I’m not sure I’m going to trust establishment narrative setters to establish what is and isn’t truth. As a queer person I know all too well how they like to distort the truth of a situation.
I look forward to seeing where this goes.
I also worry that other – less reputable – news sources won’t know or care whether something is fake. Say a video emerges of Kier Starmer doing coke. BBC Verify determines that it’s fake. GBNews and the Daily Mail still run with it. Non-affiliated “social media journalists” still run with it. Damage is done.
Unless OfCom commit to coming down hard on verifiably false reporting, this won’t end well.
Whenever I read a BBC news story I ask myself: “In what way have I just been deliberately misled?”
I think your Verify team should focus it efforts very close to home.
Ah yes the ministry of truth.
Right on time for this dystopian nightmare
I’ll never trust the BBC after Laura K falsely reported (during an election period) that a “Corbyn supporter” viciously attacked a Tory MP….
Then a video of the MP walking into someone’s hand as they were pointing and giving someone directions.
I was recently thinking about how useful an AI could be at fact checking politicians especially during televised shows like question time.
We need a proper independent organisation while being able to hold politicians to account for what they say.
“The exponential growth of manipulated and distorted video means that seeing is no longer believing”
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Hmmm…
I like Ros Atkins, and I think his explanatory videos are great. But this looks like it’s going to be just another complication making it harder to know what’s going on.
If they focus on easy-to-disprove AI fakes like today’s Pentagon bombing photo, that’s one thing. But the article says they’re going to deal with things like “manipulated and distorted video” (presumably they actually mean manipulated video that distorts the truth – it’d be nice if they could describe what they’re going to do accurately in plain English.)
We’ve put up with video manipulation – i.e. video that’s dishonestly edited to give a false picture of the facts – for decades now, from the BBC as much as anyone else (e.g. the editing of *Question Time* during the 2019 election). Same in radio, and in text: doesn’t matter what the medium is, the problem is and always has been journalists and editors who use the medium to convey a distorted, preconceived narrative.
I would love it if Ros Atkins or, even better, some of those who are expert in this kind of journalistic malpractice were to do a BBC explainer on standard types and tricks of media disinformation. It could be one of the most socially useful and educational things the BBC has ever done. But they won’t and, as it stands, this will likely become mere truthwashing.
As long as it matches what your Tory overlords want you to say that is.
The BBC is Tory propaganda, I’m hardly going to trust them to hold the government to account.
11 comments
I’m not sure I’m going to trust establishment narrative setters to establish what is and isn’t truth. As a queer person I know all too well how they like to distort the truth of a situation.
I look forward to seeing where this goes.
I also worry that other – less reputable – news sources won’t know or care whether something is fake. Say a video emerges of Kier Starmer doing coke. BBC Verify determines that it’s fake. GBNews and the Daily Mail still run with it. Non-affiliated “social media journalists” still run with it. Damage is done.
Unless OfCom commit to coming down hard on verifiably false reporting, this won’t end well.
Whenever I read a BBC news story I ask myself: “In what way have I just been deliberately misled?”
I think your Verify team should focus it efforts very close to home.
Ah yes the ministry of truth.
Right on time for this dystopian nightmare
I’ll never trust the BBC after Laura K falsely reported (during an election period) that a “Corbyn supporter” viciously attacked a Tory MP….
Then a video of the MP walking into someone’s hand as they were pointing and giving someone directions.
I was recently thinking about how useful an AI could be at fact checking politicians especially during televised shows like question time.
We need a proper independent organisation while being able to hold politicians to account for what they say.
“The exponential growth of manipulated and distorted video means that seeing is no longer believing”
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Hmmm…
I like Ros Atkins, and I think his explanatory videos are great. But this looks like it’s going to be just another complication making it harder to know what’s going on.
If they focus on easy-to-disprove AI fakes like today’s Pentagon bombing photo, that’s one thing. But the article says they’re going to deal with things like “manipulated and distorted video” (presumably they actually mean manipulated video that distorts the truth – it’d be nice if they could describe what they’re going to do accurately in plain English.)
We’ve put up with video manipulation – i.e. video that’s dishonestly edited to give a false picture of the facts – for decades now, from the BBC as much as anyone else (e.g. the editing of *Question Time* during the 2019 election). Same in radio, and in text: doesn’t matter what the medium is, the problem is and always has been journalists and editors who use the medium to convey a distorted, preconceived narrative.
I would love it if Ros Atkins or, even better, some of those who are expert in this kind of journalistic malpractice were to do a BBC explainer on standard types and tricks of media disinformation. It could be one of the most socially useful and educational things the BBC has ever done. But they won’t and, as it stands, this will likely become mere truthwashing.
As long as it matches what your Tory overlords want you to say that is.
The BBC is Tory propaganda, I’m hardly going to trust them to hold the government to account.
Government announces £8m new funding for BBC.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-secretary-boosts-bbc-funding-to-fight-fake-news
I’m sure this new verify will be bias free