We’ve had some trouble recently with posts from aggregator links like Google Amp, MSN, and Yahoo.
We’re now requiring links go to the OG source, and not a conduit.
In an example like this, it can give the wrong attribution to the MBFC bot, and can give a more or less reliable rating than the original source, but it also makes it harder to run down duplicates.
So anything not linked to the original source, but is stuck on Google Amp, MSN, Yahoo, etc. will be removed.
Jordan, please look at the ‘Factual Reporting’ metric. They consider both of them to be ‘MIXED’, and as @[email protected] correctly points out, the sorts of few-and-far-between “fact checks” performed on The Guardian are complete nitpicks, while Breitbart is outright a disinformation outlet, peddling climate denialism, anti-vaxx, and other things that make it – based on what you said earlier – a source that isn’t credible enough to be posted to this very community.
The Guardian is much more factually accurate than “MIXED”, and Breitbart is much less factually accurate than “MIXED”, yet somehow they elevate Breitbart while dragging The Guardian’s credibility through the mud.
(To be clear, though, I still think what you guys are doing with this change is a huge improvement.)
That’s not the overall rating though, which is why Breitbart is Questionable and the Guardian is not.
Jordan, please elaborate: in what world does The Guardian have “MIXED” factual reporting and have “MEDIUM CREDIBILITY”? I really want to know why you think either of those ratings even remotely comport with reality.
(Also, “Questionable” is way, way too lenient for Breitbart.)
It’s even worse when you compare their final comments/summaries…
I mean, it’s all right there on the page:
“Mixed for factual reporting due to numerous failed fact checks over the last five years.”
With cited examples:
"Failed Fact Checks
The proportion of lung cancer cases only diagnosed after a visit to an A&E ranges from 15% in Guildford and Waverley in Surrey to 56% in Tower Hamlets and Manchester. – Inaccurate
Private renting is making millions of people ill. – False
“The number of children needing foster care has risen by 44% during the coronavirus pandemic, creating a “state of emergency,” a children’s charity said.” – False
915 children admitted with malnutrition in Cambridge hospitals between 2015 and 2020. There were 656 similar admissions at Newcastle hospitals and 656 at the Royal Free London hospitals. – False
Nine percent of parents surveyed say their children have started self-harming in response to the cost of living crisis. – False"
Medium Credibility stems from this:
“In review, story selection favors the left but is generally factual. They utilize emotionally loaded headlines such as “The cashless society is a con – and big finance is behind it” and “Trump back-pedals on Russian meddling remarks after an outcry.” The Guardian typically utilizes credible sources such as thoughtco.com, gov.uk., and factually mixed sources such as HuffPost and independent.co.uk.”
So, yeah, biased headlines, “factually mixed sources”.
Numerous?? It cites five over the past five years, and they’re small errors that don’t change the overall point of the article and that to my understanding The Guardian later corrected. You have to know that the amount of articles The Guardian has put out in five days – let alone five years – turns that figure into a rounding error.
Please explain how they could possibly have the same accuracy rating as Breitbart.
It cites 5, numerous means there are many more, but these are the cited examples.
They don’t have the same accuracy as Breitbart, again, Breitbart is Questionable and is on their list of fake news sources, the Guardian is not.
Then why does it list them on the same tier for “Factual Accuracy”? It calls the ranking “Factual Accuracy”, as in literally the extent to which they get facts right. And those are “MIXED” for both sources.
Because there’s more to a rating than factual accuracy.
For example:
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/10/10/chris-wallace-harris-has-plateaued-trump-is-now-a-slight-favorite/
“Chris Wallace: Harris Has ‘Plateaued’ — Trump Is Now a Slight Favorite”
Yeah, that’s factually accurate. Chris Wallace did, in fact, say that.
“I’m hearing this from top Republicans and top Democrats, that Harris seems to have stalled out a bit in the last couple of weeks. You know, she had a great rollout, great convention, very successful debate, but she seemed to have plateaued. One top Republican said two weeks ago, I would’ve said that she was a slight favorite. He said today I’d say Trump is a slight favorite.”
He was quoting some un-named source, he didn’t make that assertation himself, which makes the headline dishonest, but those words did come out of Wallaces mouth.