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Comment by felixgallo | Hacker News Reader

Right, the government and advertising industry conspiracy is working through gizmodo to secretly pump up Covid and libel the Russians. Got it.

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No need for a secret cabal. Journalists have political preferences, which will affect their reporting: https://ballotpedia.org/Fact_check/Do_97_percent_of_journali...

journalists having political preferences may shade their reporting, but it's a stretch to suggest that it causes them to act in conspiracy to exaggerate the impact of Covid or to make up stories about Russian troll farms impacting the election.

In fact, Covid vaccines were important, are still important, and Covid is not a cold or a flu; and Russian influence on politics did happen, is happening, and will happen. All of these things are extensively documented with facts and evidence. That they are now also partisan warfare topics is not a reporting problem but a right wing media and leadership problem.

A stretch? Nearly every single outlet was clinging to the notion that Trump's victory was the result of russian interference in the election. Even after the investigation showed like, $150k? in ad spend associated with russia netting a laughable few million "impressions" on facebook.

Where have you been the last 8 years?

ad spend was the least of it, of course.

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber/russian-interference-in-201... https://www.npr.org/2020/08/18/903616315/senate-releases-fin... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/17/truth-abo...

also, interesting how you minimize via 'a few million'.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook...

If you've ever achieved a few million views in Facebook you would appreciate that it is laughable that it can meaningfully move any needle. I figure most people would stand by that assertion.

if you had read the article before reacting to it, you would have known that the estimated number was 140 million, not 'a few', and that the russian troll operation got viewed (and, troublingly, promoted by Meta owing to its engagement metrics) by almost half of Americans.

Cool so we agree you've never tried to purchase sufficient views to move a needle

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