The Internet, Fake News, and the Election

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1. Rudy Schellekens says:

   November 11, 2016 at 8:17 pm

   I moved to this country in 1996. I have seen every election cycle get worse as far as make belief is concerned. And what worried me more than anything else? Few people seem to take the time to check the facts.
   After I became a citizen I was involved in trying to stop ACA. but defended the law when people like palin started talked about death tribunals.
   My advise every other year since 1996 has been: check your facts before you spread it around.

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2. joe prichard says:

   November 11, 2016 at 8:17 pm

   someone tried to tell me Keith Ellison…..progressive extraordinaire….is a fan of charters….with an emphasis on the re segregation part….so black kids don’t have to be embarrassed by their classmates. I paid no attention.

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3. Secondary_Math_Teacher says:

   November 11, 2016 at 8:37 pm

   The republicans have been doing this for years. Basically, they agree on some thing that is objectively false, and they walk around repeating it until some of them actually believe it.
   It is like a never ending joke with them. Some prominent examples are: trickle down economics, climate change being ‘false’, and hyped accusations that don’t amount to a hill of beans. This started after GHW Bush and the party has just descended into madness.
   The maxim they are using is “if people say it often enough, it becomes the truth.” It is essentially the premise of their entire party.
   Some of them know that these stories are bogus, but keep repeating them anyway, because it suits their purpose and gives them something to smirk about.

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   • Rudy Schellekens says:

     November 11, 2016 at 8:54 pm

     This is called politics. And the democrats are just as good at it as republicans.

     It seems as if it is more and more part of the political system in this country.

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4. Gordon Wilder says:

   November 11, 2016 at 8:51 pm

   For me, none. I do not spend that much time on facebook nor on watching either Fox “news” nor on SNBC. Although they are of course from different points of view they both present or mainly focus only one side of the “news”. I have LOVED the Diane Rehm show. She is retiring now after the election but she has such a fantastic incisive mind and she devotes an hour to one important question. Beyond that she has people with disparate viewpoints who all are well able to present their own point of view, intelligent, well versed etc. this is so VERY rare. Most “news” are of the horse race mentality, who is ahead in which poles, what is going to happen in the future. Few focus on the important issues of the day and give insight as to what the real issues are about
   THEN, because of such diverse, well reasoned views one can make up his/her own mind. What a RARITY. So VERY much of the news focuses on defining what should be talked about, not on the really important issues. In the presidential debates not one question was asked concerning climate change THE most important issue of our era. AND I do not remember any real attention given to charter schools, something of intense interest to the readers of this blog.

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5. joe prichard says:

   November 11, 2016 at 9:08 pm

   seriously….should we not be finding out about Ellison and charters before he becomes mr. wonderful progressive Bill Gates style?

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6. joe prichard says:

   November 11, 2016 at 9:15 pm

   Is the dnc worried that wealthy corporations will not get enough help from trump? MINNEAPOLIS 358457791
   Desegregation lawsuit pulls in state’s charter schools
   State weighs whether to include charters in integration plan

   By Beena Raghavendran and MaryJo Webster Star Tribune staff writers NOVEMBER 30, 2015 — 11:19AM

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7. David Phillips says:

   November 12, 2016 at 1:07 am

   We trust you. Thanks for keeping us well informed.

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8. Homeless Educator says:

   November 12, 2016 at 3:22 am

   Tired of elections where the presidential candidate who garnered the popular vote, such as Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, ended up losing the election due to the electoral college? Sign the Petition to End the Electoral College:

   https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/sign-the-petition-abolish-the-electoral-college?link_id=0&can_id=f2959c40df925693ef344d6d123ff6be&source=email-sign-the-petition-end-the-electoral-college-elect-presidents-by-national-popular-vote&email_referrer=sign-the-petition-end-the-electoral-college-elect-presidents-by-national-popular-vote&email_subject=sign-the-petition-end-the-electoral-college-elect-presidents-by-national-popular-vote?detail=action&link_id=0&can_id=eba255ec138d8a4fd9d7a27e242faf25&email_referrer=re-sign-the-petition-end-the-electoral-college-elect-presidents-by-national-popular-vote&email_subject=re-sign-the-petition-end-the-electoral-college-elect-presidents-by-national-popular-vote

