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News Sources Evaluated. (This web page may be expand as new information is revealed to the blogger.)

News Sources Evaluated. (This web page may be expand as new information is revealed to the blogger.)

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When I started researching news sources I was surprised to find a number of web sites that presented large page boxes showing where major sources fit within their box according to horizontal and vertical criteria – rather clever!  You can view some different website boxes next.

WEBSITES THAT REVIEW NEWS SOURCES.  THE RESULTS ARE SHOWN IN PART BY SHOWING YOU GRAPHICAL BOXES – CLEVER:

 

SELECTED NEWS SOURCES:

  • MSNBC. “MSNBC is a news and political commentary organization that has been the focus of several controversies. It has been accused by academics, media figures, political figures, and watchdog groups of having various biases in their news coverage as well as more general views of a liberal bias. Most of these controversies took place during the 2008–2015 era.” Wikipedia. MSNBC is Score Card’s favorite evening new show because it is dedicated to protecting Democracy and thus not supporting Donald Trump

 

RECOMMEND PODCASTS:
The following list of podcasts does NOT come from any independent source but from this blogger, Score Card.  There are so many podcasts that it is hard to make recommendations based on independent reviews.

 

NOT RECOMMEND AND ALLEGEDLY FLAWED NEWS SOURCES:

  • FOX NEWS.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News
    “Fox News has been characterized as a propaganda outlet. Its coverage has included biased reporting in favor of the Republican Party, its politicians, and conservative causes, while portraying the Democratic Party in a negative light.  Critics have argued that the channel is damaging to the integrity of news overall.[“. Wikipedia
  • SINCLAIR BROADCASTING GROUP
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
    “The company is the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations.”
    “The company has been criticized by journalists and media analysts for requiring its stations to broadcast packaged video segments and its news anchors to read prepared scripts that contain pro-Trump editorial content, including warnings about purported “fake news” in mainstream media, while Trump has tweeted support for watching Sinclair over CNN and NBC.”

Truth Social has been described as an alt-tech[4][5][6] social media platform. Such platforms are popular among the alt-right, far-right, and others who espouse extremism or fringe theories, often because they employ less stringent content moderation than mainstream platforms.”

Review by FORBES John Brandon, Senior Contributor. “I Finally Tested Donald Trump’s ‘Truth Social’ App And Here’s What I Discovered:  it’s essentially Twitter for conservatives, my one big surprise is that it appears to be an app designed to promote a future Trump campaign.”

 

NEWS BIAS STUDIES:

Knight Foundation study

“PERCEIVED ACCURACY AND BIAS IN THE NEWS MEDIA”

Are news organizations biased such that they promote an outcome that their customers should buy into?  This study definitely proves that this IS the case!  This study seems to say that each individual who has a political bias then views each news sources as biased to follow their political group.

https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/KnightFoundation_AccuracyandBias_Report_FINAL.pdf (38 pages)

This study really covers how different groups of individuals who fall within a group of right vs left viewpoints believe each news organization is biased in a direction that their group believes..  And, gosh the differences are revealing!  Below is only one example of the study’s presentation.

EXAMPLE:

    • DEMOCRATS RATED MOST OF THE MAJOR NEWS ORGANIZATIONS AS BEING ACCURATE, EXCEPT FOR FOX NEWS AND BREITBART NEWS.
    • REPUBLICANS RATED MOST OF THE MAJOR NEWS ORGANIZATIONS AS INACCURATE, EXCEPT FOR FOX NEWS, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL AND BREITBART NEWS

This might help explain why the support for President Biden and Donald Trump is so close to being equal.  Truth fails to prevail because too many Americas fail to understand what the truth is and maybe fail to value truth.

