— Shelby Foote, born on this date in 1916
This Italian-language mafia story should appeal to every crime film fan. The participants include corrupt politicians, established mob families, upstart moneylending clans and innocent bystanders. Stefano Sollima, a prolific director of crime dramas on Italian television, keeps a tight grip on the multilayered storyline, and the result is exciting and credible.
This Italian-language mafia story should appeal to every crime film fan. The participants include corrupt politicians, established mob families, upstart moneylending clans and innocent bystanders. Stefano Sollima, a prolific director of crime dramas on Italian television, keeps a tight grip on the multilayered storyline, and the result is exciting and credible.
The ten-part series is a spin-off of Stefano Sollima's 2015 film Suburra, inspired by the novel of the same name by Giancarlo De Cataldo and Carlo Bonini.
The storyline, which has echoes of Rome's Mafia Capitale case, follows the murky collaboration between criminals, politicians and property speculators, all looking for their cut in a luxury real-estate development in the Ostia district along the capital's coastline.
*Binging on Suburra Suburra is a razor-sharp political thriller set in Berlusconi's Rome
Trump's Pocahontas remark about Sen. Elizabeth Warren this week was miscalculated ...
Welcome
to 1984, I love Big Brother
Called “Police Cloud,” it appears to be a project of the Ministry of Public Security, which issued a regulation in 2015 aimed at enhancing nation-wide information sharing through provincial-level police cloud-computing centers. Chinese authorities are collecting and centralizing ever more information about hundreds of millions of ordinary people, identifying persons who deviate from what they determine to be ‘normal thought,’ and then surveilling them.
Called “Police Cloud,” it appears to be a project of the Ministry of Public Security, which issued a regulation in 2015 aimed at enhancing nation-wide information sharing through provincial-level police cloud-computing centers. Chinese authorities are collecting and centralizing ever more information about hundreds of millions of ordinary people, identifying persons who deviate from what they determine to be ‘normal thought,’ and then surveilling them.
A
Robert De Niro Theory of Post-Truth: ‘Are you talking to me?’
Colin
Wight, University
of Sydney
As Orwell knew only too well, if the concept of objective truth
is moved into the dustbin of history there can be no lies. And if there are no
lies there can be no justice, no rights and no wrongs.
Paul Ormerod - Economic Theory Meets 21st Century Cyber Society
It's a symbol of
diminished media ambition, reduced resources and institutional amnesia that
even the Chicago Tribune relegated to just four paragraphs at the bottom of
page 23 word that the International Criminal Court in The Hague convicted Gen. Ratko
Mladic, the "Butcher of Bosnia," of genocide and war crimes
Mladic was once a
notorious international figure and regular subject of the paper's coverage when
it possessed global and national ambitions. The bloodiest saga in Europe since
World War II was a regular page one story, with many dispatches
from actual correspondents and its Washington bureau. Unhappy Serbs regularly
demonstrated outside the paper over its Bosnia coverage.
Christine
Spolar, who covered the war for The
Washington Post and, later, the Tribune, woke up and saw the verdict on Twitter
"and I just stopped everything I was doing. And cried. And kept breaking
down that morning before work, crying off and on for a good hour."
"If you look at
my tweets, I shared a story I wrote in 1996 about the search for the bodies ...
To be honest, I forgot to send out the actual stories that helped start the
search for bodies ... because the day of digging for the bodies by Physicians
for Human Rights is still a very strong image/memory for me. It hit all the
senses and I stayed at the graveside/pit for hours and hours." Here's
that story.
Blogging Trends: Typical Post Length and Publishing Frequency
The Paradise Papers show accountancy firms are engaged in wilful and organised hypocrisy
Kafka in Greece: a struggle against tax bureaucracy
No, there's no reason to think DeVos is planning to resign, contrary to viral news storieshttps://t.co/dJ0fV2GIFS #stopbsl #endbreedspecificlegislation #dogrescue #dogpic.twitter.com/CczD8gn8as— Fido (@FidoK9Awareness) November 13, 2017
Facebook fact-checking fail?
The Guardian interviewed fact-checkers working with Facebook to debunk fake news, and the news was not good. "Largely failed" and "exploited their labor" were part of the narrative. "Just isn't working," says Mashable. Facebook promised "another update on our progress" to a Fortune writer. (Disclosure: The International Fact-Checkers Network verifies Facebook's third-party fact-checkers.)
The Guardian interviewed fact-checkers working with Facebook to debunk fake news, and the news was not good. "Largely failed" and "exploited their labor" were part of the narrative. "Just isn't working," says Mashable. Facebook promised "another update on our progress" to a Fortune writer. (Disclosure: The International Fact-Checkers Network verifies Facebook's third-party fact-checkers.)
