
Chomsky on Google's contribution to 'fake news' - sideshowb
Excerpt from video for those who, like myself, prefer to read:<p>Google talk interviewer: “How do you think Google can and should handle the fake news problem? We have a big hammer. We’re looking for nails.”<p>Chomsky: &quot;Well, by not contributing to it.&quot;<p>&quot;See, advertising’s a very interesting phenomenon. Any of you who’ve taken an economics course know that... the marvels of the market that we’re supposed to admire and worship are because the market is based on informed consumers making rational choices... Turn on your television set. Do you see efforts by corporations to create... informed consumers making rational choices? Is that what you see when you see an ad for cars? If we had a market system... when General Motors is advertising a car, what you would see is a list of the characteristics of the car, along with a report by Consumer Reports saying what’s wrong with it and so on... But you don’t see that.<p>&quot;Huge amounts of capital are expended every year to try to undermine markets... by creating uninformed consumers making irrational choices; and driving them to consumerism...<p>&quot;That’s what ought to be taught in economics courses: massive efforts by the business community to undermine markets.&quot;<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=2C-zWrhFqpM<p>The Canary reported this though ironically with so many ads you can hardly see the article https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thecanary.co&#x2F;2017&#x2F;07&#x2F;04&#x2F;noam-chomsky-flips-the-debate-about-fake-news-on-its-head-in-a-room-full-of-google-staff-video&#x2F;
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sparkling
What a bunch of nonsense on so many levels.

What does advertising have to do with fake news? What does advertisement
having to do with a "informed consumer"? Yes, GM does not run ads listing all
the technical specs of their cars, because that is not what consumers are
interested in. For most people, buying a car has largely something you do with
personal taste, gut feeling and overall appeal. Technical specs of cars in a
given price range are more or less all the same across all brands, so the only
way to differentiate is to appeal to the consumers gut feelings.

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owebmaster
> What does advertising have to do with fake news?

You need surface to display ads. Fake news is this surface and Google/Facebook
take a big cut of their revenue from it.

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sideshowb
This is an interesting secondary phenomenon you point out, that could be
helped (not entirely fixed) by disabling google ads on known fake news sites.

Still, the primary issue is that the ads themselves are biased and google
makes its living from them. Until Google diversifies more from ad revenue it
will always have conflicted motives when it comes to removing bias.

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babyrainbow
>by creating uninformed consumers making irrational choices; and driving them
to consumerism...

I am not sure. Isn't this a well known and intended effect of the Ads and PR
stunts?

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sideshowb
Yes of course. What are you not sure about?

