California Lawmakers Propose Bills to Teach Students to Identify ‘Fake News’

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A couple of California legislators introduced bills to counter “fake news” by teaching high school students the ins and outs of detecting stories that are misleading or outright inaccurate.

The problem is, though, in the wording of the bill — which reveals the true intent of its sponsors.

California state Senator Bill Dodd

Specifically, the bill’s all about censoring speech, not countering fake news.

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It’s about shutting down dissent, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience in the public square. In other words, it’s about totalitarianism — and that it’s sponsors are Democrats is no real surprise.

From the Guardian:

In northern California, state senator Bill Dodd proposed a measure that would ask the state education board to create a “media literacy” curriculum. His proposal would incorporate training in social science courses from first through 12th grade and try to teach students critical thinking, independent research and “digital citizenship”.

“The rise of fake and misleading news is deeply concerning,” Dodd said in a statement. “Even more concerning is the lack of education provided to ensure people can distinguish what is fact and what’s not.”

“By giving students the proper tools to analyze the media they consume, we can empower them to make informed decisions,” he added.

In Los Angeles, assemblyman Jimmy Gomez introduced a separate but similar bill that would bring “civic online reasoning” into student curriculums. His bill would incorporate critical thinking skills into a range of courses, including English, science, math and history, for grades seven through 12.

Gomez warned that the 2016 election showed “the corrupting effects of a deliberate propaganda campaign driven by fake news”.

“When fake news is repeated, it becomes difficult for the public to discern what’s real,” he said in a statement. “These attempts to mislead readers pose a direct threat to our democracy.”

He said he hoped his measure would help young Californians discern “between news intended to inform and fake news intended to mislead”.

In November, a Stanford University study found that 82% of high school students surveyed could not distinguish between a reported news story and an advertisement. During last year’s election, rumors and false reports spread widely, and in the aftermath of the vote partisans began to accuse each other of propagating “fake news”.

President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump have both denounced “fake news” in recent weeks, to different purposes. In November, Obama warned that democracies would be threatened by the spread of misinformation and false reports, and by the discrediting of once trusted news sources. This week, Trump seized on the phrase “fake news” to characterize unsubstantiated allegations about him, blaming BuzzFeed and CNN in particular.

Tessa Jolls, president of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Center for Media Literacy, said that such measures were long overdue. “Now that powers have shifted, with citizens as producers [of information], people are suddenly saying, ‘Oh wow, this is something we need.’”

Jolls said that no single curriculum was perfect but that Americans should start thinking about “core questions” when they consume any kind of media, whether it’s news stories, viral videos or social media rants. She suggested that an ideal curriculum would teach students to ask about the motives behind a posted clip and what effects it might have on others. “Do they decide this is gossipy and great, so I’m going to share it on social media, or do they think this could hurt somebody, so I’m not going to share it? We really need to consciously address these decisions.”

Jolls added that in recent years, many Americans had lurched from trusting the news too much toward distrusting everything. The goal of objectivity had created “an impossible standard”, she added.

“What we want is skepticism, not cynicism,” she said. “Cynicism is when you don’t believe anything. Skepticism is when you have discernment, judgment you can rely on.”

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Suresh
Suresh
5 years ago

sue them out of existence……….or they will continue their fascist intimidation to shut down conservative free speech.

This is how patriots fightback and win http://tinyurl.com/y8yzso88

762x51FMJ
762x51FMJ
5 years ago

More Americans get their fake news from CNN, than from any other unverified source.

I was at a customers home just last week and the leftist had CNN on… April Ryan accused Trump of running death camps on the Mexican border Just like Israel is doing to the innocent Palestinian children…she said Trump is an Orange Nazi.,
She also claimed that anywhere in the world when a baby cries it is doing so because of Trump.
She then claimed millions of women are going to die because Roe vs Wade is going to be overturned.. even though many other precedents have been set in separate rulings linked to roe vs wade making it nearly impossible to directly overturn.
She said they are going to find out who voted for Trump the Orange Nazi and they will send AntiFa soldiers to their homes and schools and dox them and kill them and their families if necessary.

