Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Gauging the Truth in the News

Currently more of a nugget of an idea than anything else, but I would love to see an app or service, similar to shazam, so that when I hear a news report on one of the major networks, I can see their reference materials and ideally as much information from their sources.  As it is unlikely that anyone could absorb all of that information in real-time, users could book mark stories that they are interested in following up on, and at a later time the app would allow them to look back on stories.

Future iterations could start to account for statements made by major political candidates, using services like politifact and (ideally) alternative data sources, a user could ask about candidate A's accuracy in presenting the facts on the benefits of space exploration budgeting.  On another day users could see if candidate B has changed their stance on fossil fuel subsidies and whether or not those changes are a closer match to their own.  Truly wishful thinking would be that the app/service could provide a reasonable estimate on how likely Candidate C is to actually stick to their campaign promises, I would only find this feature acceptable if it clearly communicated any publicly stated rationals behind why that stance was changed, or why they didn't vote for that initiative.  Politics is a messy game and it should not be trivialized to make people feel better.

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