Fact-checking the news: Today's news for December 16th

Business Insider:

Facebook is going to use Snopes and other fact-checkers to combat and bury 'fake news'

Facebook is going to start fact-checking, labeling, and burying fake news and hoaxes in its News Feed, the company said Thursday.

The decision comes after Facebook received heated criticism for its role in spreading a deluge of political misinformation during the US presidential election, like one story that falsely said the Pope had endorsed Donald Trump.

To combat fake news, Facebook has teamed up with a shortlist of media organizations, including Snopes and ABC News, that are part of an international fact-checking network led by Poynter, a nonprofit school for journalism in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Starting as a test with a small percentage of its users in the US, Facebook will make it easier to report news stories that are fake or misleading. Once third-party fact-checkers have confirmed that the story is fake, it will be labeled as such and demoted in the News Feed.

A company representative told Business Insider that the social network will also use other signals, like algorithms that detect whether a story that appears fake is going viral, to determine if it should label the story as fake and bury it in people's feeds.

"We've focused our efforts on the worst of the worst, on the clear hoaxes spread by spammers for their own gain, and on engaging both our community and third party organizations," Facebook News Feed chief Adam Mosseri said in a company blog post on Thursday.

In the first place, anyone who gets their news from one place gets what they deserve. As a frequent consumer of news, aka "news junkie", I can honestly say there is no single source of news which is above reproach. Drudge Report comes close, but even they have a slant in what they show, not to mention they are only linking to other people's stories.

That said, if media organizations employed objective and professional editors, instead of the bias monkeys they currently employ, then "fake news" wouldn't be an issue. Blaming Facebook for the failings of the news organizations in their News Feed misses the point.

Unfortunately, Facebook makes a rather false claim in the story:

Facebook has repeatedly said that it's not a media company, but rather an open technology platform that relies on media publishers and its users to share accurate information. 

“We do not think of ourselves as editors," Patrick Walker, Facebook's head of media partnerships, said during a recent journalism conference in Dublin. "We believe it’s essential that Facebook stay out of the business of deciding what issues the world should read about. That’s what editors do.”    

This is EXACTLY what they are doing in this story: Acting as an additional editor. In their defense, they are trying to get professional news organizations to assist in this process, but journalism as a whole has a big problem today, as their objectivity has been compromised to big business interests. Facebook cannot fix that.

In other news...

Fox News:

Obama says US needs to respond to Russian cyberattacks -- 'and we will'

President Obama said Thursday that the U.S. needs to "take action" in response to cyberattacks on Democratic officials during the recent presidential campaign, hours after his administration insisted -- without offering proof -- that President-elect Donald Trump "obviously knew" of the breaches, and suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally authorized them. 

Yay! Obama is going to take action! What will it be? A strategic nuclear strike? Or maybe send a Navy Seal team into the Kremlin to remove all the toilet paper?

Get real. This is yet another "if you like your doctor, you can keep him" promise from the prevaricator-in-chief. He is trying to sound tough, even as he already has his bags packed for Hawaii.

On the other hand, in the "best news of the week" category...

Fox News:

Judge Napolitano Discusses Supreme Court Vacancy With Trump

President-elect Donald Trump has been busy since Election Day carefully choosing members who will fill his cabinet.  But in the midst of the rush to staff his administration, Trump took time for advice from Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano. The judge outlined desirable qualities for a potential nominee who could fill an empty Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Antonin Scalia who died in February.

The judge advised the president-elect on how to scope out the best candidates based on intellectual, ideological, and temperamental qualities.

“He was interested in a broad range of ideas and attitudes about the type of person who would best fill Justice Scalia’s seat,” Napolitano told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney. 

While Napolitano himself would be the best choice possible, he is 66, so his age might be a limiting factor. However, at least taking advice from him is an excellent sign.