The Journalism Jam. The Problem they Created

Since 2016 the hot button topic throughout news and social media is how the Russians affected the last Presidential Race in favor of the dishonest Donald Trump over the dishonest Hillary Clinton, through their use of BOTS and other algorithms to generate news stories. While that is true (in fact we have ourselves have been involved in many countries elections, trying to sway them into a more favorable outcome. Just during the Obama Administration the United States was deeply involved in the Israeli Election against Netanyahu and the Brexit Vote which we tried to vote down. Both failed.), Russian bots completely infiltrated FACEBOOK as well as TWITTER (reports out earlier this week suggest INSTAGRAM has Russian meddling), we have to ask why and how have BOTS become about.

Sadly we don’t have to far from our own media sources.

WIRED magazine ran a four part series on NEWS WRITING BOTS last February [2017].

In 2013, Amazon Billionaire, Jeff Bezos bought the floundering Washington Post. At the time Bezos had zero journalism experience (and some say still doesn't. But how many owners of companies today really know the businesses they own?) and immediately set out to overhaul the Post. And to be fair has done just that. In three years The Post has exploded and has become more susceptible for the digital age. However here inlies the [beginnings of] the problem.

THE RISE OF BOTS.

Back in 2013 AI-Journalism was in infancy with only a handful of companies actually generating automated content. Producing bare-bones data more useful in the sporting world and for stock analysts. Bezos’s strategists, though, saw something more. Seeing potential for AI systems to begin data mining story ideas in effort to provide a more seamless interaction between humans and computers. And in 2014 started evolving stories in a short period of time.

ENTER HELIOGRAF

Debuting during the RIO OLYMPICS Heliograf began auto-publishing stories that had a stronger editorial voice than some of their writers on staff. Heliograf works like this: Editors create templates for stories using key phrases, which then the AI would generate narratives for whatever potential outcome. This way news outlets could have stories ready to go at a moments notice and be first to publish. Because in today’s age of journalism, it’s not about the accuracy but who’s first with the story that counts. With AI Bots, the potential of constant reversals and gaffs would almost be eliminated. Not only that, news services could tailor their on-line and print media to a larger market by developing stories in every market rather than just a few and not having to employ thousands of journalists to do it. And in the cash strapped world of media this was a win-win.   

As the 2016 Presidential Election came rolling around it was a no brainer for the media to let loose their newest creation for fast stories. And in 2016 the Washington Post was not alone in the AI News game. With the likes of Systems called WIZZBIT, NEWSTRACER, and most noteworthy BUZZBOT. Just to name a few.

In theory, as well [at times] in practice, AI algorithmic prediction tools help journalists gauge the integrity of say a tweet. The technology then scores emerging stories on the basis of “credibility” and “newsworthiness” by evaluating who’s tweeting about it, how it’s spreading across the network, and if nearby users have taken to Twitter to confirm or deny breaking developments, collect any information from on-the-ground sources at news events. The AI then can create short videos, condense news articles into a script, string together a selection of images or video footage, and even add narration with a synthesized newscaster voice.

So it’s no wonder that hackers from the Russia and/or China or North Korea would take great pains in infiltrating this. With AI data mining what people are looking at, a staff of hackers the size of less than a small business office could create thousands of false stories via tweets and social media posts that then the story writing algorithms would generate and post stories.

In the 2012 election it took twenty-five hours for human journalists to compose a small fraction of election results whereas in 2016 AI posted more five hundred articles in the same amount of time. Most of it hit the web with little to no human supervision.

When the news media lives on HOW MANY CLICKS A POST CAN GENERATE and how easy it is for a group of hackers can infiltrate systems (The Democratic Committee and the SONY hack to just name two) no one stopped to say “wait a minute?”

AI is a good tool for writers in media. It can find relevant data far faster than a person can. But replacing PEOPLE with BOTS is both ridiculous and stupid. And until the media and we ourselves figure that out we are store of more and more of this.

