We’ve had some trouble recently with posts from aggregator links like Google Amp, MSN, and Yahoo.

We’re now requiring links go to the OG source, and not a conduit.

In an example like this, it can give the wrong attribution to the MBFC bot, and can give a more or less reliable rating than the original source, but it also makes it harder to run down duplicates.

So anything not linked to the original source, but is stuck on Google Amp, MSN, Yahoo, etc. will be removed.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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    1 month ago

    MBFC does NOT equate the Guardian with Breitbart:

    https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-guardian/

    Overall, we rate The Guardian as Left-Center biased based on story selection that moderately favors the left and Mixed for factual reporting due to numerous failed fact checks over the last five years.

    https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/breitbart/

    Overall, we rate Breitbart Questionable based on extreme right-wing bias, the publication of conspiracy theories and propaganda, as well as numerous false claims.

    If you check their list of questionable sources, Breitbart is listed, the Guardian is not:

    https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fake-news/

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Jordan, please look at the ‘Factual Reporting’ metric. They consider both of them to be ‘MIXED’, and as @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone correctly points out, the sorts of few-and-far-between “fact checks” performed on The Guardian are complete nitpicks, while Breitbart is outright a disinformation outlet, peddling climate denialism, anti-vaxx, and other things that make it – based on what you said earlier – a source that isn’t credible enough to be posted to this very community.

      The Guardian is much more factually accurate than “MIXED”, and Breitbart is much less factually accurate than “MIXED”, yet somehow they elevate Breitbart while dragging The Guardian’s credibility through the mud.

      (To be clear, though, I still think what you guys are doing with this change is a huge improvement.)

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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        1 month ago

        That’s not the overall rating though, which is why Breitbart is Questionable and the Guardian is not.

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Jordan, please elaborate: in what world does The Guardian have “MIXED” factual reporting and have “MEDIUM CREDIBILITY”? I really want to know why you think either of those ratings even remotely comport with reality.

          (Also, “Questionable” is way, way too lenient for Breitbart.)

          • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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            1 month ago

            I mean, it’s all right there on the page:

            “Mixed for factual reporting due to numerous failed fact checks over the last five years.”

            With cited examples:

            "Failed Fact Checks

            The proportion of lung cancer cases only diagnosed after a visit to an A&E ranges from 15% in Guildford and Waverley in Surrey to 56% in Tower Hamlets and Manchester. – Inaccurate

            Private renting is making millions of people ill. – False

            “The number of children needing foster care has risen by 44% during the coronavirus pandemic, creating a “state of emergency,” a children’s charity said.” – False

            915 children admitted with malnutrition in Cambridge hospitals between 2015 and 2020. There were 656 similar admissions at Newcastle hospitals and 656 at the Royal Free London hospitals. – False

            Nine percent of parents surveyed say their children have started self-harming in response to the cost of living crisis. – False"

            Medium Credibility stems from this:

            “In review, story selection favors the left but is generally factual. They utilize emotionally loaded headlines such as “The cashless society is a con – and big finance is behind it” and “Trump back-pedals on Russian meddling remarks after an outcry.” The Guardian typically utilizes credible sources such as thoughtco.comgov.uk., and factually mixed sources such as HuffPost and independent.co.uk.”

            So, yeah, biased headlines, “factually mixed sources”.

            • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Numerous?? It cites five over the past five years, and they’re small errors that don’t change the overall point of the article and that to my understanding The Guardian later corrected. You have to know that the amount of articles The Guardian has put out in five days – let alone five years – turns that figure into a rounding error.

              Please explain how they could possibly have the same accuracy rating as Breitbart.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      Example of a “failed” fact check for The Guardian:

      “Private renting is making millions of people ill with almost half of England’s 8.5 million renters experiencing stress or anxiety and a quarter made physically sick as a result of their housing, campaigners have said.”

      OUR VERDICT

      A survey found almost a quarter of private renters agree that housing worries have made them ill in the past year. This doesn’t mean the sickness was specifically caused by renting privately as opposed to any other type of housing situation.

      This was an article entirely about stress and anxiety. Ignoring that stress and anxiety have physical effects on the body, the only way someone could conclude that the article was about like, toxic apartments and not stress and anxiety was if they failed to read the article at all and instead just read the headline and made up an article in their head.

      Such obviously agenda driven nitpicky bullshit is why people don’t respect the bot.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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        1 month ago

        Correlation is not causation. I had my first heart attack when I was renting. It wasn’t BECAUSE I was a renter. You literally cannot say someone is experiencing stress because they’re a renter, that’s a stretch.

        They could be experiencing stress by their overall socio-economic status which is also a reason they are renting, not the other way around.

        I had my 2nd heart attack as a home owner. Again, my status as a renter or owner has nothing to do with it.

        • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 month ago

          “Renters experience stress and anxiety over renting to the point of illness” is not code for “and homeowners don’t feel any and are all perfectly healthy.” The only way to read it that way is if you’re trying to manufacture “fact checks” (or defend them, I guess). Same energy:

          They could be experiencing stress by their overall socio-economic status which is also a reason they are renting, not the other way around.

          Oh, do you think that if the article about stress from renting mentioned that financial problems contribute to that then it would make that fact check unfair?

          Because it does.

          Renters on average spend 41% of their income on housing costs, more than any other tenure, official figures show.

          Polly Neate, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “A whole generation of children risk growing up surrounded by this constant stress and anxiety. This cannot go on.

          • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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            1 month ago

            Again, correlation is not causation.

            They aren’t stressed because they’re spending 41% of their income on housing, they’re stressed because of their low socio economic status which causes them to spend 41% of their income on housing.

            It’s a symptom, not a cause.

            Again, they’re putting the cart before the horse and MBFC correctly points out what they’re trying to say is factually false.

            • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 month ago

              This is actually a great example for how the bot actively discourages critical thinking, as it seems you have started from your conclusion (MBFC is correct), worked backwards, and apparently have not even read the article or anything I’ve said in response to you.

              They aren’t stressed because they’re spending 41% of their income on housing, they’re stressed because of their low socio economic status which causes them to spend 41% of their income on housing.

              Wow, I wonder if the article mentioned any other factors, like no-fault evictions and poorly maintained apartments, in the second paragraph?

              You keep talking about there being other factors like that wasn’t entirely what the article was about. Furthermore, almost every single one of those statements was about what advocacy organizations are claiming. Reporting what they are saying is factually inaccurate? Come off it.