Everyone Hates Fact Checkers (E299)
Added 2024-10-29 03:15:30 +0000 UTCDespite Travis’ best efforts, it’s still possible to occasionally read posts on the internet that are not perfectly accurate. In fact, Travis’ failure to turn networking technology into primarily a means of rationally exchanging ideas and substantive policy issues has forced media outlets all over the globe to employ so-called “fact checkers.”
To get a better handle on this phenomenon (for which, to reiterate, podcast host Travis View bears most of the blame) we spoke to the hardest working man in online fact checking: BBC Verify Senior Journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh. For years, he has tracked and reported on viral falsehoods, both silly and deadly, in many countries.
We discuss how Shayan got into this unique discipline of journalism, his response to the criticism that “fact checking” primarily serves the reinforcement of establishment narratives, research which suggests fact checkers are less trusted than other kinds of reporters, the rise of deep fakes, atrocity denial, and how to maintain trust as a fact checker.
Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.
Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Verify
https://www.bbc.com/news/reality_check
Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
SOURCES
The Onion: Factual Error Found On The Internet
https://theonion.com/factual-error-found-on-internet-1819566445/
Nieman Lab: Readers are more suspicious of journalists providing corrections than journalists providing confirmations
Rolling Stone: Right-Wingers Heartbroken by Picture of Little Girl Who Doesn’t Exist
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/ai-girl-maga-hurricane-helene-1235125285/
Washington Post: Viral attack on Walz features fake former student making false claim
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/10/21/tim-walz-matthew-metro-video/
Newsweek: Gaza War Death Toll Passes 43,000, Palestinian Health Ministry Reports
https://www.newsweek.com/gaza-war-deaths-surpass-43000-palestinian-health-ministry-reports-1975910
BBC: False claims of staged deaths surge in Israel-Gaza war
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67760523
UN News: Rights expert finds ‘reasonable grounds’ genocide is being committed in Gaza
https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147976
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Türk says world must act as darkest moment of Gaza conflict unfolds
Comments
Check this out. There's a new LLM that seems to be changing minds on conspiracy theories. You can check it out on Debunkbot.com. I heard about it on the podcast episode 299 of "You Are Not So Smart". Maybe QAA could try it.
Kathy
2024-11-03 08:16:09 +0000 UTCHopefully he’s working on the new season of Perverts
Hambre the Giant
2024-11-01 04:19:58 +0000 UTCrelevant to the discussion about twitter's "community notes" feature, here's some real interesting reporting on that very feature and how it's being actively gamed and abused: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/toxic-x-users-sabotage-community-notes-that-could-derail-disinfo-report-says/
'''anthony'''
2024-10-31 21:44:38 +0000 UTCTeam globe! We are the whirled! (Terrible pun sorry could not resist)
Kal
2024-10-30 22:03:58 +0000 UTCAt some point this happened to me, I don’t listen to the case but it was on somewhere that I was near (bro in laws car? Can’t remember) but had that same Deja vu, “wait this sounds like someone else” and later wondered if maybe Travis has been a guest and I hadn’t registered that. Dude sounds super similar!
Kal
2024-10-30 22:02:59 +0000 UTCNon relevant and apropos of nothing - @jess c -that’s such a cute dog!
Kal
2024-10-30 22:00:41 +0000 UTCI had an interesting conversation with the 12 year old son of my MAGA neighbor recently. The boy said he learned in church that words held only the meaning assigned to them by each individual. For example= "What's your favorite color?" he asked me. I said blue. He said "" I call that color pink! Because that's MY favorite color!" Help me, Spock.
bigphoton
2024-10-30 18:45:25 +0000 UTCOn vacay?
Adalis
2024-10-30 18:32:30 +0000 UTCtrump creep sounds like 10-15% peter griffin
Russell Halberdt
2024-10-30 18:18:54 +0000 UTCWhere is Julian?
F
2024-10-30 15:18:03 +0000 UTCCovid conscious ftw!
hhhhhm
2024-10-30 14:56:21 +0000 UTCregarding the internet serving you what you want: I am in a flat earth group on fb (I'm team globe) and a flat earther posted her 35 page conversation with an AI chatbot where she bullied and cajoled it into agreeing with her the earth is flat and we are in the end times, apocalypse imminent.
Russell Halberdt
2024-10-30 14:22:21 +0000 UTCI'm going bananas. Does anyone else listen to The Case by Barstool Sports? The host, Kirk Minihane's voice is a dead ringer for Travis's voice.
