
These two youngs are making $40k+ a month with fake political news - elyase
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article116118398.html#fmp
======
yolesaber
These people are honestly scum, representing the apotheosis of cynicism in
politics and media. If Facebook had any shred of credibility left they'd shut
them down now after this article.

~~~
ng12
Exactly -- I don't understand why they agreed to be interviewed. People riding
a profit wave usually don't announce to the world that they're frauds.

~~~
blunte
I think they are so disgusted with the system, they're trying to say "fuck it
all" and grab some cash and hopefully hasten the crash and burn of the "modern
media".

~~~
yolesaber
That was the impression I got as well - after all this has all the hallmarks
of some Bennington grad's "social experiment" \- but they went about it in the
worst way possible. Rather than say satire or even their own reportage, they
simply lied and raked in the dough.

Unfortunately the media isn't going anywhere. NYT, who got it so wrong when it
mattered the most, added 41k net subs in the week following the election

------
zaphod12
This is literally the saddest article I have ever read. I really don't know
what's worse - how many people believe what these folks say or that we've
built the platform that gave them a voice. Did anyone become an engineer to do
this to humanity? Sure they aren't the first, but it's just so damn easy, now.

~~~
erikpukinskis
I wish more techno-utopians would take note of this. I says so as a techno-
utopian myself.

We are building tools that take power away from entrenched interests and give
that power to just about anyone. I think that's a good thing on balance. But
just how good or bad it is depends heavily on the details. And as an engineer
or a designer or a product person of any kind, we get to decide which people
we use as the prototypical user that we keep in our head and use in testing to
get our services up and running.

If we just skip that, and throw the tools out there and see what happens, we
get, among others, people like those in this article.

I think it's very valuable to think about what kind of journalists we _do_
want to enable, and take the time to go see how they are doing. Is my tool
working for the kind of people it is supposed to? Are there little things I
can do to make sure they are effective?

Too many engineers and designers act like they're just putting a product on
the shelves and their decisions aren't political, but every decision is
political. It's just a question of whether you take the time to understand the
political effects.

~~~
gdulli
> We are building tools that take power away from entrenched interests and
> give that power to just about anyone. I think that's a good thing on
> balance.

Well the "entrenched interests" knew at least that putting a demagogue sexual
predator in power would be a bad thing. That's a win in their column off the
bat. Perhaps having elites preserve the status quo in Washington, while not
ideal, at least leverages their knowledge of history that not all voters have
and keeps us from driving off a cliff.

Mitt Romney or Hillary Clinton can only work towards their own self-interest
within the boundaries of staying accountable to voters and preserving the
power (and reputation) of their respective parties. The nihilistic short-term
profit-seeking of fake news is not accountable to anyone.

------
clydethefrog
Inspiring! Taking the advice of many SV heroes before them, those who
disrupted the world with just a computer and savvy entrepreneurship. And they
didn't even need venture capital to become succesful! I bet a BTC or two they
read Zero to One - wonder what Thiel thinks of them. Probably regrets he
didn't give them a fellowship when they were still wasting their potential on
university among luddites.

~~~
cheez
I don't understand the need for such heavy sarcasm.

------
jressey
Fine, it's clever. I'll give them that. They can go fuck off down the river
though.

------
CM30
As someone who's seen a lot of journalists and honest news websites struggle
to make money (one I frequent makes about $70 a month on Patreon at the most),
seeing these scumbags making $40,000+ a month for rushed together articles
about lies is just utterly depressing.

Makes you wonder what the point of actually doing researching or writing
interesting stuff is nowadays. Why bother when actual work doesn't make money
and flat out lying to people does?

But hey, I guess that's what the world wants now. Content that merely backs up
their own beliefs, regardless of how true/accurate it actually is.