________________

 

POSTED JUNE 29, 2024
POSTED BY: Score Card

Alleged Any Desk Application Scam

Alleged Any Desk Application Scam

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Alleged Any Desk Application Scam

 

July 2, 2021 I get a call from 667-203-6635 (11:35 am Pacific Time). and the man at the other end of the call claims to be working for Amazon security. He asked me if I just purchased an iPhone for $729?  I replied no. That person then said that one of my electronic devices was compromised to make this purchase.  He warned me not to use my cell phone in any location where I need to use public WiFi.  He then told me that Amazon needs to gain access to my computer using a special software so they could rid my computer of the bad software being used to make these purchases.  (My wording is not exact.  I only try to convey the proper movement of the conversation.)  I am then instructed to use Safari and go to the web site “https://anydesk.com/en” and click on “download now”.  I follow the instructions which get to be a bit complicated because I have to open the Apple System Preferences and then Security & Privacy to allow their software to gain control of my computer.   A second person, a supervisor, needs to take over the phone instructions because the first person can not get “anydesk” to load properly.  I am a bit suspicious because the two men that I have conversations with have deep foreign accents.  I find the time to walk over to my wife who is at her desk and ask her to check on Amazon using the software “anydesk.com” on her computer.   She did a search and found that this software is used to scam.  She can not find that Amazon uses this method to solve issues.  I hang up and delete the anydesk software.  I then go into my bank account to see if there was any recent payment to Amazon for $729 for the alleged cell phone.  There was no Amazon payments which also proved that this was a scam.  I then filed a report with the Federal Trade Commission Fraud web page.

I keep getting return phone calls.  This is my list of phone numbers:

  • #2:  855-658-6637. Date:  7/2/2021. Time:  12:31 pm Pacific Time
  • #3:  279-657-6632. Date:  7/2/2021. Time:  1:04 pm Pacific Time
  • #4:  805-637-7243. Date:  7/3/2021. Time:  7:51 am Pacific Time

I then ran a virus scan on my computers and then a malware scan.

NOTE:  Any Desk is a very good legitimate software that is allegedly being used for illegal use by bad people.  Please do NOT diminish the value of this software just because it may be used for incorrect purpose.  App Store gives this a 4.7/5 score which is pretty good.

 

 

Posted July 2, 2021
Revised H1 July 11, 2022

American Stitch Alleged Flawed Product, In My Opinion

American Stitch Alleged Flawed Product, In My Opinion

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You hear people sometimes say “buyer beware”. In my mind, it means buyer can get screwed. It happened to me. It all started when I was shopping in a store that offers coats, and clothing that are over stock at apparent discount price. You can some times get great value and find items that are for the wrong season of the year in a store like this. I was looking for a casual long sleeve, pull over, collar shirt. I found two, one from Levi and the other from American Stitch. American means nothing as the shirt was made in China.  When I washed the two shirts together the American Stitch bled into the Levi shirt.

 

I checked the care label on the American Stitch and it said dry clean only! I was shocked. The shirt was a casual shirt, not formal. Who in their right mind would make and sell a shirt like this? Why was there not a label on the front of the shirt that shows “Dry Clean Only”?

I went to my local dry cleaner store and the shop owner told me he would charge me $6.27 to dry clean the American Stitch shirt! This is incredibly wrong! I will not keep the American Stitch shirt for obvious reasons. I will get rid of the Levi shirt as it is now damaged. I paid a total of $37.69 for both shirts so I lost that money due to American Stitch selling an alleged AWFUL product. The dry cleaning store owner lectured me that a lot of foreign Internet shirts are not color fast fabric.

I sent the company a complaint letter and here is their reply:

I there, please read the care instructions prior to washing garments.

The care label clearly states this garment must be dry cleaned.

If you washed it in the washing machine, that is likely why you have a problem.

Thank you

My reply:

You totally miss the point. I have never had to read the care label on any casual shirt I buy. Your company is outside the norm, in my opinion. What idiotic company creates a casual shirt that requires dry cleaning? A really stupid product.

I should have added, why sell a casual shirt that requires the owner taking the shirt to a dry cleaner and paying over $6 to get it cleaned?

Summary:  I do NOT recommend American Stitch products.

