem, the Mail has made it clear in which camp it sits.

 

[BY2K]

Soulless scumbags.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Dedicated persecutors of "enemies of the people." Not creepy at all.

 

[Slayven]

Scary how the media has declared a war on facts and truth

 

[SpaceWolf]

Fuck the Daily Mail.

 

[Castef]

Problem is: people buys this shit.

 

[TheChaos0]

Scary how the media has declared a war on facts and truth

Lies are more profitable.

 

[entremet]

Scary how the media has declared a war on facts and truth

Daily Mail being journalism is debatable though lol

 

[GiantEnemyGoomba]

just wow

 

[Madness]

Scary how the media has declared a war on facts and truth

It is like Denzel said, the goal is to be first and get clicks and views and discussion going, not whether it is the truth etc.

 

[Zaph]

Scary how the media has declared a war on facts and truth

It kinda makes sense for the struggling media industry in really cynical way.

We know fake news gets more traction with conservative voters
Conservative voters are often older people
Older people are a profitable demo because they tend to buy anything you put in front of them, and they're not tech-savvy enough to use adblockers.

 

[Veritigo_X]

I've noticed a lot of people trying to discredit Snopes as a "far left media outlet" lately...

 

[sam777]

Scum paper

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

This Murdoch owned? Why is a garbage rag from the UK weighing in on shit?

 

[Corleth the Fey]

The amount of poor deluded people - including members of my own family - who somehow believe that the Daily Mail is a decent, honest and trustworthy newspaper beggars my belief. They seriously think it's the only paper worthy of respect that isn't a broadsheet.

How did this happen?

The very worst thing is the blatant racist headlines they run pretty much every other day. They turn my stomach, but the readers lap it up, and vote accordingly. Don't mention the idea that they might be racist though.

The legacy they are leaving for the young people of this world saddens me. The coddled Baby boomers and Gen X'ers - which includes me - have had a good run in the western world. Shame we are running the world into the toilet for those that will be left to pick up the pieces.

 

[Heartfyre]

As one of my old teachers used to joke, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

 

[Razorback]

I've noticed a lot of people trying to discredit Snopes as a "far left media outlet" lately...

“It is a well known fact that reality has liberal bias.”


― Stephen Colbert

 

[show me your skeleton]

https://youtu.be/5eBT6OSr1TI

 

[water_wendi]

It seems war on fact checkers in underway. The other day whoever was subbing for Hannity was going all in on Snopes.com. i forget who the piece of shit was but he was just tearing them a new one over how they looked (ugly fat slobs). i go to search their names from the article in the OP and this is in the top 5 images on Google for them:

Original

My feeling is that there are going to be a lot of things like this and the pedophile pizza ring to come in the future.

 

[Air]

Sounds like they know their bread and butter is about to go away so rather than change they'll try to undercut whoever Facebook hires to establish doubt in their process.

How malicious

 

[Miles Quaritch]

I've noticed a lot of people trying to discredit Snopes as a "far left media outlet" lately...

Snopes threatens their bottom line. If they can convince just one person a story is fake, that person will tells others and it'll slowly but surely start to hit them where it hurts.

This Murdoch owned? Why is a garbage rag from the UK weighing in on shit?

Nah, Rothermere.

 

[CadetMahoney]

The Daily Fail is the best selling UK newspaper and is dedicated to spouting the most spiteful vitriol imaginable, with none of the attempt at humor other tabloids occasionally go for. They also have very successful clickbait site that is banned from GAF.

And yet the UK government still won't put their website on the default block list or throttle their website like they do to many other sites. Makes no sense.

 

[thelatestmodel]

I'm all for free speech but I draw the line at the Daily Fail. It's nothing but hatred and shit-stirring.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

It seems war on fact checkers in underway. The other day whoever was subbing for Hannity was going all in on Snopes.com. i forget who the piece of shit was but he was just tearing them a new one over how they looked (ugly fat slobs). i go to search their names from the article in the OP and this is in the top 5 images on Google for them:

Original

My feeling is that there are going to be a lot of things like this and the pedophile pizza ring to come in the future.