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9. Roseanne McCosh says:

   November 12, 2016 at 8:03 am

   It isn’t fake news stories that won Trump the election. For decades the democrats have ignored the working class. They have ignored those who have always been working class and they have ignored those who went from middle class to working class over the past two decades. They have ignored those of us still in the middle class who are holding on with our last bit of strength and grit and a second job to remain there. Working class democratic counties in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin finally turned away from the party that has ignored them for decades. If you look at county results across this country it is a sea of red on this year’s election map. Many New York counties flipped republican this year as well, including the county in which I live. People all across America came out in droves to vote for Trump. Some were ardent supporters but the tipping point was those of us who are tired of being ignored by the party we have supported for so many election cycles. Unless the Democratic Party owns their mistake and does something to once again prove that they will fight for American workers, they have lost us forever. Hillary Clinton was the wrong candidate for this time but instead of acknowledging her flaws, Clinton supporters mocked us Trump voters. We were called stupid, misogynistic, and racist. Some Americans are racist, misogynistic and stupid but they no more represent Trump voters than the two black men in Chicago who beat up the white man while yelling about Trump represent all Americans who voted for Clinton—or all black Americans for that matter. What we tipping point Trump voters are is FED UP. Mocking us, telling us we will regret our vote or that we should be ashamed of our vote will not get us to vote for a democrat. Americans wanted a change candidate and yet the DNC forced Clinton on us. You all underestimated our rage and what we were willing to do with it. In other words, if you’ll pardon a dip into vulgarity, it aint the pussy grabbing that bothers us, it’s the money grabbing. I am a highly educated white woman who sided with Trump over Clinton. I sympathize more with my sisters and brothers in the rust belt and decimated upstate NY than I do with my NY liberal neighbors who worry about the plight of immigrants, the Supreme Court and a president with a propensity for vulgarity. I’m not denigrating those who see the importance of those issues. What I’m arguing is that if you don’t have potable water (Flint Michigan) or a damn job to house and feed your kids, your priorities in the voting booth are very different. The question I have at the end of this election is… will the democrats take action to get us back into the fold or will they continue to bury their heads in the sand, pander to a few special interests and ignore the plight of the American worker who exacted their revenge in the voting booth last Tuesday? I implore them: Please, please, please EARN BACK OUR VOTE!

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   • Dienne says:

     November 12, 2016 at 9:27 am

     Thank you. Needs to be said. But hold on to your hat, those aren’t popular sentiments around here.

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   • Vale Math says:

     November 12, 2016 at 9:58 am

     Time to move on. Being in the Rust Belt, I observe the decline and agree. But many of these states also elected Republican governors in a wave of protest votes back in 2010. And still the plight of many middle class families has not improved. But the wealthy and corporations have prospered. So electing an even further right president seemed counter-productive.

     Unfortunately, the anger and protest vote of middle America has decimated the Democratic Party. Instead of moving forward, the party is likely set back a decade or even generation. We now see Trump’s cabinet and advisers forming. Many have a checkered history and questionable ethics. Almost all are for eliminating or curtailing programs such as Social Security, Medicare, labor laws, public schools, accessible college, ACA that working Americans depend on. While most Trump supporters are not deplorables, Trump has given a license to racists and misogynists that it is OK to attack those that are not like them.

     So Democrats must rebuild. Politely thank the Clinton era politicians and show them the door. Bring in leaders who will represent all of working, middle America regardless of race, religion, and gender. Expose the Republicans as the party of corporations, wealthy, and hate. Buyer’s remorse will set in soon enough as Trump is a fool and Republicans will overreach. When that happens, Democrats must be ready to step in.

