June 14, 2024
Friday Open Comments
Fitting in with yesterday’s blurb, Optimum sent a link to a story about partisan news sites outnumbering real news sites, as told in the weird Axios style.
The number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial news outlets has officially surpassed the number of real, local daily newspapers in the U.S., Axios' Sara Fischer writes from a new report by NewsGuard.
Why it matters: Many of those sites are targeted to swing states (charted above) — a clear sign that they're designed to influence politics.
There was an AFP story along the same lines, based on the same original report.
Hundreds of sites mimicking news outlets –- many of them powered by artificial intelligence -- have cropped up in recent months, fueling an explosion of polarizing or false narratives that are stoking alarm as the race for the White House intensifies.
At least 1,265 "pink slime" outlets -- politically motivated websites that present themselves as independent local news outlets -- have been identified, the US-based research group NewsGuard said in a report.
“Pink slime” is such a lovely term clearly coined by an admiring observer.
Still. If LLMs are now going to write stories, my early prediction will have come true (Yay, me!) that the internet will be swimming in tsunamis of computer-generated amusement verbiage posing as “news” in only a few years. Or maybe that’s just the painful process of creative destruction running its course in the digital media landscape. First, everything old has to be churned under befor new sprouts of something better emerge.
Right now, it’s the destructive forces of the internet, social media, and computer-spun yarns that are mass-produced for the emotional titillation of the largest possible audiences with the attention spans of your average fruit fly. No one has been able to figure out a reliable way to grow a large audience of news consumers who want the same higher-quality product with a uniform political slant, covering specific topics of greatest relevance to the individual. In the infotainment space, most people want their partisan stories full of drama, whether real or fairy tales, it seems.
Perhaps LLMs will ruin the reputation of the internet or internet-sourced news as part of the next phase. Then something new can arise. Better? Who knows? Probably just very different.
Good morning. After the third reminder, my husband took down the Margaritaville flag and put up the U.S. flag, in observance of Flag Day.
For those who have been following the ongoing scarmable at my church, through episodes such as "The Stewardship Committee Murders", "Revolt of the Parish Council", "Revenge of the Business Manager", "WTAF?" and some episodes that aired only on Univision ...
... the latest events are that the Business Manager is retiring, causing many to say, "I thought she already was," and the Parish Council, where hope springs eternal, is trying to round up some people who know fiduciary responsibility from a hole in the head to participate in hiring the replacement. I have made some phone calls, because one can't leave a paper trail. When I emailed a friend yesterday to say, "When could we talk on the phone? Sorry if I seem paranoid ...," she replied, "Friday afternoon, and no, you seem perfectly rational." Stay tuned ...
... and the mystery of who was telling the Spanish congregation not to take up the second collection - and why - remains unsolved. A reasonable case has been made that it's just a confusion, but we'll learn something this Sunday, when I assume there will be a collection for the missionary priest who's coming, and then the true test on the first Sunday in July, when the building fund collection takes place. The Building Fund Chairman, "Jim, my fixer," says we should take up the collection No Matter What, and if anyone objects, we all yell, "Jim told us to do it!" while making sorcerous gestures and maybe setting something on fire.
I'm going to Walmart now to get fabric softener sheets and wine.