Elon Musk shares fake news about England rioters being sent to Falklands | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk shares fake news about England rioters being sent to Falklands

theguardian.com

20 pointstaylodl17 comments

So that explains why my feed filled with all these Brits overnight.

This really reads like a badly disguised hit piece against Elon, doesn't it?

The guy posted something he thought was real, then deleted it when it turns out it wasn't.

Then the writer goes on to mention he "hasn't apologized" and "continues sharing material criticizing the UK government and law enforcement authorities' responses to the riots".

Why does he need to apologize? Oh no, he made a mistake - going by that logic, the Guardian's owners should publicly apologize to all their readers if they get anything wrong. I doubt they do. I would assume they put little "addendums" underneath articles - knowing full well that anybody who has already read the article isn't going back to read it a second time to check for corrections.

And then they list further "hit-piece-y" tidbits about criticisms about how he's run the platform, how companies have decided to leave, how he's suing advertisers...

I don't like the guy for his attitude and demeanor, but come on, it's so clear this was written by someone who needed to get an article out before a deadline.

Is the Guardian located in the same place the riots are happening? It would make more sense I guess, since the riots are affecting the publisher directly, but still...?

> guy posted something he thought was real, then deleted it when it turns out it wasn't

Difference between memory holing and retracting.

> Why does he need to apologize?

Because he fucked up in a stupid way with material consequences. And because he's facing impending Ofcom regulations that makes it stupid to needlessly piss off Westminster right now.

> Why does he need to apologize? Oh no, he made a mistake

That's why he needs to apologize. Decent people apologize for their mistakes, and it's particularly important with people holding huge megaphones.

> going by that logic, the Guardian's owners should publicly apologize to all their readers if they get anything wrong.

Absolutely. Whether or not they actually do, I have no idea, but that would be proper behavior. I see other news outlets doing it all the time.

> This really reads like a badly disguised hit piece against Elon, doesn't it?

No.

> the Guardian's owners should publicly apologize to all their readers if they get anything wrong

What, you mean they should publish corrections and clarifications in an easy to see way:

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/series/correctionsan...

You mean they should be aware of their own history and publish that too:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/12/guardian-200-t...

> I doubt they do.

Why doubt? Why not simply see for yourself.

Putting corrections in a link that nobody realistically sees or cares about is not publicly apologizing.

It's hiding your mistakes because realistically 99% of the population who reads news doesn't care about the corrections.

That's a strange way of admitting that you're wrong.

Maybe you can issue some corrections and clarifications. Show us how it's done.

> I doubt they do.

See, your problem here is media literacy.

They do (sometimes) but in such a way that almost no one sees them, especially online.

If a tree falls in the forest..

If you don't see a tree falling that's on you.

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/series/correctionsan...

Nobody seeks out corrections and clarifications.

Nobody meaning, 99% of the population that reads news.

And some people cannot even admit they're wrong about claims they made up, despite them being trivial to check, and such people even sometimes double down on that mistake and make up more false claims.

Is it any wonder such people defend Musk for his ignorance and childish behavior?

How about demonstrating how one should admit being wrong and offer a correction, since that is what you're complaining others don't do properly.

To clarify then,

The Guardian and many other newspapers of record admit their mistakes and publish corrections despite your claim that they do not.

Got it.

They sometimes do, but they publish it in a place where no one reads it, perhaps by design. They could publish it to the front page, especially if the original article was front-page.

Elon has also admitted many mistakes in the past especially around tweets. You can find these easily if you listen to all his podcasts and appearances but again most people don't and the corrections gets far fewer views than the original spicy take.

It's more similar than you want to admit.

It's called media literacy. If you don't know where publications publish their corrections, then that's on you.

Media literacy sounds about as useful as a phd in astrology

The riots are (or were, they seem to be calming down now that some of the leadership has been arrested and the foot soldiers are seeing that it’s maybe not just a bit of fun but something that might have serious consequences for them) nationwide.

Like, if he’s too stupid to fact-check extraordinary-sounding things being tweeted by a prominent neo-fascist before promoting him, he probably needs adult supervision of his twitter account.

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