------
jankedout
Imagine when algorithms (something like
[https://www.narrativescience.com/](https://www.narrativescience.com/)) start
producing these stories instead of slow humans.

~~~
dTal
There will be a lag period where everyone believes nonsense, and then
hopefully everyone will catch on that inflammatory, low-content articles are
usually lies, and maybe even start fact checking a little more so as to avoid
looking stupid. And the world will be a slightly smarter place.

I can dream?

------
cylinder
How are these sites monetizing so well? Is it really just Outbrain type stuff?
How do they grab traffic when starting from zero?

What are the best sites / forums these days for keeping up to date on content
publishing and monetization? (No, not interested in "fake news," but I do have
interest in publishing). I know there were some prominent forums back when I
was publishing 10 years ago but where should I begin to get caught up?

~~~
quirkafleeg
The site is linked in the article, just look at what they're doing and how
they're doing it.

Since they're scumbags, and since it hilariously pops up "You are not allowed
to copy content or view source" when pressing CTRL+U, I won't link to their
site here, but this instead:

    
    
        view-source:http://www.libertywritersnews.com

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mrep
I'm surprised so many people are shocked about this.

Has nobody seen what ESPN has become because it's the exact same thing:
opinion pieces with no real content because that's what gets more views as it
adheres to the lowest common denominator and is much cheaper to produce.

It's also analogous to reality TV taking over television.

~~~
untog
ESPN is _not_ the exact same thing. Yes, ESPN has taken a turn to lighter,
fluffier content that is simpler to produce. They are not in the business of
creating an entire media business dedicated to misleading people.

~~~
mrep
I'll admit that was an over exaggeration and ESPN is not nearly as bad.

However, would you not agree that most media has been regressing towards the
lowest common denominator with the least amount of effort put into it?

~~~
untog
Absolutely. Because there's no money in doing anything else. ESPN is behind
many, but is facing this reality more and more.

------
cpks
I like the caption: "Liberty Writers News founders Paris Wade, left, and Ben
Goldman work at their apartment in Long Beach, Calif., on Nov. 14, 2016.
Stuart Palley For The Washington Post"

It flows like a single sentence.

------
TheSpiceIsLife
Forget nuclear armageddon.

Humanity will destroy itself via social media.

Social Media has caused more harm than nuclear weapons _ever_ will.

------
brilliantcode
say you are reading an article, what is the best way to gauge the authenticity
of the article and how to make the user actually give a shit about it's
validity?

It surprises me people read fake news on FB knowing it's false but upvote or
share it because of crowd effect-lot of shares & likes must mean it's
legitimate.

This is a major loss of confidence in Facebook, at first dow right denying the
existence of fake news, now announcing half measures to kill their own user
engagement. It boggles my mind such company is somehow more valuable than
incumbent tech giants with more cash than facebook will ever earn in it's
lifetime.

------
randyrand
Just curious, is this exclusive to republicans? Anyone seen the leftist fake
news?

~~~
serge2k
[http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/11/21/breaking-fec-rocks-
do...](http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/11/21/breaking-fec-rocks-donald-trump-
with-massive-campaign-finance-scandal-details/)

presented as "BREAKING: FEC Rocks Donald Trump With BIG Fraudulent Donation
Scandal (DETAILS)"

you can find loads of this shit from both sides, see
[http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/](http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-
feed-red-feed/)

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kristianp
"These two youngs"? "Youngs" is not a word. Please update the title. The title
of the article is: "The stories, headlines and bylines are fake. But the money
pouring in is very real".

~~~
kristianp
ok, I got downvoted due to excessive snark I guess. However my point still
stands, the HN title is not really within the guidelines (not to mention
ungrammatical). "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is
misleading or linkbait.".

~~~
quirkafleeg
It deserved upvotes if anything, so I gave it one, and this one, as I think
you're quite right.

Leaving aside "youngs", (the submitter probably has English as a second
language, but it looks silly and should have been corrected), "These [certain
group] are making [big money figure] doing [unusual thing]" is itself textbook
clickbait style.

