The unique perspective and provocative opinions of Joe O’Neill
Media Matters
No surprise that Facebook has already been besieged by misinformation that gives people the wrong details about when, where and how to vote.
Meanwhile, Facebook is preparing steps to take just in case an election-losing Trump wrongly claims on the site that he had actually won. They include the possibility of a “kill switch” to shut off political advertising after Election Day.
It’s well within the journalistic purview of media forums such as daily newspapers to include input from the other side of the political spectrum. That’s what op eds and letters to the editor are for. That’s a subset of free speech. Hear from the other side. And these days they’ll likely out themselves with obvious mischaracterizations and fact check-vulnerable misinformation. But nobody has an exclusive on the truth. Having said that, the Tampa Bay Times—battling bottom lines and an eroding reader base like never before—has taken to frequently outsourcing editorial input—most notably to the Wall Street Journal–that reflects a non-progressive point of view. That includes lead editorials. Hugh Hewitt is tough enough to take, but the recent WSJ take on Trump “disruption” was an insulting exercise in rationalization, revisionism and sophistry. Yes, we are noticing.