Melissa Zimdars Creates a Handy List of “Fake News” Websites for When You Want to Avoid Thoughtcrime

by Scott Creighton

Newthinkers bellyfeel Ingsoc and that is all they need to know

Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication at Merrimack College in Massachusetts has done the homework for you and put together a handy Google document for you to share with all your friends that lists the bad places on the internet you want to avoid because they peddle in “fake news”… according to Melissa Zimdars.

Melissa states:

Update 1: I’ve received hundreds of emails with suggestions, very few of which are duplicates, so it will take me a while to sift through and verify them. I will add them as appropriate. (EDIT 11/15/2016 @ 3:42 EST: I have a list of sources, suggested by all of you, that will take me a long time to get through) Update 2: Yes, I am considering further coding/categorizing these sources for clarity and creating a more durable/dynamic database. This is likely just step 1. Update 3: Some people are asking which news sources I trust, and all I can say is that I read/watch/listen very widely, from mainstream, corporate owned sources (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes) as well as The Atlantic, National Public Radio, and various local and alternative sources with different political perspectives, some of which are included on this list. The problem: Even typically reliable sources, whether mainstream or alternative, corporate or nonprofit, rely on particular media frames to report stories and select stories based on different notions of newsworthiness. The best thing to do in our contemporary media environment is to read/watch/listen widely and often, and to be critical of the sources we share and engage with on social media.

I noticed that CNN is NOT on the list even though they have literally been caught FABRICATING news events on several occasions.

I also noticed the New York Times was also NOT on the list even after the ENDLESS STREAM of fake news they produced regarding WMDs, chemical weapons, Yellow Cake from Niger stories and Incubator Babies… none of which were true in the slightest way and all contributed to the DEATHS of thousands of Iraqis… not to mention a COUPLE THOUSAND US SOLDIERS as well.

Fox News is also NOT on Melissa’s list in spite of the fact that if they weren’t reporting FAKE NEWS back during the Bush/Cheney days, they were running blank air. EVERYTHING they reported back then was FAKE NEWS and the entire country knows it.

As a matter of fact, folks are turning away from the very MSM outlets that Melissa seems to be promoting with this list of hers. Viewership is down over the last couple of years and rating agencies are running studies explaining why: because they are reporting FAKE NEWS.

At Fox and Fox News, 10 percent of the claims we’ve rated have been True, 11 percent Mostly True, 18 percent Half True, 21 percent Mostly False, 31 percent False and nine percent Pants on Fire.

That means about 60 percent of the claims we’ve checked have been rated Mostly False or worse. Here’s how it breaks down (as of Jan. 27, 2015)

At MSNBC and NBC, 44 percent of claims have received a rating of Mostly False or worse. The full breakdown: Politifact.com 2015

All that said, here are a few of the websites Melissa decided are “fake news”

• Endingthfed.com
• Daily Wire
• NoDisinfo.com
• Occupy Democrats
• ZeroHedge
• World Net Daily
• VeteransToday.com
• WakeUpWisconsin.com
• TheDailySheeple.com
• CounterPsyOps.com
• HangTheBankers.com
• TruthFrequencyRadio.com
• Lew Rockwell
• Intellihub
• Infowars
• HumansAreFree
• 21st Century Wire
• Prison Planet
• ActivistPost

I can’t disagree with all of them. I personally stay away from Prison Planet, Infowars, Veterans Today and World Net Daily because I myself know them to be disinformation websites.

Some of the others though are good resources. 21st Century Wire, Activist Post, Occupy Democrats and CounterPsyOps typically do good work, the kind of work that folks like Melissa would rather you didn’t read.

Melissa Zimdars currently teaches introduction to Mass Communication, Advanced Mass Communication and Feminist Media Studies at Merrimack College. She teaches them to believe the New York Times and avoid Activist Post. An important lesson if they want to grow up and be as successful in the corporate complicit industry as she has.

Zimdars, who teaches mass communications mind you, can’t understand why her list of thoughtcrime inducing websites has gone viral and “spiraled out of control”. I guess people across the internet don’t like to be told what wrongthink is or is not. There is also talk of companies using the list in spam-blocking software that would block people using various ISPs from viewing the sites on the list. She claims she didn’t see this coming. Someone in the mass communications business. yeah. Right.

Raw Story was originally on the list. They are one of six that have been removed.

John Kirby’s StateDepartment.gov was not on the list. They should have been right alongside CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, NPR, Voice of America and of course… WhiteHouse.gov.

I was not on the list. To my shame. Oh well. Maybe I will make the addendum.

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