Who in the fuck would fall for that? That's the sloppiest photoshop I've seen in years. Goddamn.

 

[Air]

Who in the fuck would fall for that? That's the sloppiest photoshop I've seen in years. Goddamn.

Literally the last American election was decided in large part by people who probably would fall for that

 

[Jackpot]

This Murdoch owned? Why is a garbage rag from the UK weighing in on shit?

No, but they have the honor of being the only UK national newspaper who openly supported the Nazis prior to WW2.

 

[Ithil]

Who in the fuck would fall for that? That's the sloppiest photoshop I've seen in years. Goddamn.

There are people who would convince themselves the original pic there is the fake and people are trying to "cover up" the photoshopped pic.

 

[Deleted member 231381]

No, they're the one run by this guy, colloquially known as Dirty Desmond due to all his porn businesses.

They also have the honor of being the only UK national newspaper who openly supported the Nazis prior to WW2.

Not quite. Desmond is the Express. The Daily Mail is owned by Jonathan Harmsworth.

 

[water_wendi]

Who in the fuck would fall for that? That's the sloppiest photoshop I've seen in years. Goddamn.

"Look at that motherfuckers smug ass smile. He knows hes just going to get pardoned by Barack HUSSEIN Obama. Liberalism is a mental disorder!"

 

[Jackpot]

Not quite. Desmond is the Express. The Daily Mail is owned by Jonathan Harmsworth.

yeah, edited. my bad.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

That could make a small but not insignificant impact on its online audience, which is the largest for any English-language newspaper by some margin.

It should be noted that celeb gossip is a big part of this so hook them into your ecosystem then no more scary "this story is probably bullshit".

This Murdoch owned? Why is a garbage rag from the UK weighing in on shit?

No Newscorp (via News UK) owns The Sun (also posts lies) and The Times. Previously News of the World as well but had to shut that one down over the phone hacking scandal (that included deleting voice mail messages on a dead teenagers phone because the mailbox was full and they wanted some scoops, this gave the parents and the police false hope their child was still alive).

Daily Mail is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust who at one point were rumored to be interested in Yahoo. What is quite weird is DMG actually own Metro as well.

 

[Acorn]

The mail being unrepented cunts is the one constant in the world.

 

[Jackpot]

(that included deleting voice mail messages on a dead teenagers phone because the mailbox was full and they wanted some scoops, this gave the parents and the police false hope their child was still alive).

Actually that was shown to later be down to automatic deleting by the voice message service, but still, hacking a child murder victim for juicy stories!

 

[Par Score]

This Murdoch owned? Why is a garbage rag from the UK weighing in on shit?

No, they're owned by the 4th Viscount of Rothermere, a real man of the people.

The 1st Viscount of Rotheremere was a wonderful chap by the by, big fan of Hitler:

In the 1930s Rothermere used his newspapers to try to influence British politics, particularly reflecting his strong support of the appeasement of Nazi Germany, and his were the only major newspapers to advocate an alliance with Germany. For a time in 1934, the Rothermere papers championed the British Union of Fascists (BUF), and were again the only major papers to do so. On 15 January 1934 the Daily Mail published a Rothermere-written editorial entitled "Hurrah for the Blackshirts", praising Oswald Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine".

Rothermere visited and corresponded with Hitler. On 1 October 1938, Rothermere sent Hitler a telegram in support of Germany's invasion of the Sudetenland, and expressing the hope that 'Adolf the Great' would become a popular figure in Britain.

Oh, and they run the most popular fake news website on the planet, that's why they're chipping in with this shit.

 

[kyser73]

Brownshirt supporting fascist wankers, that's what the Mail's history is, and they repeated a 1930s story about the Jews fleeing Nazism almost to the letter with a headline about Syrian refugees.

 

[Buttonbasher]

The Daily Mail is the worst.

 

[Gurgelhals]

And yet the UK government still won't put their website on the default block list or throttle their website like they do to many other sites. Makes no sense.

