The Goldwater – Bias and Credibility

Reasoning: Extreme Right, Propaganda, Conspiracy, Fake News

Review 1: This seems to be a general or even National approach to journalism except when their agenda is apparent.  They will focus on local stories that have no relevance to their normal overall theme to play to their audience.  Titles like “Black Thug Gets 21-To-Life for Murdering Elderly White Bungalow Caretaker in New Jersey” while a news story next to it has a title of: “350 Arrests in Pedo Ring after Cincinnati FBI’s ‘Operation Pacifier’ ends Dark Web Child Porn Site” – pictures of white males were used, but it doesn’t call into question their race, gender or behavior like the article describing an African-American.

Much of their sourcing links back to themselves or other similar sites to themselves.  Even when something can be linked to a credible low biased source like Reuters they don’t.  This article: Half-Naked Feminists Attack Christmas: Trying to Steal Baby Jesus from Nativity Scene at Vatican” never once mentions any least biased source when it’s easy to do: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-christmas-season-femen-vatican/topless-femen-activist-tries-to-snatch-jesus-statue-from-vatican-crib-idUSKBN1EJ0O2. Also, with that article, instead of just talking about how this is a radical group from one country, Ukraine, they turn it into an anti-Feminist campaign and link it back to a bombing that happened in Mexico, when the two events, groups and situations were not linked even by the real articles about those events. However, it again shows them back-linking to older news stories they did instead of outside credible media sources.

The owner of The Goldwater is alt-right online porn pioneer, Jim Watkins. Watkins also owns the forum boards website 8Chan, which has many controversies associated with it, such as the sharing of child pornography and the Gamergate Controversy. A controversial anti-semitic tweet published by President Donald Trump also originated from 8Chan. Currently, The Goldwater publishes their news stories into the Newplus forum on 8chan, which Jim Watkins hopes will increase traffic to the Goldwater.

Overall. The Goldwater is an Alt-Right Questionable source through the promotion of propaganda, connections to highly controversial individuals/groups and the use of poor sources. (M. Allen 12/26/2017)

Review 2: The Goldwater is an extreme right-wing biased news and opinion website. The website is littered with fake stories such as “Virginia Man Forces Woman to Make Love Dogs”. The Goldwater website uses strong loaded language in both sensational headlines and also the body of articles. They also deliberately alter the facts to write misleading articles and spread hate towards illegal immigrants such as this: Nationwide Amber Alert after Illegal Alien Murders Woman, Kidnaps Child. This story is false in that the suspect was not an illegal alien. They have also recently failed a fact check that you can find here.

Based on extreme right-wing bias and the publishing of fake news this site earns a Questionable rating. (M. Huitsing 8/23/2017) Updated (7/21/2018)

Summary: Two reviewers have thoroughly researched The Goldwater and have come to the same conclusion that this is a Questionable source. Our first review published on 8/23/2017 found two fake news stories and concluded that the website publishes stories with an extreme right-wing bias that uses loaded language in particular against illegal immigrants. On 12/22/2017, The Goldwater wrote a negative article about Media Bias Fact Check due to our first review. The Goldwater also deceptively pasted their negative article about us over the two fake news examples provided in our first review. So, instead of the reader seeing the evidence we provided, they now are led to a negative article. This type of deception and link manipulation would automatically place a source on the Questionable list.

A second review was completed on 12/26/2017. This review was done as a means to make sure our first review was accurate and fair in its assessment. Our second reviewer also concluded this is a questionable source based on having connections to the highly controversial 8Chan website, the use of poor sourcing, and loaded language that treats minorities differently than whites.

I have never reviewed this website, but within 2 minutes I located a fake news story: Japanese Porn Star Drowns In Semen While Filming Bukkake Scene. This fake/satire story originated in the now defunct Sunday Register, which was a known satirical website. The Goldwater did not label this article as satire, so one must assume it was passed off as real news. Overall, The Goldwater is a Questionable Source as confirmed by three different reviewers.

Update: On 12/22/2017, The Goldwater wrote a negative article about Media Bias Fact Check and other credible fact-checkers such as Politifact and Snopes. In an attempt to be deceptive, The Goldwater pasted this negative story into the hyperlinks we provided above to prove their Questionable rating. For example, these old links from above lead to their story about us.

https://thegoldwater.com/news/7047-Virginia-Man-Forces-Woman-to-Make-Love-Dogs
http://www.thegoldwater.com/news/7026-Nationwide-Amber-Alert-after-Illegal-Alien-Murders-Woman-Kidnaps-Child

These links were specifically put into our review to show examples of fake news. We will leave those fake links up as further evidence to prove this source’s lack of credibility. While we respect The Goldwater’s opinions, we do find this form of deception to be very revealing and confirmation of our accurate review. (D. Van Zandt 12/22/2017)

Source: http://www.thegoldwater.com/