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     • Roseanne McCosh says:

       November 12, 2016 at 11:49 am

       I agree with you regarding voting-in republicans who have done nothing for the plight of the American worker either. The rage comes from having always supported the democrats who were supposed to be on our side but instead spit in our face time and time again. I am a unionized NY teacher and pro choice woman yet I voted for Trump. And I did so to spit back at the democrats and to spit back at my union leadership who are more concerned with their own political future than the wants and needs of the working teachers. Our leadership backed a party that gave us Race to the Top and an unreasonable evaluation system that strips away our job security and dignity. They backed them and told us to swallow it because we always have. Not this time. I know a lot of NY teachers and other union members who absolutely refused to vote for Hillary and many of them, like me, voted for Trump. We can’t move on unless the democrats make major changes. If Trump fails to bring dignity back to the American worker and all the democrats do is say, ‘See we told you so,” they will not get us back into the fold. The American worker spoke loud and clear on Tuesday and proved it is we who decide elections. The party or candidate that fights for us will win. No Hispanic vote. No black vote. No white vote. No LGBT vote. No immigrant vote. No black lives matter or cops’ lives matter vote. No pro life or pro choice vote. The vote of the American worker is the vote that must be earned if you want to win. That is the message that I hope rings loud and clear in the ears of those elected to represent us. Whether you are living in a former factory town that has become a wasteland or whether you’re a NYC teacher who has had your sense of job security and dignity ripped away, you are an American worker and that is what should unite us. Damn any politician who doesn’t fight for the return of dignity to the American worker over everything else!

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     • Vale Math says:

       November 12, 2016 at 2:37 pm

       I understand. I understand the anger and my family is still trying to recover from the recession. I’ve had to take minimum wage jobs with a Masters and Engineering degree because in many ways, Ohio under Republicans is still living the Great Recession. Not only are highly skilled jobs replaced with Walmart style employment, those tech jobs that remain are filled by H1bs. Ageism runs rampant and employers refuse to consider anyone over 40, let alone 50. Dignity is what is lost and I’ve been humiliated by H1bs from overseas who speak in barely understandable English, then get angry because I can’t understand them. Frankly, they do not understand common courtesy and treat American service workers like untouchables or servants. My anger is very real.

       But the collective temper tantrum thrown by my fellow citizens is hurting us more. It is sawing off the branch you are siting on. Electing Trump just will hurt the Middle Class as he is not in touch nor the right agent of change. Americans wanting change elected a person who will sell them out to the establishment.

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10. Dienne says:

    November 12, 2016 at 9:25 am

    Again, there are very few actual journalists out there who actually bother to get out and find the news and check their facts – Greenwald, TomDispatch, Sirota, Taibbi, Jane Mayer, Naomi Klein, Ben Norton and a handful of others. If you’re getting your news exclusively from mainstream sources (including a lot of left-leaning sites like HuffPo and Daily Kos) all you’re getting is recycled press releases from the powerful.

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    • NoBrick says:

      November 12, 2016 at 12:18 pm

      It seems the “established voices” are in a state of shock. Shocked to realize,
      much less admit, their comparative political impotence, has been
      revealed by the electoral results.

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11. joe prichard says:

    November 12, 2016 at 11:09 am

    Vale, I think you are wrong. It is not time to move on. It is time for those who realize the importance of public education available for all to demand that the democratic party either gets back aboard with that concept, or continues to let the most powerful white people gather just enough support from blacks like Ellison to continue the road charted by Bill Gates and Arne Duncan. I voted for Obama twice, and Hillary once, but that does not mean that Gates-Duncan is not one of the worst parts of Obama’s legacy, and Hillary’s dead silence about education issues….some related to charters were not mentioned much after her endorsement by union people last summer.

    This overall concept of public education not being important enough to talk about is comfortable for the press. It is comfortable for republicans, if it is not blathering about vouchers—possibly with increasing success.

    The democrats deserve what has happened and what will happen if they stand silently not trying to stand up for the most crucial part of what happens to a huge group of non-voters—children in public schools.