Well, the Daily Fail's editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre, is reportedly very good buddies with Theresa May, so there's that.

The government didn't even deem it necessary to properly call them out when they went with that "Enemies of the People" headline a few weeks ago. I mean, this is some straight Nazi shit they're pulling here:

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Actually that was shown to later be down to automatic deleting by the voice message service, but still, hacking a child murder victim for juicy stories!

I guess my fact-checking is sloppy

 

[Jackpot]

I guess my fact-checking is sloppy

It got reported nearly a year after the fact and most newspapers, Guardian included, only gave it a few sentences.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Fucking fascist shit rag.

 

[Enosh]

sooo are they wrong?

Forbes did a follow up article and basically got "no comment" as the answer

Thus, when I reached out to David Mikkelson, the founder of Snopes, for comment, I fully expected him to respond with a lengthy email in Snopes’ trademark point-by-point format, fully refuting each and every one of the claims in the Daily Mail’s article and writing the entire article off as “fake news.”

It was with incredible surprise therefore that I received David’s one-sentence response which read in its entirety “I’d be happy to speak with you, but I can only address some aspects in general because I’m precluded by the terms of a binding settlement agreement from discussing details of my divorce.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevle...fact-checking-the-fact-checkers/#301f8ee1e02c

 

[Slackbladder]

The Daily Mail should be burned to the ground. By accident, of course.

 

[Mike M]

We're stuck in an inescapable feedback loop, aren't we? Attempts to fact check fake news just results in attacking the credibility of fact checkers and further builds the liberal media conspiracy, and fake news gets increasingly brazen and widespread.

 

[Horns]

The Daily Mail is your #1 source for fake Islamophobia stories. Breitbart is fighting tooth and nail to take the throne.

 

[Dryk]

This is some pretty garbage ad hominem. Snopes' content should speak for itself at this point.

The Daily Mail article does nothing to contradict any of Snopes' research, just attempts to defraud and defame its founders and employees through ad hominem. David Mikkelson could be a piece of shit for all I know, but that doesn't mean his site is inaccurate or wrong.

Just like how Brian Dunning being a piece of shit didn't invalidate all of his podcasts. It just makes you stop paying attention to them.

 

[Aaron Strife]

sooo are they wrong?

Forbes did a follow up article and basically got "no comment" as the answer


http://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevle...fact-checking-the-fact-checkers/#301f8ee1e02c

I mean half the Daily Mail article is about his divorce, how exactly can he spill the beans on that?

The Daily Mail article does nothing to contradict any of Snopes' research, just attempts to defraud and defame its founders and employees through ad hominem. David Mikkelson could be a piece of shit for all I know, but that doesn't mean his site is inaccurate or wrong.

 

[Deleted member 126221]

We're collectively losing our grip on reality. It's like a shitty, hateful and meme-filled version of the Matrix. I'm a bit afraid for the future, guys. :/

 

[Parahan]

The very worst thing is the blatant racist headlines they run pretty much every other day.

Brownshirt supporting fascist wankers, that's what the Mail's history is, and they repeated a 1930s story about the Jews fleeing Nazism almost to the letter with a headline about Syrian refugees.

The Daily Fail is the best selling UK newspaper and is dedicated to spouting the most spiteful vitriol imaginable, with none of the attempt at humor other tabloids occasionally go for

How can so many people buy into bigotry and hate?

 

[Deleted member 20920]

I mean half the Daily Mail article is about his divorce, how exactly can he spill the beans on that?

The Daily Mail article does nothing to contradict any of Snopes' research, just attempts to defraud and defame its founders and employees through ad hominem. David Mikkelson could be a piece of shit for all I know, but that doesn't mean his site is inaccurate or wrong.

Yup. They're basically attacking the people who run the site and not the accuracy of the site itself.

It's a disgusting but unfortunately effective way...

 

[pulsemyne]

The funny thing is everyone in the UK knows it's a piece of shit rag and yet they still buy the fucking thing. It's become the white van mans favourite windscreen paper.
I honestly think you have to have no self respect at all to work for the Mail. You must really hate yourself.