Media explainers are a cheap way to become an instant expert on everything from billionaire submarine excursions to hellaciously complex geopolitical conflicts, but @onthemedia's "#BreakingNewsConsumersHandbooks" are explainers that help you understand other explainers:
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Remember, the biggest peddlers of "fake news" are also the most prolific users of the term. For a lot of these information warriors, the point isn't to get you to believe them - they'll settle for you believing nothing. #FloodTheZoneWithBullshit is #SteveBannon's go-to tactic, and it's one that his acolytes have picked up and multiplied.
Sure, sometimes it makes sense to do your own research. There's times when you really do need to take personal responsibility for the way things are going. But there's limits. We live in a highly technical world, in which hundreds of esoteric, potentially lethal factors impinge on your life every day.
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Even if #SteveBannon hasn't managed to get you to froth about the #DeepState, there's a good chance that you've griped about #RedTape from time to time.
Not without reason, mind you. The fact that the government can make good rules doesn't mean it will. When we redid our kitchen this year, the city inspector added a bunch of arbitrary electrical outlets to the contractor's plans in places where neither we, nor any future owner, will every need them.
Wrong on so many levels: ageism and ableism as well as bothsideism and bald sensationalism. This from a company run for many years by brilliant, old men. David Remnick should be but is not ashamed. New Yorker be damned.