These structural factors that dominate media operations are not alI-controlling and do not always produce simple and homogeneous results… The beauty of the system, however, is that such dissent and inconvenient information are kept within bounds and at the margins, so that while their presence shows that the system is not monolithic, they are not large enough to interfere unduly with the domination of the official agenda.

–Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, “Manufacturing Consent”

El Pais is a brand of PRISA, an advertising and media conglomerate with headquarters in Madrid, Spain.

Article link - Video footage appears to show Russians killing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers

As stated elsewhere in the thread, my vote audit shows no participation from any of the 29 banned sock accounts the in the !news feedback thread, or this one for that matter. Please take the votes more seriously. If you’d like to spread FUD about the legitimacy of a vote, ask an admin to audit them first so you can state with evidence that a specific vote has been manipulated.

People trust the software to tell them what others are thinking, and if you successfully spread the false idea that votes that disagree with you are manipulated, you’re not just arguing in bad faith, you’re undermining the federated system we should all want to succeed.

Props to the LW admin who uncovered and banned the vote manipulation ring. Its existence is troubling.

I did a vote audit of the Soliciting Feedback from the Mods thread, and none of the sock accounts that were banned three days ago voted on the post or the most highly upvoted or downvoted comments. If you don’t believe me, I suggest asking an admin you trust to repeat the audit.

The outrage about the bot seems extremely organic, and any sockpuppetting going on is small compared to the overwhelming number of legitimate accounts casting votes that are apparent from the logs. The uniformity of the consensus does not appear to be artificial at all.

Rule 1 Ban Count: 5

• @LagrangePoint@lemmy.world (Permaban)
• @aniki@lemmings.world (15 day ban)
• @catloaf@lemm.ee (15 day ban)
• @DoctorButts@kbin.melroy.org (Permaban)
• @stormesp@lemm.ee (15 day ban)

Not a good look, mods.

I want the bot gone but didn’t downvote the post. I support the mods reaching out for feedback, and also downvoting could decrease the visibility of the bot’s overwhelming negative reception.

I really like this short video (4:43) that Amy Goodman, main host of Democracy Now!, narrated about why flak organizations like MBFC are dangerous to democracy.

The !news team has recently changed course and opted out of the bot. AFAIK it will still operate in !world and !politics, but I want to share the news and thank everyone who has given feedback, downvoted, and protested the bot. This isn’t over, but I feel we’ve reached an inflection point.

The news mod team has asked to no longer be a part of the project until we have a composite tool that polls multiple sources for a more balanced view.

Thank you. It is often difficult to change course once it is set. I appreciate the !news team reaching out to the community and acting on their concerns.

I’m going to be fine without Lemmy, it’s not worth much.

That’s not the conclusion I’d like you to draw. I’m an admin of a Lemmy instance. I wouldn’t volunteer so much of my time if I didn’t think Lemmy was valuable.

Lemmy.World has a central role in the Threadiverse, but not an essential one. Sh.itjust.works, Lemm.ee, Reddthat.com or another general instance could easily take over that role if the consensus determines that Lemmy.World doesn’t deserve it. Beehaw.org is the largest instance to de-federate from LW, and if things continue or get worse, LW’s admin’s actions may result in a re-ordering of the Threadiverse structure. Lemmy.World is not the same as the Theadiverse.

This is a radical option that is not possible in any corporate form of social media. If it occurs or the specter of it instigates the LW admins to relent, it would be a huge victory for democracy on the Threadiverse. A Lemmy instance can’t exist without its hosts and admins, but it also relies on the consensus of its commenters, posters, and voters. This gives you as a participant unprecedented control of how the communities that you build engage with the news and the world.

They’ve also removed comments critical of the bot, and ignored the overwhelming negative feedback and the consensus that the bot should be removed when they’ve opened the discussion up to the community.

I’d be satisfied if my criticism changed the mods minds, but at this point they are not my target audience. My goal in these comments is to inform those who are on the fence about why the bot is a bad idea, and signal boost the consensus that the bot’s assessments are illegitimate.

Dave M. Van Zandt rates Al Jazeera English as “Credibility: Medium” and “Factual Reporting: Mixed”; this is depite the news outlet being recognized worldwide as one of the best in the world.

On Dave’s page, he lists two stories out of the enormous corpus they’ve produced in the last five years as evidence of his biased assessment.

The real issue Dave has with Al Jazeera, as evidenced by his pattern of bad, unscientific, and arbitrary classifications of middle-eastern journalism, is that their journalists occasionally do investigative reporting critical of the Israeli government. He has repeated the indefensible opinion that criticism of Israel is antisemitic.

Dave’s personal credibility gatekeeper site, MBFC, is a flak organization is to center corporate news that is favorable to power, and push voices critical of it to the periphery. This is the fourth filter of the Propaganda Model.

!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com has an interesting take on this.

MBFC claims CNN is Left-Center, when it is owned by conservative billionaire John Malone, one of the largest landlords in the world. Lemmy.World mods need to stop feeding flak organizations like MBFC. Corporate propaganda is harmful to democracy.

More evidence the Australian government doesn’t care about Australian citizens.

MBFC claiming CNN is Left-Center, when it is owned by conservative billionaire John Malone, one of the largest landlords in the world. An example of this right-wing bias is when they put an obvious Trump Supporter on their recent panel of ‘undecided voters’.

If you want to understand bias, learn the five filters of the propaganda model.

According to Parker Molloy from The New Republic, this isn’t “an isolated case of questionable representation in CNN’s voter panels. In fact, it appears to be part of a troubling pattern stretching back years.” She suggests it could be “a potential willingness to mislead viewers for the sake of compelling television.” - media ownership and their profit motive, and complicity of the media elite are the first and third filters of the propaganda model.

Amy Goodman, main host of Democracy Now!, narrated a great short about why flak organizations like MBFC are dangerous to democracy.

Hey everybody! The concept of human rights is a left-wing concept, but science that doesn’t apply to human rights is apolitical.

That’s right, according to Dave M. Van Zandt, the political spectrum of left and right means stuff American Democrats care about vs stuff American Republicans care about. He’s placed organizations like HRW, that lobbies for the human rights of people tortured and imprisoned by authoritarian regimes as ‘center-left’, and HRC, a non-partisan group that lobbies for the human rights of LGBTQ people as ‘left’.

Meanwhile, organizations like NOAA which Republicans want to defund due to their well documented war on science, Dave M. Van Zandt does not place on the political spectrum. The impartiality of science is only important when it doesn’t apply to the scientific consensus that LGBTQ people are human and that all humans should have rights.

Not just any bot spam - the most downvoted spam in Lemmy history. It is now more unpopular than the most popular Lemmy account is popular.