In the end, what we [America] called that most needed thing, an unbiased media will, and some says already, be destroyed and burnt to ash.  

Election 2016: Bernie Sanders v The DNC

Apparently the DNC isn't Feeling the Bern.

The Sanders camp filed paperwork on March 26, 2016 to continue their ongoing lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee over the incident from 3 months prior. Bernie Sanders arguing that the DNC barred his campaign unfairly from accessing voter information and how to reach potential democratic voters that is contained in the 50 STATE VOTER FILE that the DNC keeps.

The DNC contends that a campaign staffer for Sanders improperly accessed data that was for the Hillary Clinton campaign. (Sanders officials did admit that the access occurred and that it was done by mistake do to a glitch in the DNC server) Because of this event the DNC suspended the Sanders people from the server and list of voters at a critical time in December. The two groups came to a resolution a day later and Sanders was once again allowed to use the DNC data.

Although it didn't end there.

The Sanders Campaign files suit stating that the Democratic National Committee over reacted and harmed their ability to campaign equally against Clinton's. Also, Sanders lawyers are saying that the DNC is supposed to give notice of suspension prior to acting. Something that Sanders claimed never took place.

Both the DNC and the Sanders Campaign say things are going smoothly between the two, with Marc Paustenbach, the DNC Press Secretary, telling Political that "productive discussions" are under way for a settlement (Sanders is seeking $75,000 in damages) despite the accusations from critics of favoritism of Hillary Clinton and how that Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Shlutz, was the 2008 campaign co-chair for Clinton. Sanders' people and supporters also criticize Shlutz of having only 6 Debates between the two candidates and holding most of them on weekends where viewership would be low and would benefit the Clinton Campaign.

Shlutz flatly disputes the accusations, saying in an interveiw with FOX NEWS "There is just no shred of evidence to suggest that I'm favoring Hillary Clinton..." Shlutz goes on to say that if was then she isn't doing a very good job at wrapping up the nomination for Clinton. 

White Collar Crime: Toys R Us gets Embezzled

If you walk into any Toys R Us facility whether it's a store or distribution center you can expect that there is that magical eye in the sky, big brother watching your every move, from customer to employee. You can also expect that there is a security guard wondering the area as well. This fact is most noticeable in the DC's where there are cameras on walls and posted on pillars throughout; uniformed security people making rounds to keep the goods safe from thieving hands even if those "suppose" thieving hands are that of the people they pay to load and unload and store their goods on shelves. With all of TRU's efforts to keep thieves at bay, maybe corporate should turn their suspicious eyes inwards, towards themselves.

Reuters reported on March 23, 2016 that Federal Authorities arrested one of Toy R Us's company directors of transportation for inbound and oubound freight. The director, according to the complaint filed, allegedly loaded the company's ECASH card  (ECASH cards are sort of like a company debit card) with funds that were suppose to go to truck driver accounts to be used for things like meals, lodging and repairs. The complaint claims that the director, whose name has been withheld, withdrew funds 117 times over the past three years (starting in May 2013), using ATM's both here in the U.S. and in Europe. The director is also said to have transferred $600,000 directly into his bank account over the same period of time. In total it is believed that up $2m had been taken.

Toys R Us released a statement saying:


"Because this is an active investigation, we are limited in what we can say publicly at this time. However, we can tell you that integrity is at the center of all that we do at Toys R Us..."

TRU's statement goes on to say that upon discovering that a criminal act had occurred that they immediately contacted law enforcement.

However, this isn't the first act of this type of white collar crime to hit the TRU family. In September 2011 Toys R Us manager in Britain, Paul Hopes, embezzled $6m in funds to pay for sexual services. Hopes is currently is serving a 7 year term behind bars and has been ordered by British courts to pay back the stolen funds.

Hopes was a purchasing manager with TRU for 23 years.

Employees at one of the company's District Centers, speaking anonymously do to the fact that it is against policy rules to use social media and talk about the company, jokingly stated that they have been asking for higher wages "...now we know why they [TRU] keep turning us down."