• Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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    3 months ago

    American Bias

    Everywhere in the world is very skewed from the rest of the world. Someone in Venezuela would likely not agree with a bias rating given by someone in the UK and they likely wouldn’t agree with someone in India who would likely not agree with someone in China. What you’re basically saying, perhaps without realizing it, is that bias ratings shouldn’t be given at all.

    Centrist Bias

    I don’t know why FAIR is being rated as “High” instead of “Very High” by MB/FC but I don’t see this as some kind of overwhelming issue. The Intercept ranking has an explanation in the report and you should read it but it comes down to the fact that they’re known to only cover certain stories, they’re known to repress journalists, and they’ve been previously caught with writers that were making stuff up. Despite all of that they’re still being rated “mostly factual”, so again I’m not seeing this as an overwhelming issue.

    Questionable Fact Checking

    So the ADL is ranked the same as FAIR. Seems consistent. You’re also overstating the Wikipedia article, Wikipedia only considers them unreliable on the Palestinian Conflict. The ADL is still perfectly fine (with them) for other things.

    MB/FC does still rate ADL as “High” but it’s worth note that the Wikepedia re-date happened after MB/FC’s last review of the ADL. The next time that MB/FC re-rates the ADL it’s like to go down or get specific notes regarding the Palestinian Conflict.

    I thank you for taking the time to reply. I did look at and consider your argument and your sources but at the end I find them to be unpersuasive. There’s no sign of serious problems, how MB/FC evaluates sources is clearly stated and appears to be consistently applied. I will watch the ADL ranking to see what, if anything happens, but a single example of something that needs a re-rank on a specific issue doesn’t demonstrate a pattern. Finally there’s isn’t a single media bias checker on the planet that can be all things to all people at all times, it’s not possible, and since it’s not possible you really can’t knock them for not being up to a literally impossible standard.

    • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      What you’re basically saying, perhaps without realizing it, is that bias ratings shouldn’t be given at all.

      What I’m saying is that on a world news community we shouldn’t be using a US based left/right. What that should be should be voted on by the community if the mods insist we need to have some sort of fact checker like this which I disagree is needed.

      I don’t know why FAIR is being rated as “High” instead of “Very High” by MB/FC but I don’t see this as some kind of overwhelming issue. The Intercept ranking has an explanation in the report and you should read it but it comes down to the fact that they’re known to only cover certain stories, they’re known to repress journalists, and they’ve been previously caught with writers that were making stuff up. Despite all of that they’re still being rated “mostly factual”, so again I’m not seeing this as an overwhelming issue.

      The reason FAIR doesn’t is because MB/FC downgrades sources if it (arbitrarily based on the US right skewed Overton window) decides a source is left/right bias even if there has never been a failed fact check. For The intercept it was literally 1 reporter and they retracted all bogus statements, I could see that being 2nd rating then.

      Again the 3 sources I mentioned we’re literally the first 3 I checked, it’s not a small issue with MB/FC it’s the fact that the methodolgy downgrades the factual rating if the source isn’t as centrist as the (effectively) 1 guy that runs the website wants the source to be. What number of incorrect ratings would make you decide this is a terrible checker? Cause with some time I’m sure I could come up with any reasonable target given.

      So the ADL is ranked the same as FAIR. Seems consistent. You’re also overstating the Wikipedia article, Wikipedia only considers them unreliable on the Palestinian Conflict. The ADL is still perfectly fine (with them) for other things.

      Didn’t overstate I specifically mentioned twice what it was basing that off of. Also I don’t see how that would be consistent when 1 source has never failed a fact check and the other has been deemed unreliable on both the Palestinian conflict and on anti-sentism. How should both of those be the same rating?

      There probably isn’t a fact checker out there that’s going to be perfect and also free but that doesn’t mean we shoehorn a crappy one in here without putting massive disclaimers clearly calling out the biases it has.