Alice Armstrong
2024-10-30 12:58:56 +0000 UTCI think what the listeners really want is a Jake Trump singing creep
Noah
2024-10-29 23:49:12 +0000 UTCI was hoping for that too but Shayan sort of touched on it in a roundabout way by discussing how the role of a good fact checker is to hold those in powers to account and not be there to protect and shield them from accountability
Noah
2024-10-29 23:46:53 +0000 UTCAm always soooo relieved to see another cc here
anni
2024-10-29 23:38:22 +0000 UTCAmazing episode and incredible post credits content.
Josep C.
2024-10-29 19:50:59 +0000 UTCIs that supposed to be Trump singing creep?
Leo
2024-10-29 18:10:57 +0000 UTCGreat episode. AI trump singing Creep was amazing. Still waiting for that DaVinci Code movie night!
Daniel
2024-10-29 15:43:50 +0000 UTCWait, did Jake just call into being the Second Coming of Hitler??
ROU Sentient Lichen
2024-10-29 15:33:15 +0000 UTCSomething that was missing from this episode; what happens when the fact checkers aren't just wrong, but maliciously obfuscating? I'm specifically thinking of Polifact "Lie of the year" from 2011 that criticized Democrats for claiming that Republicans had voted to destroy Medicare. The number of angels dancing on pinheads needed by Polifact to claim this was a lie was astonishing. In this spirit, fuck Glenn Kessler.
Hugh Kearney
2024-10-29 14:08:30 +0000 UTCA fascinating episode with a very interesting man. I was taken by the comment that people just live in bubbles and that’s true of left/liberal folk like me. There perhaps should be more discussion of just how we got to this position - it all seemed much less polarised when I was young.
Andrew Billings
2024-10-29 11:05:59 +0000 UTCDehumanisation as a concept and process exists in the first place in large part because of an unspoken agreement that it's ok to treat other animals like they are not autonomous beings who can suffer. Break the agreement!
hhhhhm
2024-10-29 11:04:00 +0000 UTC#VegansForPalestine "As long as there are slaughter houses, there will always be battlefields" - Tolstoy Free Palestine! 🇵🇸
hhhhhm
2024-10-29 10:59:59 +0000 UTCWatch Lola Germs' video Why Is Everyone More Sick?
hhhhhm
2024-10-29 10:46:15 +0000 UTCAI is dystopian, with some positive side effects. Like capitalism is.
hhhhhm
2024-10-29 10:40:27 +0000 UTCFact check this: The WHO has yet to declare that the pandemic is over. 2024 article warning of health risks of repeat COVID infections, quoting the technical lead on COVID at the WHO, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove: "The pandemic continues Whether we acknowledge it or not, the world is still in a pandemic, Van Kerkhove said, citing the virus’s lack of a seasonal pattern, which many respiratory pathogens have, and its continued, rapid-pace evolution." https://fortune.com/well/2024/01/12/covid-jn1-pandemic-world-health-organization-warns-dangers-repeat-covid-infection-cardiac-pulmonary-neurologic/
hhhhhm
2024-10-29 10:27:32 +0000 UTCThe public health crisis of the COVID pandemic hasn't ended, it's entered a different phase.
hhhhhm
2024-10-29 10:04:47 +0000 UTCI don't know I think maybe we should be stopping generative AI, does it really have benefits that outweigh the costs? I mean it consumes so much resource for so little value, just to automate more and put more people in jobless poverty.
Paul Farra
2024-10-29 09:03:31 +0000 UTCGreat ep as always! On the topic of fact checker suspicion, I think a more historical view is also warranted. I particularly liked this (linked below), which hopefully Travis reads cause it's sort of a new avenue of inquiry into why people don't like fact checkers, compared to the framing used by the research he has been mentioning recently! https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-refs-are-working-us
kctoo
2024-10-29 05:43:42 +0000 UTCI hope he's okay.
Moloch's Personal Adrenochrome Peddler
2024-10-29 05:13:29 +0000 UTCGreat ep. Feels weird to remember back when they started talking about deepfakes, because I thought it was too crazy to be true. Since then....ah....
Jess C
2024-10-29 04:52:44 +0000 UTCNebraska mentioned!
A
2024-10-29 04:31:32 +0000 UTCWhere is julian?
Rake Jockatansky
2024-10-29 03:22:57 +0000 UTCWoah did you guys know these have descriptions? I had only ever seen comments
Rake Jockatansky
2024-10-29 03:22:28 +0000 UTCShayan is the man! He’s the best reason to be on Twitter.
F
2024-10-29 03:20:13 +0000 UTC