Fact-checking: Antidote to poisoned elections
The data team of the Daily Nation in Kenya used numbers to fight misinformation about election issues. Their effort will "begin to help the voter focus more on issues than personalities," said the editor.
The data team of the Daily Nation in Kenya used numbers to fight misinformation about election issues. Their effort will "begin to help the voter focus more on issues than personalities," said the editor.
9 quick fact-checking links
(1) Ukraine vs. U.S. fact-checking: What's the difference? (2) The International Fact-Checking Network has launched the "Check It" video series on best practices in fact-checking. (3) It's fake news that President Trump watches fake news. (4) PolitFact is coming to the State Journal-Register. (5) This Fox News fact-check "infuriated" viewers. (6) Facticity is our new favorite word. (7) For those of you who complain about gaps in government data, here's a lesson from Argentina. (8) The Trust Project is partnering with news outlets and platforms like Google and Facebook to label stories with "trust indicators." (9) Please welcome Zoe — the world's newest future fact-checker — who arrived this week to the delight of new parents Alexios and Silvia!
Fighting fakery: Whose job is it?
No one is better situated to fight digital misinformation than professional journalists who work with social media every day. But that's not happening in many news organizations today. Newsroom social media teams are due for a redesign — one that would include more fact-checking, debunking and accountability, according to a new American Press Institute report. Read the Poynter interview here.
Quote of the week"Truth hasn't been obliterated, much as they would like to try, politically. Truth is as important as it ever was. But it's important to remember truth is not something that's just handed over to us. It's something that is investigated, it's pursued, it's sought after.” — Filmmaker Errol Morris in the Hollywood Reporter
The European Union needs you
The EU has a new strategy to stop the spread of fake news: Ask for help. The commission is putting together a group of experts who will suggest a plan of attack by next spring. Ideas are due by February.
The EU has a new strategy to stop the spread of fake news: Ask for help. The commission is putting together a group of experts who will suggest a plan of attack by next spring. Ideas are due by February.
Tips for classrooms and newsrooms
Laura Zommer of Chequeado talked with La Nacion about quick ways to spot sketchy content on websites. ... Channel One News has a "fake news" quiz and a list of resources for anyone trying to teach and learn about fact-checking.
Laura Zommer of Chequeado talked with La Nacion about quick ways to spot sketchy content on websites. ... Channel One News has a "fake news" quiz and a list of resources for anyone trying to teach and learn about fact-checking.
How can we keep misinformation from ruining elections?
Block social media, says the election commission of Somaliland. The group asked phone companies to block access to about a dozen platforms in advance of this week's elections, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Block social media, says the election commission of Somaliland. The group asked phone companies to block access to about a dozen platforms in advance of this week's elections, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Add these to your reading list
The “Checkpoints” chapter in John McPhee’s new book will be “assigned and reassigned by grateful writing teachers” for years to come. ...Poet and critic Kevin Young's book with the exhaustive title "Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News" is out this week.
The “Checkpoints” chapter in John McPhee’s new book will be “assigned and reassigned by grateful writing teachers” for years to come. ...Poet and critic Kevin Young's book with the exhaustive title "Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News" is out this week.
Fact-checking lessons for law enforcement
Can toddlers overdose on fentanyl by touching the handles of a shopping cart contaminated by the drug? No, but at least one police department sent a warning to citizens before someone explained that it's "fake news."
Can toddlers overdose on fentanyl by touching the handles of a shopping cart contaminated by the drug? No, but at least one police department sent a warning to citizens before someone explained that it's "fake news."
Tracking a viral rumor — and what to do next time
It should have been an easy rumor to debunk. But instead the "fake news" that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was about to quit her post swept social media, and the few attempts to quash the rumor were rather unsuccessful. Education writer Alexander Russo breaks it down.
Jane, Daniel, and Alexios (in spirit)It should have been an easy rumor to debunk. But instead the "fake news" that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was about to quit her post swept social media, and the few attempts to quash the rumor were rather unsuccessful. Education writer Alexander Russo breaks it down.
State
secrets: how Australians use FOI.
The first nationwide leaderboard shows who let the dog eat their FOIs. Part of Australia’s Open Government Partnership commitments, the idea is to promote transparency by showing a general picture of the current state of play.
The first nationwide leaderboard shows who let the dog eat their FOIs. Part of Australia’s Open Government Partnership commitments, the idea is to promote transparency by showing a general picture of the current state of play.