Hello World, As many of you have probably noticed, there is a growing problem on the internet when it comes to undisclosed bias in both amateur and professional reporting. While not every outlet can be like the C-SPAN, or Reuters, we also believe that it’s impossible to remove the human element from the news, especially when it concerns, well, humans.
To this end, we’ve created a media bias bot, which we hope will keep everyone informed about WHO, not just the WHAT of posted articles. This bot uses Media Bias/Fact Check to add a simple reply to show bias. We feel this is especially important with the US Election coming up. The bot will also provide links to Ground.News, as well, which we feel is a great source to determine the WHOLE coverage of a given article and/or topic.
As always feedback is welcome, as this is a active project which we really hope will benefit the community.
Thanks!
FHF / LemmyWorld Admin team 💖
Browsing world after a few weeks:
Mods, I appreciate this bot!
Deciphering media bias is tough, and finding 1 site that will ‘perfectly’ identify biases is an impossible task, but at the minimum having this bot show up on posts ‘gets people thinking’ about the credibility of their news sources.
MBFC doesn’t have to be the ultimate arbitrator either. If it is missing something about a specific article people can call it out in the comments. At the end of the day, the worst thing it does is add more data about a news source and I’m not gonna complain about that.
Thanks! MBFC isnt perfect, its made by humans and in their free time.
It’s not perfect, why is this being pushed as an arbiter of truth?
removed by mod
As always feedback is welcome, as this is a active project which we really hope will benefit the community
So this wasn’t true huh?
Cause people are trying to give you feedback and the response from you guys have been.
Well we don’t care what you think! We are doing this no matter what!
Cause people are trying to give you feedback …
The feedback is “MBFC BAD, DELETE IT, ITS A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY”
No improvement idea? No… thats NOT feedback, thats just crying around.
Something like MBFC NEEDS to be here, not all mods can fact check each and every news page and inform the users with it. ( This would probably get the same shitstorm like this because “THE MOD XYZ FACT CHECK IS BAD, BAN HIM, HE IS A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY” will come up too )
So what would you recommend? That is doable for free and no one dislikes it? ( Deleting the bot is NOT an option )
If you have a better Fact Check page you trust let me know, i would LOVE to implement that into the bot.
We were already thinking about making a “public” open source github repo where people could contribute their fact checks and trusted people review it. ( BUT this will get the same shitstorm like the previous 2, because some people have something against their news page being (in their eyes) “wrongly” fact checked and marked.Do you see the trouble the “MBFC BAD ewww” and no resolution is causing here?
Please in the love of god ( or not god ) use the block button. I will lock these posts if shitpost comments like these are still coming.
Sry, i am a little pissed, that no one sees the block on their website/app.
the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source — https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feedback
No, it does not need to be here. Deleting the bot is absolutely an option. Refusing to reconsider your decision is childish.
You are demanding people use a block button for something that has discourse about implementing at all.
Are you being paid by them to add it? Seriously? I get that you are pissed at you are the moderator. You signed up for this job and that means being in a position that requires talking to and listening and leading the community.
This is just immature and incredibly unnecessary. It’s not a propaganda blocking tool you implemented but a bot that links to a website that lets people make immediate bias judgements before they even interact with other people.
Do you see the trouble demanding this is what’s best is doing?
You’ve clearly chosen a side and demand that everyone bend to it. Lock the post and lock the sub. You clearly don’t want to be here.
We added the possibility for users to use the newly added context how they want it or not.
And you overexaggerated how much impact it really has on people. I have the feeling i am speaking with just some peoples alt here, just my suspicion.
Like said, if you dont like it block it. Like with everything else on the platform. Dont get you angry over a bot.
I love the info it provides. I agree with many here that it’s too long. I think putting everything behind a spoiler tag that simply shows the rating would be a step in the right direction.
Everything that can be hid behind a spoiler is already in there. The rest is partially because of an agreement with MBFC.
What kind of agreement?
That if we use their api (for free) we need to have a link to MBFC.
Ty for clarifying this.
I think it’s a bad move to automatically throw mbfc links under every post. It will cause people not to engage with the substance of a link and instead provide a (literal) shortcut to that links trustworthiness. Further, mbfc itself has a bias against Palestine as other replies have pointed out among other markers of a problematic source of truth.
There is no need for an alternative to mbfc either, because even if there existed some site which perfectly aligned with the political moment and lemmy world position on that moment it would still be bad idea to have a bot replying to every thread with weather the mods agree or not.
A better way to implement what this new practice seems to be aimed towards is to drop the pretense of impartiality, develop a platform and line and use the mod tools against people who don’t align with it.
We alligned with the mods. Thus we activated it only on certain communities.
There is sadly required or the “discussion” will end like a bomb hit the comments.
With a third party they can at least have a reference and wikipedia + ground news
yeah the problem seems to be that during an election year news and politics discussion boards wither need a huge mod staff or a very clear platform and party line in order to avoid being overwhelmed by people discussing things.
i don’t think any amount of leaving a smattering of links in the comment section is gonna stop that. at best it will derail every post into a discussion of how screwed up mbfc is and how underhanded it is to include it by default.
since world already has a huge mod staff my comments recommended dropping the pretense of impartiality and just outright saying “this is the understanding of the world youre expected to have in order to comment here. if you don’t you can be subject to moderation.”
Another idea I’ve been thinking about that would help get the wall of text “out of the way”…:
If the credibility is “High” or higher, have the bot downvote itself to allow other comments to float to the top
If it’s “Mostly Factual” or lower, have the bot upvote itself to help call attention to the possible issue.
