Incoherent News Reporting or Conspiracy?

We watch ABC's World News most evenings and often it's "Breaking news!" (everything's breaking news these days), and it turns out it's just something their "reporters" read on the NY Times.

They should say, "Breaking news! We just read this article on the NY Times and we're going to give you a really brief blurb about it and act like we did the reporting!"
 

JustDave said:
With the internet, no one needs a degree in Journalism. At least not to become a writer.
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Anyone can be a writer. However, context matters. We can't all write Catcher in the Rye. We can't all bust Watergate.

JustDave said:
Unless AI is taught to research what it finds on the internet, it will just be another google that ends up thriving on the ads it generates.
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Mmmmmm. Not really. In fact, I'd surmise that what you address is the easy part. However, it doesn't address bias, just consensus. For AI to truly do the job, it would need to look beyond words and syntax, and go forward in how we think and interpret. Many AI implementations will indeed be no better than Google - it'll still come down to clicks and cash.

Incomplete news stories? Yes, of course. Because one of the key metrics is being first. Details not available? Oh well, it's clicks, and the first to report gets more.
 
The realistic AI videos that I am seeing are insane!! Real video of a people flying. Of real things morphing into something else that's functional somehow. Real, not real? What does that mean. I just saw a real guy flying. On video. When does the line between real and not real meet? :)
 

Paco Dennis said:
The realistic AI videos that I am seeing are insane!! Real video of a people flying. Of real things morphing into something else that's functional somehow. Real, not real? What does that mean. I just saw a real guy flying. On video. When does the line between real and not real meet? :)
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Let's be clear - you're talking PERCEPTION. In reality, we ought to know people can't fly without a lot of help.
 
Sunny said:
And then there are the online ads. They are the worst at this. The bait to hook you goes something like: "People who have this habit are likely to get Alzheimer's." So you click on it to see what the habit is, and you get page after repetitious page, finally leading you into a video with a
"doctor" endlessly talking about some mysterious secret that the doctors hope you don't find out about. But if you keep clicking, you'll find out about this well-kept secret.

Usually by that time you have quit in disgust. I often wonder if they ever get around to telling you the secret, or if they just deflect your attention to buying the snake oil brain booster they are selling.

I don't think A-I is responsible for this. It's purely a marketing trick by the modern version of old time stage magicians. But they're not there to entertain you. They are interested only in separating you from your money.
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The "doctor" identifies {invents} a problem. Then after pages of scary stuff the doctor comes up with a solution that only he can provide with ingredients from a remote spot in the Himalayas.
 
Babs2u said:
The "doctor" identifies {invents} a problem. Then after pages of scary stuff the doctor comes up with a solution that only he can provide with ingredients from a remote spot in the Himalayas.
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That one comes up a lot, but even at my age, I've refused to read the one about alzheimer's. I'm curious, but I just refuse to go there.
 
Even local TV news jumps at reporting stuff they don't have any info on yet. It's more like gossip than news. They want you to tune in at noon to get the full story. Then at noon, they still hold back believing they have you on the hook for the evening edition. Blah forget it. Fool me once...etc.
 
Judycat said:
Even local TV news jumps at reporting stuff they don't have any info on yet. It's more like gossip than news. They want you to tune in at noon to get the full story. Then at noon, they still hold back believing they have you on the hook for the evening edition. Blah forget it. Fool me once...etc.
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I haven't had TV for 20 years now, but I remember Wolf Blitzer on CNN. His most common phrase was "Stay tuned. We will have more on this very important story after the break." But there was no more after the break. Well OK, maybe an hour or two later, which I suppose qualifies as after the break. Although it was actually after 5 or 6 or 10 breaks, and it was just more of the same with nothing new. He hooked me with that a few times, until I realized I had been manipulated. Then I just stopped watching.

When I explain that I got rid of my TV because I was sick of the news and the commercials, I'm picturing Wolf Blitzer in my brain, probably because he was so transparent in his manipulations. My cord cutting was more than just the news, but Wolf Blitzer was the most aggravating part of it for me. I know weird, but I really got sick of that guy.
 
I look at news headlines sometimes and think, "some ol' crap, just a different day." There are stories about lying politicians, economic prognostications, "experts" telling me what I should or shouldn't eat, weird people's first dates, scandals in sports, world leaders doing nasty things just because they can, articles giving simplistic solutions to complex problems... That's what's in the news nearly every day.

Few people are doing any good in the world any more. Nobody's making good music or art. New inventions are merely to eliminate someone's job or to make money. There's no new magnificent architecture projects. Movies are formulaic.

These are dark times.
 
RambleTamble said:
I look at news headlines sometimes and think, "some ol' crap, just a different day." There are stories about lying politicians, economic prognostications, "experts" telling me what I should or shouldn't eat, weird people's first dates, scandals in sports, world leaders doing nasty things just because they can, articles giving simplistic solutions to complex problems... That's what's in the news nearly every day.

Few people are doing any good in the world any more. Nobody's making good music or art. New inventions are merely to eliminate someone's job or to make money. There's no new magnificent architecture projects. Movies are formulaic.

These are dark times.
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It does seem like it, doesn't it? However, I believe that good things are happening, but the media has found that shocking events are more eye catching/attention getting than say, emotional support animals touring an assisted living care facility.
 
RambleTamble said:
I look at news headlines sometimes and think, "some ol' crap, just a different day." There are stories about lying politicians, economic prognostications, "experts" telling me what I should or shouldn't eat, weird people's first dates, scandals in sports, world leaders doing nasty things just because they can, articles giving simplistic solutions to complex problems... That's what's in the news nearly every day.

Few people are doing any good in the world any more. Nobody's making good music or art. New inventions are merely to eliminate someone's job or to make money. There's no new magnificent architecture projects. Movies are formulaic.

These are dark times.
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We need to search for hopeful signs. The nasty stuff rushes right out to greet us.
 
JustDave said:
I'm picturing a world where people walk around with their smart phones lost in verbal and visual gibberish, not knowing where they are going, but happy to be lost in a confusion that comes with pictures of cleavage or babies paying with big dogs.
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When I first started working for the company that I would retire from years later. We would end the day at our yard, standing around and mostly talking about the latest project we were involved with. I would listen and sometimes ask questions, learning from the old timers and the rest of the crew.

Thirty-five years later, I would still be at that yard at the end of the day. Only now there was very little conversation, most of the crew had their heads down staring into the phones. I remember thinking.. wow, how the times have changed.
 
RambleTamble said:
I've been searching, but I can't find much that offers me any hope for a better near future. The distant future might be good, but the next few decades are going to be really, really bad for everybody except the upper class.
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i agree. When I say search for hopeful signs I mean to ease the pain not to eliminate it.
 
I watch CBS Morning News. I always record it because I'm not awake at 7am. It is finished by the time I wake up. I listen to their headline stories and if there is anything that interests me I fast forward to those stories. I'm usually done after 20 minutes. I don't really care that someone broke into Deon Sanders' son's house while he was in a football game!
 

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