Posted in: Movies | Tagged: donald trump, fake news, HRL, james gunn, jumping the gunn

Guardians of the Galaxy Director James Gunn Blasts Donald Trump, Explains Fake News

Published Sat, 09 Dec 2017 17:15:20 -0600

Bleeding Cool has long reported on the transformation of Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn's social media feeds into a legitimate news outlet. Gunn's frequent release of juicy behind-the-scenes details from the making of Marvel Studios movies, as well as his extensive political commentary, are believed by some experts to fuel as much as 15% of the entire entertainment media click economy, forcing us to change the way we look at his feed, from a regular Hollywood social media account to a primary news source like the New York Times, the Washington Post, or Bleeding Cool. James Gunn's Twitter account, we're saying, is the Twitter of Record.

So it's no surprise that Gunn would take serious issue with the misrepresentation of the term "Fake News" and use the considerable reach of his outlet to set things straight.

Let's get one thing straight. News organizations making mistakes and RETRACTING them make them the opposite of fake news. THREAD.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

3 When Fake News purveyors (or their little buddy, the Propaganda purveyors) make a mistake, they simply don't own it. They deny it, as if the mistake has never happened.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

5 So, Fake News is NOT mainstream news. They are news stories generated that are generally 100% fake with no regard for sources or truth whatsoever. Here are a few examples of actual, real Fake News headlines, with completely made up stories. pic.twitter.com/QyVbuCx2BZ

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

7 It simultaneously helped him to delegitimize the mainstream media, so that the outrageous stories of Trump's business stories, traitorous dealings with Russians, and sexual misconduct could be written off as false in one fell swoop.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

9 By Trump and his allies delegitimizing mainstream journalism, they become unaccountable. This is helpful for a man who has seemingly never owned a mistake in his life.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

11 And, yes, this is exactly what's described in the Russian model of "information warfare" employed by Putin, where objective truth is assaulted in the pursuit of power.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

13 Do not get sucked into the belief that there are "two sides" to the story. There is truth, and then there is a bunch of silliness and idiocy and noise.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

15 But, for the record, I would also place the Huffington Post, Breitbart, and some other pretty popular news sites on the unreliable narrator front. Although they may have positive goals, their journalism is often too shoddy to be trusted.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

17 Hold the center. Love to you all.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

PS 2 What matters is being as unbiased as possible and being hardcore about sourcing. And if the facts always hurt one side you might at least want to consider THAT IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE ON THE WRONG SIDE.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

PS 4 And, yes, I know bringing up Hitler is a tricky thing. No one is saying Trump wants genocide (or at least I'm not). But the parallels in how they treat the press are direct and obvious.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 9, 2017

While making a Hitler comparison may be "tricky," as Gunn's Twitter account reports, there are very few outlets who are likely to do a better job. Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4th, 2018.

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