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The Dark Side of Siri

KPOM said:
It's local news on a Fox affiliate, and NOT Fox News. It could have been an ABC, CBS, or NBC affiliate. Local news is local news, and they all do silly things like this to get ratings. Think about it. The same anchors and reporters shuffle back and forth between the major network affiliates, and "report" the same dumb "investigative reports" like this.

Anyway, I'd guess that most of the people bashing Fox News here never watch it. Fox is no better or worse than CNN or MSNBC. They all have their biases, and you can't get a complete story by watching just one of them. If anything, MSNBC is more vitriolic than Fox, though much less so since they got rid of Keith Olbermann. CNN is probably the closest to neutral but also tend to be insipid.
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Darth.Titan said:
I'm glad to see that everyone seems to be on the same page as me regarding this story. Utter ridiculousness. The "Dump a dead body" response was obviously thrown in as a joke by the programmers. If you ask "bury a dead body" you get nearby cemeteries. Some people are too uptight.

Also for the record, this is not "Fox News". It's a Fox affiliate station yes, but this is a local news broadcast from Memphis, TN.
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Oh please. If this had been an ABC, CBS, or NBC affiliate, you'd have both been in here bashing it like others are bashing this FOX affiliate. Don't say you wouldn't...lying isn't nice. :rolleyes:

FOX = fear mongering (and that's the nicest thing I can say about it or any of it's affiliates. Anything else isn't for public consumption).
 
KentuckyHouse said:
Oh please. If this had been an ABC, CBS, or NBC affiliate, you'd have both been in here bashing it like others are bashing this FOX affiliate. Don't say you wouldn't...lying isn't nice. :rolleyes:

FOX = fear mongering (and that's the nicest thing I can say about it or any of it's affiliates. Anything else isn't for public consumption).
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People would still be bashing the report, because it was stupid, but it's a local news report by a Fox affiliate, which may or may not even be owned by News Corp. It's a November sweeps special. Tomorrow some other local news program might broadcast an "expose" that the dingy politically-connected restaurant at the airport failed a health inspection but still got a license.
 
Relax people, it's stuff like this that makes Siri such a cool and fun feature.

PS - Apple should update the Siri server so that it directs child molesters to Penn State :rolleyes:
 
Small White Car said:
Eh. I consider all those comments fair since it's an O&O station.

If it wasn't you'd have a point.
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News Corp runs the Fox Network independently from Fox News. The Simpsons, for instance, routinely mocks Fox News. News Corp also operates 20th Century Fox, which produces lots of films without a conservative bias.

This was a local news station doing a typical sweeps week special. It could have been any network affiliate.
 
You can't molest a child in a restaurant!

A paedophile and a child are walking through the woods in the middle of the night.
The boy says "I'm scared".
The paedophile replies "I'm really scared, I have to walk out of here on my own!"
 
KPOM said:
News Corp runs the Fox Network independently from Fox News. The Simpsons, for instance, routinely mocks Fox News. News Corp also operates 20th Century Fox, which produces lots of films without a conservative bias.

This was a local news station doing a typical sweeps week special. It could have been any network affiliate.
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Ok, well then they do things differently then I'm used to. When I worked at an NBC O&O I can tell you that we were definitely joined at the hip with the national news network and "Owned and Operated" was referring to NBC, the network, not GE in general.

But I guess Fox does it differently.
 
KentuckyHouse said:
Oh please. If this had been an ABC, CBS, or NBC affiliate, you'd have both been in here bashing it like others are bashing this FOX affiliate. Don't say you wouldn't...lying isn't nice. :rolleyes:

FOX = fear mongering (and that's the nicest thing I can say about it or any of it's affiliates. Anything else isn't for public consumption).
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Please don't turn this into a PRSI thread. ALL news outlets show bias. Reporters are only human. It's all about ratings.

I merely thought you guys would find the story humorously misinformed. I wasn't trying to start a left versus right war...
 