This is allowed on TV but should someone say
” Thou shall not kill” they are banned from social media platforms and kicked off the air.
Even saying have a nice day, is worthy of being banned because it doesn’t fit their narrative that
The USA is a miserable place, with lynchings and cross burnings in everyones back yards millions of innocent americans are being burned alive and the only way it can end is if Trump is impeached so vote for the Southern Democrats who embraced the confederacy.

Dont look at the man behind the curtain, it is the great OZ, he says bring me the broomstick of the wicked Republican witch…
Sorry that honor has been reserved for Hillary she is after all a Southern Democrat..

Jerry Snaper
Jerry Snaper
5 years ago

Fake education, its propaganda at extreme:
http://www.nysedregents.org/globalhistorygeography/Archive/20100817-gh-examw.pdf

See page 12, 13
Document 2
. . . Wherever they went, the Moslems brought with them their love of art, beauty, and learning.
From about the eighth to the eleventh century, their culture was superior in many ways to that
of western Christendom.
Some of the finest centers of Moslem life were established in Spain. In Cordova, the streets
were solidly paved, while at the same time in Paris people waded ankle-deep in mud after a rain.
Cordovan public lamps lighted roads for as far as ten miles; yet seven hundred years later there
was still not a single public lamp in London!
Some Spanish Moslems had homes with marble balconies and courts with lovely waterfalls.
Bedrooms were vaulted with stained glass and speckled with gold. And metal pipes carried water
into marble baths.
Nearly every mosque had a public school in which the children of the poor were taught. Many
Moslem libraries were excellent; the catalogue of one caliph’s library filled forty volumes. In
addition, the followers of Mohammed achieved much in science, particularly in chemistry,
astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. . . .
Source: Daniel Roselle, A World History: A Cultural Approach, Ginn and Company (adapted)
2 According to Daniel Roselle, what are two ways Islam improved the lives of people in Spain? [2]

Achmed Mohandjob
Achmed Mohandjob
5 years ago

Ten large a month wouldn’t come close to covering my tab at the club. What would be interested in small peanuts, such as that?

Alleged-Comment
Alleged-Comment
5 years ago

What a dumbass! This is about recognizing LIES and ignoring the truth. Who the uck would ever believe this nut??

aemoreira1981
aemoreira1981
5 years ago

Well, it also requires that one recognize the difference between pure-play news, and opinion talk. Trump has difficulty differentiating the two.

Alleged-Comment
Alleged-Comment
5 years ago
Reply to  aemoreira1981

Huh? They are the same thing. You really need to stay home and not go to schrewl.

aemoreira1981
aemoreira1981
5 years ago

Contrary to popular belief, there IS a difference.

Keith1941
Keith1941
5 years ago

If the news media would just do their jobs, honestly, there would be no need for this. I know that is a utopian thought, there would be no need for another useless class being taught. Just glad I’m out of that “sinking” state.

jrrrr
jrrrr
5 years ago

The “core question” is how does the human mind differentiate objectively derived facts, accurately representing _the_ reality, as “knowledge,” from the errors of an imaginatively created alternate reality, representing the errors of fake news. That process is the way human beings survive and thrive, using objectively derived knowledge to correctly predict the success of human action as well as the refutation of errors that will inevitably lead to the calamities of failure. (Other animals use knowledge/error-free “instincts” to do the same. )

Any fruitloop that contradicts this life preserving analysis with the stupid idea that precisely this “goal of objectivity” which is the entire point of differentiating _knowledge_ from _errors believed to be knowledge_, the latter being the sole origin of fake news, and then concludes precisely this goal of objectivity has “created an impossible standard” is creating fake news themselves.

Not surprising to read the one pushing “the goal of objectivity as an impossible standard” is a politician, as “error misrepresented as knowledge” is the origin of political propaganda, as well as fake news.

R. Arandas
R. Arandas
5 years ago

The left also sometimes publishes “fake news”.

NonIslmophobicAthiestPedoHater
NonIslmophobicAthiestPedoHater
5 years ago

Tell them to not watch any media known by initials for names. Easy.

Or stick to the cartoons and drink the kook aid like good little pea brained California graduates are taught to do from birth.

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