Posted January 12, 2019
Updated January 14, 2019
Amazon’s Alleged Diddle

Amazon’s Alleged Diddle

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November 16, 2018, I got an offer from Amazon to participate in a questionnaire on my cell phone.  If I participated, I would get a prize of significant value.  I plowed through the questions and at the end there was a screen showing Amazon items for sale at reduced prices.  I thought the prize would be free.  Problem was the items were utterly useless to me and probably most other people.  At the very end or bottom of the listed items was a military flashlight.  I would love to buy it but it was sold out!  I would love to go back and retake that survey because I would lower my scores of Amazon.

Aside:  I have come to despise corporations for valuing their own interests over the regular people.

Sirius XM Satellite Radio

Sirius XM Satellite Radio

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Our family purchased a new car 2016. One of the many options was to activate Sirius XM Radio service from satellites into our car radio. I paid $136.54 for one year. I share the car with my daughter. She never would listen to Sirius. I would, occasionally, when she was not in the car but the advertisements were really annoying. I enjoyed listening to my podcasts transmitted to the car radio using Bluetooth signals from my cell phone which has the added benefit of no commercials. When my subscription ran out December 2017, I looked at my Sirius account on-line and found they wanted to charge me $286 for the next year. Yikes.  I also found out that my first subscription had an auto renewal clause. I called December 7 to cancel. I get an e-mail stating that I need to pay my bill because my credit card had changed and I need to submit payment. I called again to cancel. I was routed to a second person (the closer) that ultimately offered me $138.10 for the next year after I told him their product was way too expensive and I would not pay any more. I was ready to say “yes”.  BUT, I had to agree over the phone. I refused. I did not trust him. I do not trust Sirius. I wanted a proposal to be sent to me by e-mail so I would have proof of what I was told over the phone. He refused. I had to repeatedly say I want the account cancelled. I could not believe he would not take cancel for an answer. Here are some more issues that were annoying:

  • Their phone service quality is not very good. I found it difficult to understand everyone I talked to through their phone service.
  • I do not like auto payment. All the bills I pay are not auto payment. This company seems to fail on this count.
  • I will not make any binding agreement over the phone. I insist upon seeing the terms in writing and possessing my copy prior to any agreement.  They would not agree to this requirement.
  • I did NOT get any warning that they did not get payment until after I called them the morning of December 7, 2017 at 8:16am. They then sent me a warning as an e-mail at 8:59am, same day, 43 minutes after I called to cancel.
  • Sirius Radio is a good product but the business model is flawed, in my opinion.  They fail to offer their product at a reasonable cost but instead seem to inflate to what the market will bear.
  • Sirius Radio on line Internet web site that allows you to view your account is not very good, in my opinion.   It just offers you a singular option to pay their top annual fee.
  • A number of their business practices, which I group together as pressure to buy, really turn me off which is my PRIMARY reason I decided to cancel. This is rather sad for Sirius and me. We came close to closing the purchase except for their pressure tactics.

I typically make a recommendation, of yes or no, at the end of my product reviews. I think this product should be measured by you.  I think the Sirius Radio works for some people.  It did not for me.  It may be worth your consideration.

The Battle For Net Neutrality

The Battle For Net Neutrality

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My son, daughter and I are very upset that there is a movement by the FCC and the US Congress to violate Internet neutrality.  My son suggested that I contact the following web site:

https://www.battleforthenet.com/

I did and found that this website can connect my cell phone to my local House of Representative member, which is Republican Ed Royce.  It is all automated.  Once you enter your home or cell phone number an automated voice prompts you what to do.  They even provide a suggested script for you to use, so have a pen and paper handy.  This process can be continue to the next politician and the next.  You can stop any time.  Problem for me is Ed Royce’s phone never picked up.  My guess is he might not want to receive these calls.  So, let me send the current member of the United States House of Representatives for the 39th District of California my message in this post:

I vigorously support net neutrality which is the reason for this call.  In addition, I despise the FCC individuals that are working for corporate gain at the expense of free and fair Internet access for the businesses and individuals of this country.  I also, loath the US congress members that work, some times secretly, against what is best for the citizens of this country.