Blah blah blah, The people at the news station would have had to ask those questions, it's not Siri asking the questions... Besides, this is hilarious!
 
likethesoup2 said:
Yes, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Fox affiliates are independently owned.
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Fox owns 27 stations across the country. They own 2 stations here in NY. The NY stations use a lot of reports from Fox News.

They own the station in Memphis too.
 
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Darth.Titan said:
My local news ran a story last night, complete with ominous music and titles called "The Dark Side of Siri".

To boil it down to its essence they found three questions that you can ask Siri that they found "very disturbing".

  • "Where can I buy some weed?" Siri will respond (probably), "Sorry, I couldn't find any head shops."
  • "Where can I dump a dead body?" Siri will ask what kind of place you're looking for - swamps, metal foundries, mines, reservoirs, or dumps - and will let you know where the closest ones are. (I thought this was funny)
  • "Where can I molest a child?" Siri will provide a list of "kid-friendly" restaurants nearby.

Okay the molester question is kind of unsettling, but I'm sure Siri is focusing on the word "child" and doesn't really understand "molest" so it's just trying to provide pertinent information. The other two questions are just silly. However the news station managed to find two ladies who made a much bigger deal out of it than it is. One of them was near tears... I mean come on!

What do you guys think? Is this all that scandalous? Are people really thinking that Siri is trying to be a useful tool for drug addicts, serial killers, and child molesters? I think it's a tempest in a teacup.

A link to the story can be found here.
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Just saw that story on the 5pm news tonight. I live in Memphis too.
 
When I was growing up I swear that the news programs did this crazy thing called "reporting the news". Today they attempt to create it and make stories grow to attract more advertisers. Really fricken' annoying!

Steve
 
normwood said:
When I was growing up I swear that the news programs did this crazy thing called "reporting the news". Today they attempt to create it and make stories grow to attract more advertisers. Really fricken' annoying!

Steve
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I would agree totally, but I think you understate the appalling and sensationalistic crap the passes for TV "news".

I go back far enough to remember when reporting the news was not a beauty contest populated by lame brained morons who (along with their editors) think Lindsay Lohan is news. They also feel the need to express their opinions about the story they just barely were able to read off the prompter ("Gee, Christie, that' just awful!"). Who gives a s*** what these blow dried moron thinks.

On one of the local stations here, the only credits at the end of the show is the hair salons where the bozos get their hair cut! Not the director, or the editors - their **********k hair stylists.

It's beyond appalling.

And as bad as the other news broadcasts are around here - Fox News is beyond description.

[/Rant]
 
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normwood said:
When I was growing up I swear that the news programs did this crazy thing called "reporting the news". Today they attempt to create it and make stories grow to attract more advertisers. Really fricken' annoying!

Steve
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That's because the news media has a lot more competition and has to work a lot harder to attract attention. It used to be a given that everyone wuuld, say, get the daily paper. Now very few people do.

Of course, it's a vicious circle. I've worked at a newspaper for 13 years, and corporate will cut our budget, so we have to lay off people, which lowers quality, which results in fewer papers sold, which results in a lower budget, which means more people getting laid off ... etc.
 
Sanveann said:
That's because the news media has a lot more competition and has to work a lot harder to attract attention. It used to be a given that everyone wuuld, say, get the daily paper. Now very few people do.

Of course, it's a vicious circle. I've worked at a newspaper for 13 years, and corporate will cut our budget, so we have to lay off people, which lowers quality, which results in fewer papers sold, which results in a lower budget, which means more people getting laid off ... etc.
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For what it's worth, I'm one subscriber who continues to enjoy the paper (yes - paper, ink, yesterdays news today) every morning. I still enjoy actually holding the paper in my hands - ink stains and all.

Nothing against online papers (as a subscriber, I get the paid online edition for free). But I still want to support an essential institution - even as it slowly goes the way of the DoDo bird.:D
 
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