Unfake Fake News
by Miki SaxonFake news. People everywhere in the US and in all walks of life are talking about it.
There’s no question that fake news is subversive, whether created by humans or driven by AI.
But what about unfake fake news as served up by mainstream and new media alike?
Think you’ve never seen it?
Sure you have.
Frequently in financial reporting.
From CNBC: Twitter rockets more than 20 percent after the company reports first-ever net profit.
From BI: Snap crushed Wall Street’s revenue targets in its fourth quarter, as it filled its Snapchat app with more ads than ever and tapped into a broader group of consumers.
From US News: Tesla Finally Gives Investors Good Earnings News.
Wow! Based on the above headlines they look like great bets to contribute to your retirement.
Maybe.
But before investing your hard-earned dollars you might want to see what the same information looks like sans spin, hype and OMG.
Consider the information, often buried in euphoric media hyperbole, kind of like the fine print in a warranty or lease.
From Recode: Achieving profitability was one of the company’s [Twitter] main goals in 2017, and one of the big reasons it laid off 9 percent of its workforce in late 2016, and then sold off its developer business and shut down its video app Vine. Investors like profitable companies, and so do potential acquirers.
From TechCrunch: Snapchat’s big redesign will reach all users during Q1 2018, up from 40 million users currently. It was due to be fully rolled out by now but that has been delayed following poor reception in countries like the U.K., Australia and Canada. Amongst some of the first users to review the update, 83 percent of App Store reviews were negative, citing a confusing interface, ads mixed into the message inbox via Stories and people who don’t follow you back getting pushed into the Discover section.
From the New York times: The company [Tesla] lost $1.96 billion for the full year of 2017, nearly three times its loss of $675 million in 2016. The company has never made a full-year profit since it went public in 2010.
So what would unfake/unspun headlines look like?
KG sent along some hilariously accurate examples.
Caveat emptor, indeed.
Image credit: Kate Mereand-Sinha