Monday, June 22, 2020

Beware of weaponized media

The pernicious actions of a news organization morphing into an activist crusader were on display this week when NBC News did everything in its power to shut down two competitors using Google to do their bidding.

A reporter from the network gathered information from an obscure left-wing activist group in England called the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which suggested that news sites The Federalist and Zero Hedge were "Racist."

In the group's page called "Stop Funding Fake News" are screenshots of news sites it has deemed as racist.

"Fake News and racist narratives can cause real-world harms," the page reads.

"Dehumanising black people and whipping up fear. Stop Funding Fake News is fighting back: we're calling on advertisers to blacklist these 10, U.S.-based, racist Fake News sites."

A fringe left-wing website reaches out to an NBC reporter who, rather than write a story about the ads, uses the information to scare Google into defunding the two companies, lest it be seen as funding racism.

We learn about activist reporters and editors on an almost daily basis but it is not a completely new phenomenon.

No comments: