Lies of war and more, Factcheck.org, The Status Kuo, better than takeout, and beauty in the fall
October 19/2023
What’s Going On?
This headline recently caught my attention:
“The Israel-Hamas war shows how social media has given up on facts”
Here is an excerpt from the above Business Insider article posted on October 18, 2023:
The Israel-Hamas war is the first major event where social media's new fact-light approach is on show, and there's been a wave of false information on the platforms.
Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist at BBC Verify, has been tracking some of the worst examples on X. Reading these, it's easy to see how social media can divide people during difficult times.
One recent post showed soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo holding the Palestinian flag. In fact, it was a Moroccan footballer from a 2022 video. The social media account posed as a BBC journalist to share this misinformation for engagement.
Another post purported to show video of rockets fired by Hamas toward Israel. It was actually from the Syrian war and was originally shared online in 2020.
A graphic video, viewed nearly 500,000 times, claimed to show a military convoy of Hamas militants being targeted by an Israeli missile. The clip was really posted online in 2019 and filmed in Syria.
Another widely shared post claimed to show footage of Hamas or Israel faking the killing of a child by the other side. The video was actually footage from a film posted to TikTok in 2022.
Here is another excerpt from the perspective of the head of a social media company, in this case, Instagram:
"Politics and hard news are important, I don't want to imply otherwise," Instagram boss Adam Mosseri wrote in July. "But my take is, from a platform's perspective, any incremental engagement or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let's be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them."
The article also notes that social media companies have significantly cut their fact-checking staff and shared the following advice from “famous cyber-security hacker” Marcus Hutchins:
"Journalists may think they're countering misinformation by debunking it, but often they don't fundamentally understand the ecosystem," he wrote this week. "When you interact with a post (even to debunk it), you boost it in the algorithm, causing the original to spread further."
In other words, it is not worth correcting misinformation by interacting with a post that contains misinformation.
How sad is that?
What to Do?
Read legitimate news sources with a history of credibility.
Here are a few to start with, in no particular order:
Fun fact: C-SPAN is a private, non-profit organization that has never failed a single fact check in the past five years from mediabiasfactcheck.com.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/trust-news-sites/
Always share news via posts with links to legitimate news sources so your friends/readers know that the info is legit.
When sharing news about a current event, don’t do it via a meme!
Memes are for jokes or clever sayings, okay?
And, don’t watch Faux News. Well, I had to say that, right? 😉
Need to check a fact? Use FactCheck.org.
Overall, Factcheck.org is a least biased credible fact-checker that is Very High for factual reporting due to impeccable sourcing of information.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/factcheck/
What to Read?
Okay, so I am not doing well as to getting through my self-imposed booklist. And now, I have another book that a good friend recommended to me that I put at the top of the list. Stay tuned!
In the meantime (I seem to have been saying that a lot as to my book recommendations), I have another Substack writer to recommend.
His name is Jay Kuo. Here is a bit about his newsletter:
The Status Kuo provides accessible political and legal analysis. In crazy times, a little clarity goes a long way! Subscribe to get my email in your inbox. And if you can afford it, become a paid supporter to keep me from having to take a law gig.
And here is a brief bit about Mr. Kuo, also from his Substack site.
Admitted before the Supreme Court and 9th Circuit. A.B. In Political Science (Stanford) J.D. (UC Berkeley). Board member, Human Rights Campaign. CEO of The Social Edge. Composer of Allegiance on Broadway. (link to Allegiance mine)
I am finding that reading The Status Kuo, along with reading Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter that she writes from a historian’s perspective, is helping me better understand what the heck is going on with our world these days. Well, especially since the infamous administration of 45 became a reality.
For more about The Status Kuo, see https://statuskuo.substack.com/about.
While I am on the topic of political information/education, another great resource is Dan McCool’s Blue Revolution political page and the affiliated Blue Rev group on Facebook. You may remember that I quoted him at the end of the first section of my previous newsletter.
To learn about Blue Revolution, first go to the page:
https://www.facebook.com/BlueRevolution2020
From there, you can hit the Visit Group button, and then - I think you can ask to join. If not, let me know in the comments or via emailing me wendydennis@substack.com (Or PM me if we are FB friends) and I will invite you to join the group.
If you are a hardcore Republican, just ignore all this and read on to learn about a cool recipe I just tried. 😊
What's Cooking?
Sesame Chicken! Better than take-out! Really!
I finally had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs on hand AND, finally, at the same time, remembered that I have been wanting to try the recipe for Sesame Chicken that I came across at some point on Budget Bytes, which one of my favorite cooking sites.
I made Easy Sesame Chicken exactly as written* and it was great!
*Okay - one caveat. The recipe says to cut the thighs into 1 inch pieces. I just went with “bite-sized” pieces, with some closer to 1.5-2 inches. It worked just fine.
Note: feel free to add additional seasonings. I think I may add some hot sauce the next time I make it, even though the dish is not typically spicy - at least that I have seen on menus. But making it yourself means you can expand the flavor boundaries.
I forgot to take a picture, but you can see what it looks like on the website.
Also, I recommend reading through the details that come before the actual recipe if you are not used to using an egg and cornstarch batter. I am glad I did!
What Else?
Beauty in the fall. Even with the less vibrant colors due to the excessive rainfall during the spring and summer, the vistas are still beautiful in the New Hampshire Lake Sunapee/Dartmouth area. And other areas, I am sure. But I can only attest to how it looks where I live.
I am so thankful for all things beautiful, wherever they can be found.
This picture was taken at a northbound rest area off Route 89 between Sutton and Lebanon NH.
Be kind,
Wendy