Hello World, As many of you have probably noticed, there is a growing problem on the internet when it comes to undisclosed bias in both amateur and professional reporting. While not every outlet can be like the C-SPAN, or Reuters, we also believe that it’s impossible to remove the human element from the news, especially when it concerns, well, humans.
To this end, we’ve created a media bias bot, which we hope will keep everyone informed about WHO, not just the WHAT of posted articles. This bot uses Media Bias/Fact Check to add a simple reply to show bias. We feel this is especially important with the US Election coming up. The bot will also provide links to Ground.News, as well, which we feel is a great source to determine the WHOLE coverage of a given article and/or topic.
As always feedback is welcome, as this is a active project which we really hope will benefit the community.
Thanks!
FHF / LemmyWorld Admin team 💖
Does this consider the bias of who runs MBFC?
Its a human. Like every page.
So no?
I mean the data is all there for you to look at and experts who have looked at it have agreed it is minimally biased. If you want something that is unbiased, then you’re out of luck, every human has bias. If you believe all experts are biased, you’re also right, but they’re way less biased than someone being paid to be biased. So like everything, you can’t wait forever for perfection, and anyone who tells you they are perfect and totally unbiased is likely the most biased, anyway.
This is a bad bot using bad reasoning and it’s only going to hurt the state of discourse. You’re not countering dishonesty, you’re encouraging it.
Can you provide some examples? Is Media Bias problematic or just this bot and how so?
After seeing the comment on a few posts, the length is really bothering me. I don’t want to block the bot since it’s useful information. What about a single line of text with a link to “read more”?
Example with explanations:
404 Media is rated with High Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check. (change Media Bias Fact Check to a link that goes to a post explaining what they do, the reason for the bot, and a link to their donation page)
Check the bias and credibility of this article on ground.news. (change “this article” to be a link instead of displaying link in plain text)
How it might look:
404 Media is rated with High Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.
Check the bias and credibility of this article on ground.news.
Another idea. What about not posting the comment when the rating is “high credibility”?
Because then you don’t know if the bot is not working or is behind or if the post is actually credible. Better to have it on everything, though it definitely could put less info on high credibility posts if it can’t be condensed across the board.
That’s a great point that I hadn’t considered. Posting on every post also keeps it neutral instead of seeming to only target certain sources.
deleted by creator
I think the bot is crap based on this: The Guardian Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [Medium]
The guardian is one of the best newspapers on the planet and published content exposing such as the Panama Papers.
Thats your opinion. Thats the whole reason we added the bot. To give people a second opinion, if they need to trust it or even read it. Is on your own responsibility.
okay, , how does website/bot reach its conclusions on Fact Check Credibility?
Putting some site in charge of determining what news is valid just means that site controls the bias. I like the wide mix that we get now. Partisan commenters are more of a problem than bias in the sources. It’s best when there are informed commenters who point out issues. Sometimes we have them, though not always.
A timely article about why this type of “rating” is a really bad idea:
The most chilling words today: I’m from NewsGuard and I am here to rate you by Jonathan Turley.
Thank you for putting this into place!
Bot: Hmm this article reflects reality, thus it is biased to the left.
Using charged language like that constitutes disinformation and is reprehensible. Imagine if viewers started disregarding a source on account of your bot declaring it biased.
Shameful.
That’s not how the bot works.
You’re right, it just copies a right-wing human’s opinion, and blurts it out in a format that takes way too much space, and pretends to be without bias.
You know, ban material.
The “footer” section is very long, and the spoiler tags don’t seem to do anything on the Boost app. This makes the bot comment take up an entire screen on mobile.
Yeah that is sadly bad implemented on the apps.
We put the “footer” that could go into a spoiler into a spoiler.
I love the info it provides. I agree with many here that it’s too long. I think putting everything behind a spoiler tag that simply shows the rating would be a step in the right direction.
Everything that can be hid behind a spoiler is already in there. The rest is partially because of an agreement with MBFC.
Another idea I’ve been thinking about that would help get the wall of text “out of the way”…:
If the credibility is “High” or higher, have the bot downvote itself to allow other comments to float to the top
If it’s “Mostly Factual” or lower, have the bot upvote itself to help call attention to the possible issue.
…alternatively, if “High” or higher, wait for the first reply before having the bot comment.
I don’t know if any of this is even possible with bots; just spitballing…
The wall of text we will reduce in the next update. The others we will discuss with the team.
Cool - I’d love to know the outcome of the discussion even if it’s just “Not technically possible” or “No; it’s a terrible idea because <X>”
Love this! There are a couple of extensions that do similar around the web but something similar for social circles was missing. Great solution.
Reporting the bot will not get you what you want/expect. If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to block it.
We are well aware that the bot can be blocked. The issue that I think a lot of us have here is not the bots existence, but rather the reluctance for the mods to take user feedback into account. Just from looking over the bot comments likes and dislikes it is evident the majority of the community dislikes the bot and administrators are ignoring concerns over it and being defensive. This does not bode well for trust at all for future decisions. The administration’s actions are showing that the community has no say in how things operate here, despite being a community platform, evidently in name only.
Please do not take your users for granted. Most of of us left a platform specifically where the administration ignored what the user base as a majority wanted. This is how you destroy your community and any goodwill you’ve built up with them.
I’m truly intending this in good faith, there is nothing to be gained from alienating your community.
Report abuse will be punished.
The amount of people that can’t handle a super basic rating of a news outlet is chilling.
I know and accept that I rely on biased media, because all of it is biased. It’s media, not scientific papers (which are also often biased btw.). Having a bias does not automatically make it bad.
I care a lot about factual reporting tho. And I want to see the same news from different POVs, with different biases, because they will highlight different things. If you don’t, mute the bot, get your daily dose of whatever propaganda you like so much and stfu.
And no, this is not ‘centrism’. I’m pretty sure most people who use that word don’t even know what it means. Historically, centrism describes a moderate left-wing view. Centrists are the center of left.
The authority that is given to this one bot to determine “Facts” is more the issue I think.
The only bias in my scientific papers is in the data! But we compensate for it and if you approve our next grant we totally promise we’ll be able to reduce that bias. So give us more funding pretty please!
This is awesome. Thank you!
This is awesome!