…alternatively, if “High” or higher, wait for the first reply before having the bot comment.
I don’t know if any of this is even possible with bots; just spitballing…
The wall of text we will reduce in the next update. The others we will discuss with the team.
Cool - I’d love to know the outcome of the discussion even if it’s just “Not technically possible” or “No; it’s a terrible idea because <X>”
Bot: Hmm this article reflects reality, thus it is biased to the left.
Using charged language like that constitutes disinformation and is reprehensible. Imagine if viewers started disregarding a source on account of your bot declaring it biased.
Shameful.
That’s not how the bot works.
You’re right, it just copies a right-wing human’s opinion, and blurts it out in a format that takes way too much space, and pretends to be without bias.
You know, ban material.
Ground News Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [**High**] (Click to view Full Report)
Ground News is rated with High Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.
Bias: Least Biased
Factual Reporting: Mostly Factual
Country: Canada
Full Report: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ground-news/Check the bias and credibility of this article on Ground.News:
- https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fground.news%2F%29%2CMedia Bias/Fact Check Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [**High**] (Click to view Full Report)
Media Bias/Fact Check is rated with High Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.
Bias: Least Biased
Factual Reporting: Very High
Country: United States of America
Full Report: https://mediabiasfactcheck.comCheck the bias and credibility of this article on Ground.News:
- https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmediabiasfactcheck.com%2F%29Media Bias/Fact Check Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [**High**] (Click to view Full Report)
Media Bias/Fact Check is rated with High Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.
Bias: Least Biased
Factual Reporting: Very High
Country: United States of America
Full Report: mediabiasfactcheck.comCheck the bias and credibility of this article on Ground.News:
- https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmediabiasfactcheck.com%2F%29
Media Bias Fact Check is a fact-checking website that rates the bias and credibility of news sources. They are known for their comprehensive and detailed reports.
Thanks to Media Bias Fact Check for their access to the API.
Please consider supporting them by donating.Beep boop. This action was performed automatically. If you dont like me then please block me.💔
If you have any questions or comments about me, you can make a post to LW Support lemmy community.Just testing how many checks it makes and on what and where. Not sure what triggers it or where.
Edit: forgot to say, thank you!
It triggers on posts, not on comments.
This is awesome. Thank you!
This is awesome!
Does this consider the bias of who runs MBFC?
Its a human. Like every page.
So no?
I mean the data is all there for you to look at and experts who have looked at it have agreed it is minimally biased. If you want something that is unbiased, then you’re out of luck, every human has bias. If you believe all experts are biased, you’re also right, but they’re way less biased than someone being paid to be biased. So like everything, you can’t wait forever for perfection, and anyone who tells you they are perfect and totally unbiased is likely the most biased, anyway.
What data? They have a methodology but don’t make any of what they actually complie for rates public.
It’s a bias rating system based on 1 guys bias
The data is there, too. The data is there for every rated organization. It has the history and funding of the individual media plus links to related media organizations that are funded and controlled by the same sources. It has political activity and endorsements made by the organization. And it has a list of failed fact checks and other related issues which are links to external fact checkers. If you read the methodology, this is the data it uses for each rating and all of it is there.
They have that listed but they have big bias when doing the final conclusion and overall ranking.
As others have pointed out some sources mbfc don’t like will have high fact checking with no failures, but then lower credibility ratings.
But the information is all there for you to make your own decision. What other outlets are there that have 0 bias? At least this one has all the info gathered and even if you take the ratings themselves with a grain of salt, it is the best source available at the moment.
As I mentioned above, there’s no such thing as an unbiased person, product, or organization. You take what is least biased, apply common sense, and consume responsibly. No one is going to force feed you all the information without bias on any subject, even if they do their best to be unbiased. Expecting perfection or nothing at all, gives you nothing at all in almost all aspects of life.
expert to have looked at it have a greed it is minimally biased
Who are these experts? Source please
I think this is so stupid.
I swear it’s a “centrist” libertarian idealism that you are gonna find all the biases of the publication so that you feel superior for not falling for any of them.
To a degree things should make you feel an emotional response and to not and think yourself better for not, makes you falsely superior.
I get it for making sure that propaganda isn’t posted but that’s more of what general community moderation is for is it not?
I dunno, I definitely don’t think it should be so prominent. I barely think it’s needed. Maybe people could call to the bot to check for them? But putting privately decided political leaning on every post just seems like needless segregation that allows for people to immediately ignore that and the conversation that can be had from it.
Excellent work, admins!
Putting some site in charge of determining what news is valid just means that site controls the bias. I like the wide mix that we get now. Partisan commenters are more of a problem than bias in the sources. It’s best when there are informed commenters who point out issues. Sometimes we have them, though not always.
A timely article about why this type of “rating” is a really bad idea:
The most chilling words today: I’m from NewsGuard and I am here to rate you by Jonathan Turley.
The guy is a Trump / Musk supporter, he’s half the problem as it is.
While I have criticized Trump in the past, I have also objected to some of the efforts to impeach or convict him on dubious legal theories.
Yeah, those 34 duuuuubious felony convictions!
Turley has written a lot about the NY trial and his analysis looked ok to me. IANAL of course. But, those convictions didn’t seem to change Trump’s polling noticeably. We will see what happens with Harris.
Thank you for putting this into place!
I hate this and have already blocked the bot.
Comments are obscenely long, and I see no reason to trust your source.
Thats yours, we endoresed every to block it when you dont like it.
