“Tim Cook, the boss of Apple, is calling for governments to launch a public information campaign to fight the scourge of fake news, which is ‘killing people’s minds,'” Allister Heath reports for The Telegraph. “In an impassioned plea, Mr Cook, boss of the world’s largest company, says that the epidemic of false reports ‘is a big problem in a lot of the world’ and necessitates a crackdown by the authorities and technology firms.”
“‘It has to be ingrained in the schools, it has to be ingrained in the public,’ said Mr Cook. ‘There has to be a massive campaign. We have to think through every demographic… We need the modern version of a public-service announcement campaign. It can be done quickly if there is a will,'” Heath reports. “‘We are going through this period of time right here where unfortunately some of the people that are winning are the people that spend their time trying to get the most clicks, not tell the most truth,’ he said. ‘It’s killing people’s minds in a way.'”
“Tech firms, which have been criticised for doing too little, also need to up their game, he said. ‘All of us technology companies need to create some tools that help diminish the volume of fake news. We must try to squeeze this without stepping on freedom of speech and of the press, but we must also help the reader. Too many of us are just in the complain category right now and haven’t figured out what to do,'” Heath reports. “‘The [rise of fake news] is a short-term thing – I don’t believe that people want that at the end of the day,’ [Cook said]. A new approach was required in schools, he said. ‘It’s almost as if a new course is required for the modern kid, for the digital kid.’ But he is optimistic. ‘In some ways kids will be the easiest to educate. At least before a certain age, they are very much in listen and understand [mode], and they then push their parents to act.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If we’re reading this correctly: Holy crap! This is chilling.
Who determines what’s “real” news and what’s “fake?”
Anyone who’s been paying any attention for the last, oh, forever (unlike Cook, who inexplicably thinks this is a “short-term thing”) can cite examples of so-called news that are biased one way or the other. In fact, history is littered with examples where the the facts were altered to suit a specific purpose.
We reread The Telegraph‘s full article six times. Is Cook really saying that the authorities and technology firms need to get the kids indoctrinated while they’re still malleable? If not, what did we miss?
And, are these the same technology firms who donated 60 times more to one party than to the other in the last U.S. Presidential election? If you don’t find that idea chilling, just imagine these “authorities and technology firms” — oh, let’s just call them “Ministry of Truth” (it has a nicer ring to it) — on the side of those espousing ideas that you oppose instead.
In the U.S., for a Democrat, “real” news is MSNBC and “fake” news is Fox News. For a Republican, it’s exactly the opposite. We’re sure it’s similar in every country with a “free press” in the world.
Again, who determines what’s “real” news and what’s “fake?” Cook seems to want “technology companies'” idea of what’s “real” to be “ingrained in the schools” and “ingrained in the public.” Technology companies, again, who donated 99% of their political dollars to one party in the last U.S. Presidential election.
If this is really what Cook desires then… Wow. Just wow.
Oh, good, it’s time for one of those “public service announcements” that Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned. This one is from the 1940s:
That’s right, at one time, smoking was considered healthy and even said to prevent various illnesses. “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette,” dontcha know?
Telling “the most truth,” no doubt. “Ingrained in the schools, ingrained in the public.” “Killing people’s minds” …via their lungs.
And now for some quotes from George Orwell’s 1984 (you know, the one upon which Apple once based a TV commercial):
• The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.
• Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
• Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
• So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern…Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.
• The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.
• Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.
• And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed — if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
We’re going to hope and pray that Cook was misquoted and/or taken wildly out of context in this report.
One more quote: Think Different.
SEE ALSO:
Silicon Valley donated 60 times more to Clinton than to Trump – November 7, 2016
99% of Silicon Valley’s political dollars are going to Hillary Clinton – October 25, 2016
Apple refuses to aid 2016 GOP presidential convention over Trump comments – June 18, 2016
Apple and Silicon Valley employees love Bernie Sanders. Donald Trump? Not so much – May 6, 2016
” If we’re reading this correctly: Holy crap! This is chilling.
Who determines what’s “real” news and what’s “fake?””
I’m not understanding MDN’s take on this, as I see his comments as merely asking for more critical thinking skills to be taught in our schools. Random Quanta knows there ain’t many being taught now, and if Orange Julius had his way, thinking would be banned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news_website
“Who determines what’s “real” news and what’s “fake?” Well, the Fascist THINK that they do. Remember, Prime Minster of Italy, Benito Mussolini defined Fascism to be, “Rule by the corporations.” So COOK has proven by his the intent of his own words that he is diluted, delusional, and benighted.
Folks, the only way out of all of this mess is to take back your Title and Estate. When you do the inheritance that you were born with will be revested and the pious-pukers that are financing all this kind of crappy thinking will no longer be able to float their bonds to finance such deceitful ways and thinking.
The key is in knowing and understanding how to use and apply the Maxims of Equity, the Principals of Trusts and Trust Law, Suborgation and how it applies to the revestment of your title and estate, and Surety; how NOT to be a Surety and Constitutor for the debts of corporations that constantly and consistently continue to perpetuate war, and rumors of war.
REFERENCES
========
• The Art of Passing the Buck, Vol 1 & 2, by Charles Arthur
• INTERPRETIVE WRITINGS by Roger Elvick
• The Law of Subrogation by Sheldon
• The Law of Suretyship by Arthur Adelbert Sterns, LL. D. | Third Edition by Wells M. Cook
• Kenoe On Land Trusts
• A Treatise on Suits In Chancery by Henry R. GIBSON, A.M., LL. D.