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    • Vale Math says:

      November 12, 2016 at 11:30 am

      I think we agree. However, this election is over and Trump currently holds the office of president. I’m ready to move on and rebuild the Democratic Party. But not with the Clinton Coalition. They had their chance and should be removed from DNC positions. They failed. We need new leaders with new plans appealing to all working Americans, ready when Trump and the Republicans ultimately are exposed as frauds and discredited. Unlike in a divided government, Republicans now own it. They are not particularly good at governing, but at least now, they have no one to blame but themselves. An opportunity I hope Democrats are prepared.

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      • joe prichard says:

        November 12, 2016 at 3:08 pm

        Yes, the election is over, but a lot of media coverage is being given to all the so called progressives supporting Keith Ellison for the Post of chairman of the Democratic National Committee. If the democrat party is to rebuilt. let it not start with a lobbyist for the charter industry.

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12. Laura H. Chapman says:

    November 12, 2016 at 11:16 am

    Rarely, if ever, do facts speak for themselves, even photographs that seem to present a slice of reality can be cropped, Photoshopped, collaged.
    Facts can be cherry-picked, stacked, put into easy-to-handle packages as if truths. Add some fancy metrics to create the illusion of truth telling.

    In a recent visit to the Third Way website, I found claims about “Next-Generation Teaching” based on a survey unavailable for a close look. The report format was built on the assumption I wanted to know the “take away points” and would be uninterested or unable to read the full report unless I had 23 minutes to read it. The head line said “A 23 minute read”.

    I have received no response to a request for more detail about the survey.

    Elsewhere on the website the same survey is headlined, with the tip that it will take only one minute to read.

    The style guide for Third Wave publications is keyed to its major mission — providing talking points for lobbyists. On K-12 education, Third Way is little more than a shill for TFA, portfolio districts of autonomous schools, and so forth. http://www.thirdway.org/report/teaching-the-next-generation

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13. Roy Turrentine says:

    November 12, 2016 at 2:17 pm

    I received an email that repeated a false claim that Trump had disparaged Republicans. Checked it out. Snopes and factcheck said it was false.

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14. deb says:

    November 12, 2016 at 2:54 pm

    I bemoan the day that it wasn’t required to have both sides of an issue given equal time during new programs. When I tell young people that that’s the was it was, they don’t believe it.

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15. rbeckley58 says:

    November 12, 2016 at 3:56 pm

    It’s true the DNC has forgotten the little guy. But the margin for RNC victory was widened by fake news.

    A relative was extremely upset by a Facebook article about a multiple shooting in her city by a minority member, which she blamed on Obama. Only problem is the event never occurred, even though it sealed her Trump vote.

    A photo of Hillary supposedly doing something strange was actually of Florence Henderson’s acting.

    I began to also get suspicious of articles that supported my liberal views if they seemed good too be true. Sure enough, a photo of a massive herd of Buffalo appearing at the ND pipeline protest was bogus. And the “Bipartisan Report” was anything but, as time after time they churned out schlock worthy of the Enquirer.

    Zuckerberg has a responsibility. It’s not to censor opinions, but to erase articles with patently fraudulent event reporting, photos and quotes.

    Sure, it’s up to a reader to decide if Trump’s or Hillary’s views are reasonable, but it’s quite another to assume that everyone knows how to look up specific claims about what was said or done in full public view. Few people possess those research skills.

    At the very least Facebook’s fake news is contributing to America’s emotionally charged polarization.

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16. RaiseTheBarHigher says:

    November 12, 2016 at 5:42 pm

    Democrats didn’t do well throughout the country. In addition to a Republican controlled Congress, 32 states have Republican legislatures
    13 states have Democratic legislatures, 5 states have split control between their chambers.

    This cannot be blamed on Facebook or racists. Democrats you need to wake up!!!!

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    • GregB says:

      November 12, 2016 at 6:00 pm

      It can be blamed on gerrymandering that amplifies the power of certain constituencies (bigots and racists included) to the detriment of others. Once again more Americans voted for Dems than Repugs, but it was not reflected in either the House or the presidency. But Dems do need to wake up.

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      • Rudy Schellekens says:

        November 12, 2016 at 6:51 pm

        You are aware I guess that states have systems that can be and IS stacked by the ruling party?
        Every few years the lines change.

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17. joe prichard says:

    November 12, 2016 at 7:52 pm

    Rudy…..lines changing every few years….does that hold true in cases where billionaires buy legislatures which reward them with rules affecting governance for a generation or more?

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    • dianeravitch says:

      November 12, 2016 at 7:53 pm

      Joe,

      The Tea Party billionaires bought the state legislatures in 2010, when they could be in charge of redistricting for the next decade.

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    • Rudy Schellekens says:

      November 12, 2016 at 8:16 pm

      Lines change on basis of census numbers. And it depends which political party is in control – in some states. In other states there are impartial committees tasked with redrawing the districts.
      In my state, we went from five to four districts. Based on numbers…, not politics.
      So not quite sure how billionaires have an impact on that.
      Where I work, we have about a 30% mobility in population. That means that, at any given time, numbers can and do change.
      Not quite sure how billionaires have an impact on that.
      Blaming billionaires seems like a fun game, but you can’t blame everything on them.

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      • dianeravitch says:

        November 12, 2016 at 8:29 pm

        Rudy,

        Learn about North Carolina, where multi-millionaire or billionaire Art Pope invested in knocking off moderate Republicans so Rea Party Republicans would own the state General Assembly in 2010, when they could re District their state to retain Republican control indefinitely. It worked. Jane Mayer wrote about it in The New Yorker. Sure you can google it.

        Yes, legislators can be bought.

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      • Rudy Schellekens says:

        November 12, 2016 at 8:59 pm

        IF that indeed is the case, I would say that Illinois is consistently purchased on behalf of the democrats.

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      • dianeravitch says:

        November 12, 2016 at 9:09 pm

        No, Illinois was purchased by hedge fund managers Bruce Rauner and Ken Griffin, who underwrites Rahm.

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      • Rudy Schellekens says:

        November 12, 2016 at 9:31 pm

        I guess you don’t follow Illinois politics, a state that had in run by democrats for decades

        For most of its history, Illinois was widely considered to be a swing state, voting for the winner of all but two presidential elections in the 20th century. Today, Illinois is a Democratic stronghold in presidential elections and one of the “big three” Democratic states alongside California and New York. It is also considered one of the most Democratic states in the nation.[1] Political party strength in Illinois is highly dependent upon Cook County, and the state’s reputation as a blue state rests upon the fact that the majority of its population and political power is concentrated in Chicago, Cook County, and the Chicago metropolitan area. Outside of Chicago, downstate Illinois and the “collar counties” can be considered a “purple” state.

        Illinois’ electoral college votes have gone towards the Democratic presidential candidate for the past seven elections, and its congressional makeup tilts heavily Democratic. However, it has a long history of competitive statewide elections and has elected a number of Republicans in recent years, including Governors Jim Edgar, George Ryan, and Bruce Rauner, Senators Peter Fitzgerald and Mark Kirk, and other state executive officeholders such as Judy Baar Topinka and Dan Rutherford.

        So, exactly how is Illinois purchased by the billionaires? Rain is mayor of Chicago, where your nemesis Duncan started charter programs, not Rahm. Apart from that, Chicago had had a democrat as mayor for decades.
        So, a state run by a democratic state government, a city run by a Democrat, a Democrat majority who refuses to put a neutral committee in for adjustments in the districting process, are bought by the billionaires.
        I must be missing something here.

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      • dianeravitch says:

        November 12, 2016 at 10:54 pm

        Rudy,

        Check out the power and money of Ken Griffin. James Schneider Crown. Bruce Rauner. The tip of the iceberg. Read this: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/jonah-edelman-on-outfoxing-teachers-unions-transcribed-remarks/

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18. Pam willever says:

    November 12, 2016 at 8:45 pm

    Hundreds of fake news stories on FB it did not affect my vote, and I thought most people were intelligent to know they were FAKE, guess I was wrong. Why do we have to be so polite why can’t we just call a LIE a LIE.

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