Facebook Manipulating Posts – Again?

In response to the story that broke about Facebook curators censoring military, religious and conservative posts, I wrote this on FB this morning:

After the story broke about Facebook censoring posts, I have to re-think keeping my FB account. I had noticed a number of posts that I had shared simply disappearing, especially if they had a military or conservative slant. As a former journalist, and a patriotic American, I find this kind of behavior unacceptable.

I have enjoyed interacting with my friends and family on this site, but my continued use of it implies an endorsement of the curator’s behavior, as well as FB management.

In light of this information, as well as their past acknowledgement of manipulating feed posts for a study they did a year ago, I think it is time for me to focus my activities on other social media sites.

In my opinion, either Facebook doesn’t care about people with differing opinions leaving their site, or they are so arrogant they can’t see the forest for the trees.

For readers who were unaware, Facebook admitted to manipulating feeds over a year ago for a study they were doing.  Readers were either overwhelmed with negative news or positive news in their feeds.  Their timing of the study was horrible – the holiday season.  I wonder how many people with depression were affected by this poorly designed and executed study. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/28/facebook-manipulated-689003-users-emotions-for-science/#791bdf3b704d)

Facebook is operating as if people cannot function without it, and that it doesn’t matter how badly they treat their users.

As with all people and entities with a God Complex, eventually they will fall, and fall hard.  People don’t like being manipulated, no matter what their stripe is.

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The Boston Globe or Boston Brickbat?

‘Deportations to Begin’ – Boston Globe ‘fake’ main headline

The April 9, 2016 Boston Globe issue that panned Donald Trump was a waste of time and paper pulp.  I’m surprised that they didn’t use red print for the headline.

A once-great paper has fallen so far from grace that I don’t think anyone could pull it up again.  The editorial board has torpedoed the paper like a North Korean nuke in the ocean.  Gone is the era of journalistic integrity and reporting a story.  It has been replaced by the ridiculous in order to entertain the poorly read masses.

Did the paper forget that April Fools Day was April 1st?

It is important to note that this fake front page appeared in the Opinion section of the paper.

‘US Soldiers refuse orders to kill ISIS families’

Attention-grabbing headlines, such as the above, were intended to shock and persuade.

Military families were surprised that they were being used as a pawn in the Boston Globe’s efforts to persuade voters in the upcoming election.  This was another example of political correctness going so far into the woods it fell into a creek and drowned.  Thank you, Boston Globe editorial board for being  deaf, blind and offensive.

‘Markets Sink as Trade War Looms’

One of the principal rules of journalism is to ‘know your audience’ – something the Boston Globe either forgot or never learned.

The Boston Globe seemed to presume that everyone who read their paper had no working knowledge of US or world markets.  Maybe they hoped that their readers had never taken an Econ 101 class in college or at the very least, learned about it in high school.  If their readers are as poorly informed as the editorial board believes, this headline would be a real shocker.

Binary traders take note – the Boston Globe is predicting the market’s future, and you can make a killing!

More silly Boston Globe headlines:

‘Curfews Extended in Multiple Cities’

‘President Trump calls for tripling of ICE force; rioting continues’

‘Bank Glitch Halts Border Wall Work’

I understand that many newspapers are struggling to make a buck.  So many people read blogs to get their news and rarely give a thought to whether a blogger has the credentials to deliver unbiased news.  Everything and everyone is fair game, name calling has reached new heights in absurdity, and readers who dare to disagree with any of it will be drowned or burned in a cage- a la ISIS justice.

Satire has its place, but it doesn’t belong as a mock front page in a widely-read newspaper. It should have been used for a front page of a college paper’s April Fools edition.

A future headline of the Boston Globe may very well be:  Final Edition

RIP Integrity