• Pomeroy’s Equity Jurisprudence and Equitable Remedies by John Norton Pomeroy, LL. D.
I am disappointed in MDN for making up their own definition of fake news. Some examples of fake news: The supposed Clinton child sex ring being run out of a random DC pizza place. The story about “tens of thousands” of fraudulent ballots found in a warehouse in Ohio. The Bowling Green Massacre. These are all fiction, yet they were reported as news. They are verifiably false.
For you to compare these to attitudes about smoking from the 1950s is absurd. Scientific discoveries have been made that show how harmful smoking is. There will never be a scientific discovery that tells us that yes, there was a sex ring being run by Hillary Clinton at Comet Ping Pong in DC.
The true problem of fake news has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with false stories being presented as if they really happened. Truth is not subjective. If I publish an article that says “the moon exploded last night” and you can clearly look up and see the moon is still there, that is fake news. Opinion pieces stating that Donald Trump is a moron or that Hillary Clinton is a jerk aren’t news reports. They’re just opinions. The fact that we have 24-hour “news networks” doesn’t mean everything on those networks is news. Much of it is opinion.
Attorney General Sessions is gonna have some big surprises for you, punk.
botvinnik,
So, is General Sessions going to provide the surprises from 1984 or from A Clockwork Orange? Since you seem to think that it is the job of the Government to reeducate those who cannot enthusiastically support the Party line, where are you going to locate the camps? I guess in the tunnels you think exist under Washington to house the Clinton/Podesta child sex slaves.
My God, can my fellow conservatives out there not hear the footsteps of totalitarianism coming towards us to impose the dictates of Big Government in every aspect of our lives? Look up the comments of the Cato Institute condemning the three executive orders on law enforcement the President signed last week, carving out an expanded role for the Federal Government in the enforcement of criminal law… historically a state responsibility in our federal republic. It is a little difficult to label the Cato guys as “libtards.”
There was a time that conservatives approved statement like “I would rather be right than be President.” How can any of us now approve a man who is so hungry for power and so careless of the truth that he lies on irrelevant issues when the truth would serve him better? It seems that we have lost the ability to assess evidence and make truth judgments without “guidance” from the likes of Breitbart and InfoWars. If Big Brother said it, it must be true.
It is just pathetic. It would be funny if weren’t so serious.
I was commenting on Sessions’s inevitable prosecution of pedophilia sex rings, I don’t know what the hell your jibba-jabba is about….and further, I really don’t care much.
You seem to have difficulty expressing yourself without the narcissistic need for writing gasbag screeds. The following five of Mr. Twain’s “18 Rules For Writing” may be of assistance in your faulty prose style:
12. An author should say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
18. Employ a simple, straightforward style.
You are certainly a victim of #14…
Remember, less is more, concise is nice and brevity is the soul of lingerie. 🙂
Good advice, Botty.
@TxUser heart is in the right place. But narcissistic circling simply does not get it done.
@Predrag is another case. Tedious exhaustive posts from a left wing foreign elitist that enjoys ice picks in the eyes of opponents.
Wish hope for both …
I think the same. 🙂
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I blame social media, specifically, Twitter and Facebook. They allow this and have only taken weak steps to try and prevent it, and continually hide behind freedom of speech, because deep down they don’t really give a shit, and are in it for the dinero. The cat is out of the bag, just like scammers and hackers, this will never end and will only get worse. And mainly because there are so many moronic and stupid and gullible people that believe anything and everything out there. Well, the dumb mofos deserve it, Cook, quit wasting air on this subject and move on.
No question that they deserve it, but do the rest of us?
I’m surprised this ‘fake’ post is still here. Thought for sure it would have been scrubbed by now.
I’ve flipped newz channels for a long while. I’ve determined that of the top three, one reports 1/4th of the truth, one reports 1/2 the truth, and one reports 3/4’s of the truth.
America need the whole truth and all the facts to make accurate determination. It has now become ideological hypnotism. Turn off the volume and leave it on CNN and just read the titles at the bottom…in about 30 seconds, their bias is evident and obvious.
Counterfeit News Network.
In print, NY Slimes leads the way, followed by the Washed Post …
Levin, is that you?
I say bring back the fairness doctrine. Problem solved.
Just remember:
‘Fox News’ is a trademark and ‘Fair and Balanced’ is an advertising slogan. What FNC does it not straight news and it is anything but fair or balanced.
Long time Mac fanatics who remember the name Mike Daisey should understand immediately the sort of Fake News Tim Cook is worried about. Fox, MSNBC and other media outlets have their biases. But before the spin, they agree mostly agree on the facts.
Fake News = Propaganda = Ancient
What’s going on now is simply the most fumbling, bumbling of propaganda as employed by those of highly compromised intelligence. And yes, I’m talking BOTH worthless political parties. It’s the lowest common denominator talking at the lowest common denominator.
BTW: My solution is to escape the US propaganda machinery as much as possible and instead get most of my news from the perspectives of other countries. I find Japan’s NHK to be particularly enjoyable. But I also toss in Brit, French, German, Danish, Aus…
Oh and: