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Social Media, The Media

Mark Zuckerberg Rescinds Partnership With Rappler As A Fact-Checker

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3FC83EFB-F685-4484-BFA8-6258A33764F7SAN FRANCISCO, California (The Adobo Chronicles, San Francisco Bureau) – For CEO Maria Ressa, being designated as a fact-checker of news on social media by no less than Facebook, is quite a feather on Rappler’s cap.

But Ressa’s  pride and prejudice are about to abruptly end.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told The Adobo Chronicles that he was rescinding Facebook’s partnership with Rappler.

It all started when Rappler published a fact-check article describing as false news an Adobo Chronicles’ post claiming that Ressa was elected president of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).  It was, of course a satirical piece, a spoof on Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s statement that Rappler, whose media license was revoked by the Securities and Exchange Commission, could still cover Malacañang as a member of FOCAP, since it was partly foreign-owned.

But when Zuckerberg saw the Rappler fact-check post, he squirmed in his seat at his FB office because he knew that The Adobo Chronicles was a satire site, registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

“I can’t believe Rappler didn’t do its homework,” Zuckerberg said. “What kind of fact-checker did we just partner with?”

 

Politics, Social Media, The Media

Adobo Chronicles’ Statement On Rappler’s Fact-check On Our Story About Maria Ressa

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3E6FC499-7CD0-43E2-BD25-4343A2A35652Today, Rappler published one of its first “fact-checks” on social media news, as part of its new partnership with Vera Files and Facebook.

Of course, Rappler chose to fact-check a “news” item about its CEO, Maria Ressa.

It was, in fact, an item The Adobo Chronicles published many months ago, where we spoofed Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque when he said (after SEC cancelled Rappler’s media license), that the online news souce can still cover Malacañang by joining the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.  Roque’s ‘suggestion’ was based on Rappler’s having a foreign investor in Omidyar Network.  The Philippine Constitution prohibits foreign ownership of Philippine media.

In our spoof, we said that Ressa has been elected president of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

Rappler’s fact-check is very self-serving.  It used it to defend itself against accusations that it is partly foreign-owned.  We call it damage control.

But more ironic is the fact that Rappler chose to fact-check a satirical piece.  It seems that Maria Ressa and her colleagues at Rappler need to go back to school so they can learn about satire.

If it did its homework, Rappler would have confirmed that The Adobo Chronicles  is a registered news satire site with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with registration # 4711386.

Additionally, a simple check with our ‘About’ page  could have confirmed the satirical nature of our website.  For God’s sake, we have disclaimers all over our site!

If Rappler can’t even distinguish real news from satire, then what credential does it have to justify its ‘appointment’ as a fact-checker?

As one of the followers of Adobo Chronicles said: “How can Rappler defend its own gullibility?”

It is also suspect that Rappler’s fact check on our story was published almost simultaneously in the Daily News Cebu and Daily News Sydney.  We wonder what kind of relationship Rappler has with these two news outlets.  Does it own them?

But we actually thank Maria Ressa for choosing to fact-check the Adobo Chronicles story.  In just the last few hours, that ‘story’ has become the most-viewed post on our site this week.  Rappler is actually sending viewers to The Adobo Chronicles!

And this, Ms. Ressa and Rappler, is no satire.

Government, Politics, Social Media, The Media

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