'It just exploded': Springfield woman claims she never meant to spark false rumors about Haitians; NBC News, September 13, 2024

Alicia Victoria Lozano , NBC News; 'It just exploded': Springfield woman claims she never meant to spark false rumors about Haitians

"The woman behind an early Facebook post spreading a harmful and baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating local pets that helped thrust a small Ohio city into the national spotlight says she had no firsthand knowledge of any such incident and is now filled with regret and fear as a result of the ensuing fallout...

Newsguard, a media watchdog that monitors for misinformation online, found that Lee had been among the first people to publish a post to social media about the rumor, screenshots of which circulated online. The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, said she heard about the attack from a third party, NewsGuard reported. 

Newton told Newsguard that Lee’s Facebook post misstated her story, and that the owner of the missing cat was “an acquaintance of a friend” rather than her daughter’s friend. Newton could not be reached for comment."

Laura Loomer’s Greatest Hits; NewsGuard's Reality Check, September 13, 2024

NewsGuard's Reality Check; Laura Loomer’s Greatest Hits

"Loomer has initiated or promoted 17 of the provably false narratives on significant news topics in NewsGuard’s catalog of False Narratives.

Conservative commentator Laura Loomer has been in the headlines this week amid reports that she has been a regular on former President Donald Trump’s campaign plane and has steered him toward promoting conspiracy theories. These include the debunked claims of Haitian migrants abducting and eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.  

Loomer’s claims have long been a subject of interest at NewsGuard. Here’s what we know:"

Fake news, social media, and "The Death of Truth"; CBS News, September 8, 2024

Ted Koppel, CBS News; Fake news, social media, and "The Death of Truth"

"Brill said, "We're at a point where nobody believes anything. Truth as a concept is really in trouble.  It's suspect."

The cumulative impact of the lies and distortions just keeps growing, such that Brill titled his new book "The Death of Truth." "There are facts," he said, "and it used to be in this world that people could at least agree on the same set of facts and then they could debate what to do about those facts.

But we're losing our grip on any sort of shared reality. Brill's company, NewsGuard, is attempting to put the brakes on. Its 40 or so staffers around the world identify and rate the credibility of online news and information sources."

Video Clip: The Death of Truth; C-Span, June 9, 2024

 C-Span; Video Clip: The Death of Truth

"Steven Brill, a journalist and NewsGuard Co-CEO, talked about his new book on online misinformation and social media, and their impact on U.S. politics and democracy."

NewsGuard Wants to Fight Fake News With Humans, Not Algorithms; Wired, August 23, 2018

Issie Lapowsky, Wired; NewsGuard Wants to Fight Fake News With Humans, Not Algorithms

Kip Currier: I just heard veteran journalist Steve Brill talking about a new information assessment tool called NewsGuard on MSNBC program Andrea Mitchell Reports. Brill delivered this money quote on how NewsGuard provides evaluation of often-visited Internet sites by human (translation: not AI!) experts:

"That's what librarians have been doing since the invention of the library." 

--Steve Brill, August 24, 2018,
Andrea Mitchell Reports Program, MSNBC

[Excerpt]

"The patchwork nature of promoting trustworthy sources online has had the unintended consequence of seeding fears of bias. 

That's one reason why a group of journalists and media executives are launching a tool called NewsGuard, a browser plug-in for Chrome and Microsoft Edge that transcends platforms, giving trustworthiness ratings to most of the internet's top-trafficked sites. Those ratings are based on assessments from an actual newsroom of dozens of reporters who comprise NewsGuard's staff. They hail from a range of news organizations, including New York Daily News and GQ. Together, they've spent the last several months scoring thousands of news sites."