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Why Presidential Debates Need Real-Time Fact-Checking

Ryan J. Thomas The Conversation
Candidates can get easy applause by lambasting journalists. Nevertheless, as a scholar concerned with the critical functions journalism fulfills in a democracy, the author argues that the highest imperative for journalists is to serve the needs of audiences and the democratic process for critical information. Journalists moderating presidential debates must function as journalists.

I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.

John Bohannon Io9
If a study doesn’t even list how many people took part in it, or makes a bold diet claim that’s “statistically significant” but doesn’t say how big the effect size is, you should wonder why. But for the most part, we don’t. Which is a pity, because journalists are becoming the de facto peer review system. And when we fail, the world is awash in junk science.

Streets of New York - The Subway

Photoessay by David Bacon THE REALITY CHECK - David Bacon blog
New York has a real subway. Seems like anywhere I want to go is walking distance from a station. There are 421 of them, so it figures they're close to almost anywhere along its 656 miles of tracks in four boroughs. The great thing about the subway is the people. New York is so diverse - it feels like you're seeing people from everyplace on earth in just a few subway cars. I see people tired from work, having trouble keeping their eyes open, or sometimes just asleep.

books

Culture After Google

Emilie Bickerton New Left Review #92 (Second Series), March-April 2015
Anatomy of a cultural product with the potential to ameliorate social inequities but threatened by digital corporate conglomeration and hijacking by the security state. Book covers the implications for cultural democracy in various sectors-music, film, news, advertising-how battles over copyright, piracy and privacy laws have evolved, counterpoints to invasive data-mining and a "People's Platform" supporting the politics of a fightback.

Friday Nite Videos -- February 20, 2015

Portside
Pussy Riot - I Can't Breathe. Elizabeth Warren: Vaccines Protect Children. The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords. Another Day, Another Time: The Music of 'Inside Llewyn Davis'. Does Bill O'Reilly Have His Own Brian Williams Problem?

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords

A  powerful and engaging account of American history that has been virtually forgotten: the story of the pioneering black newspapermen and women who gave voice to black America. 

Ranking Colleges - Truth Behind the Scoop - US News & World Report vs. Washington Monthly vs the U.S. Dept of Education

By Ellen Dannin, with Richard Lempert Employment Policy Research Network (EPRN)
The Department of Education is creating its own college ranking system based on access, affordability and performance. US News and World Report has long been aware that it uses a deeply flawed system for assessing colleges' educational quality. In 1997, the National Opinion Research Center. The NORC study found, '...the current approach is that the weights used to combine the various measures into an overall rating lack any defensible empirical or theoretical basis.'

After the Charlie Hebdo's Massacre - Support Those who Fight the Religious-right; "There is no way they will make us put down our pens."

Secularism is a Women's Issue; Karima Bennoune
The tragic massacre in Paris will undoubtedly give fuel to the traditional xenophobic far-Right and the danger is an increase in racism, marginalization and exclusion of people of Muslim descent in Europe and further. We do not want to witness "anti-Muslim witch hunts". One way to commemorate this terrible event and memorialize its victims is to unequivocally defend universal human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, and they apply to all.
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