Kerre Woodham: How do you know what's real and what's not?

Do you know what's real and what's not when you're scrolling through your news feeds? When you're scrolling through your social media? AI generated “news” pages and political deepfake ads are swamping social media feeds. They've been around for a while, but there's more and more and more of them and they're becoming harder to detect as the technology gets more sophisticated, as people understand how to use the tools they're discovering.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The BBC reports fake news about NZ's Treaty debate....

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reports fake news nonsense about NZ's Treaty Debate.

You'd think the state-owned broadcaster in Britain, the BBC, could do a little bit of correct reporting on NZ. Instead, its front page news on the Wellington protests summarize what's happening as follows: "The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi is seen as fundamental to the country’s race relations. But .. there’s a concern that the rights won by the Māori community are being eroded. The bill that has been introduced by the Act political party argues that NZ should legally define the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi".

Matt Ridley: How Putin Spent Millions Spreading Fake News About Fracking

When Lorraine Allanson spoke up in favour of drilling for shale gas in her part of North Yorkshire, activists cut off her internet, called her a “whore” and linked her to a fake crime number. “Shouting, abuse, public defecation, intimidation, hijacking lorries to stop deliveries, blocking the village street, this was the locals’ daily experience,” she wrote in her book My Story.

The wave of noisy protests against shale gas in Lancashire and Yorkshire in recent years looked like a grassroots movement. It was anything but.

It was peopled by a middle class rent-a-crowd, ramped up by misleading scare stories from Friends of the Earth, amplified by the BBC and The Guardian, funded by wealthy hedge-fund billionaires and welcomed by incumbent energy firms worried by the prospect of new competition for renewables, nuclear or offshore gas.

All this suited Vladimir Putin’s regime, because banning shale kept the gas underground and left us more dependent on Russia for our energy supplies.

Viv Forbes: Time for Truth-Telling in Glasgow.

For 26 long years the UN and their tame media have promoted their expensive annual climate carnivals. This month they will flock to Glasgow for COP 26 but they will not arrive on Shetland ponies, penny farthings or sailing boats - hydro-carbon energy will get most of them there and keep them warm and well fed.

These jamborees are designed to spread climate lies and green energy propaganda.

In the beginning, the witch-doctors of the global warming religion spread lurid tales of drowning polar bears, rising sea levels, dying corals and spreading deserts - all blamed on the wicked coal, oil, cattle and cars that they claim are destroying our green planet. Those disasters never happened. Now truant school kids (who learn their version of climate “science” from smart-phones and social media) are promoting emission reduction by gluing themselves to roads.

Chris Trotter: The TV3 Poll: Journalism or Propaganda

Predictable “News”: Expecting the mainstream media to acknowledge its own deficiencies as the supposed protector and facilitator of democratic discussion and debate has become unrealistic. It no longer sees its role in such terms. Its responsibility, now, is to impart the truth – as officially defined – to the population, while doing everything within its power to ensure that this official version of reality is not effectively challenged by anyone – up to and including the Leader of the Opposition.

TV3’s presentation of the poll results delivered to them by Reid Research Ltd tells us a lot. The most important message to draw from the way it handled this “news” is how rapidly propaganda is replacing journalism in the mainstream news media. 

Tony Orman: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Nineteenth century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once said “There are three types of lies – lies, damn lies, and statistics.” 

Studies are meant to foster informed decision-making, sound judgments and actions based on evidence, not hearsay - often termed anecdotal - or assumptions.

Do they?

Well it depends.

You see statistics can be notorious for their ability and potential to be manipulated so as to be misleading and give a false perception. It depends on the way they are presented.

Misleading statistics can be the result of deliberate or accidental use of numerical data. The results then give a distorted or completely opposite conclusion to the receiver, in most cases the public.

Dr Steve Elers: News turns fake when facts give way to untruths, hyperbole

On Monday this week Newshub’s Tova O’Brien was quick to announce the results of the Newshub/Reid-Research poll of 1000 people with her statement: “It’s official: Jacinda Ardern is New Zealand’s most popular Prime Minister in a century and Simon Bridges is hurtling into political oblivion.”

OK, one out of two isn’t bad, but now I’m starting to realise why — according to a recent Stuff report — O’Brien has been copping a lot of abuse on social media.

I’ve already addressed in an earlier column how political journalists’ questioning of the prime minister during the daily briefings were disappointing, so let’s not revisit that.

Instead, let’s focus on this fake news that Ardern is the “most popular Prime Minister in a century”, which was also picked up by other news media in New Zealand and overseas.

Bryan Leyland: “Things you know that ain't so" - Covid-19

As the American humorist Will Rogers said: “It’s not what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.” 

“Our government is a world leader in coping with Covid-19”

No. When collateral damage is taken into account, the social and economic cost of the shutdown is huge. Thousands of lives have been put at risk because of delayed operations, treatment, and diagnosis. Many people have suffered from depression and domestic violence. The education of our children – particularly those from deprived families – has been seriously compromised.

Mike Hosking: Race-based solutions asking for trouble

So these past couple of weeks we have seen the concerted effort to convince us that Whanau Ora is off track and being deliberately sabotaged by the government.

And we have seen and heard the claims and report that Oranga Tamariki is a phenomenal cock up, young mothers are being targeted by dawn raid type police squads, and having their kids taken off them for no good reason.

The question is, do you believe it? I don't.

Clive Bibby: News isn't news anymore - at least not the simple reported kind!

Like most political junkies, waiting in anticipation of reading the conclusions in the US Special Counsel's report of his two year investigation into the Trump/Russia collusion issue, l fear that the detail will somehow be lost in translation or by deliberate attempts to distort the findings. Many of those with responsibility to report the truth are already second guessing the outcome and developing strategies to present their own version of the facts.

That isn't journalism in its finest form. It is "sensationalism" bordering on deliberate misrepresentation that has no place on the front pages or in the news bulletins of the major media outlets. Sadly, it is what we have been dished up on a daily basis for the last two years and so perhaps we should expect more of the same.

Bryan Leyland: “Things you know that ain't so" - fossil fuels

As the American humorist Will Rogers said: “It’s not what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.” 

“We can have a reliable and economic supply of electricity without burning fossil fuels”

Nonsense!

Blackouts are inevitable if we do not have sufficient energy in reserve to make up for the loss of hydro generation in a dry year. In a 1:20 dry year the shortfall amounts to 10% of annual consumption.

To make up for the shortfall we need to have an energy store that can be converted into electricity over the four month dry period. Ever since Meremere power station was commissioned in the 1950s, we have relied on coal-fired stations supplemented by gas and oil to provide the dry year reserve.