Alarm clock woke me up, and I thought I was having a nightmare

[Misterb]

First time I've done the option on the Note 9, where you tell Google to set an alarm. Next morning I hear some bells and chimes, followed by some very biased one sided political headlines. Thought I was in a nightmare for a minute, then realized what it was doing.

How the hell do I change it to a different news source?

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

Google app, settings, settings (Google Assistant), News, then can change order, add sources or remove them. Just curious, what did you get for default sources? My default ones have always been non-partisan world news and events.

 

[Misterb]

I went in and did it, but it told me I didn't have Google assistant set up because the administrator didn't allow it (my main account is a business Google apps account), so I picked my personal email account and went through the setup, so I'm not sure that it was using those settings. If I'm not mistaken, I think when it was reading me the headlines, it said something about "Brought to you by USA Today"

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

Interesting, on two fronts. I'm concerned about Google playing the news without that ever being set up. Also I'm not super familiar with USA today, but the media bias chart (MBC) (2018) shows them dead center on the x axis, which corresponds to no partisan bias whatsoever. Normally assistant defaults to NPR, which is in the same neighborhood of neutralality, according to the chart. From your original post I was afraid it selected something like Daily Caller or Daily Kos, which are both hyper-partisan in opposite directions. Now I'm curious what the headlines in USA today were! lol

 

[Morty2264]

Oh wow! That does sound really scary! Let us know how your next alarm makes out!

 

[Misterb]

Interesting, on two fronts. I'm concerned about Google playing the news without that ever being set up. Also I'm not super familiar with USA today, but the media bias chart (MBC) (2018) shows them dead center on the x axis, which corresponds to no partisan bias whatsoever. Normally assistant defaults to NPR, which is in the same neighborhood of neutralality, according to the chart. From your original post I was afraid it selected something like Daily Caller or Daily Kos, which are both hyper-partisan in opposite directions. Now I'm curious what the headlines in USA today were! lol

I just looked at that media bias chart. They list ABC, CNN, USA Today and MSNBC as being towards the center (neutral). That's laughable. Makes me wonder who is actually funding this chart, Google and Facebook?

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

I just looked at that media bias chart. They list ABC, CNN, USA Today and MSNBC as being towards the center (neutral). That's laughable. Makes me wonder who is actually funding this chart, Google and Facebook?

Not sure, when I looked it up I did see some threads on reddit discussing the same thing. That said, the chart does line up for the most part with the Media Bias Fact Check (MBFC) project, though MBFC does list USA today has having a left-center bias, which they describe as,

"These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information, but may require further investigation.

Factual Reporting: HIGH
World Press Freedom Rank: USA 45/180"

 

[Misterb]

I just did a test alarm. After it played some Chimes and told me the weather it said here are your news headlines brought to you by Google. It then proceeded to read some pretty wacko sounding headlines with opinion interjected in them. For example, one headline talked about someone who made a claim that Trump could end the world and how they are doubling down and then it said and I think he could be right. Another one talked about a shooting in California with 6 dead, and then it said is this the new Norm? There was one headline talking about Google executives being upset when Trump won the presidency. Honestly, it's a little strange to get opinionated headlines like this that almost seem to be coming from Google search results they are lifting from Reddit and blogs.

 

[Gary02468]

Some people perceive reality-based reporting as being biased against their point of view.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

I just did a test alarm. After it played some Chimes and told me the weather it said here are your news headlines brought to you by Google. It then proceeded to read some pretty wacko sounding headlines with opinion interjected in them. For example, one headline talked about someone who made a claim that Trump could end the world and how they are doubling down and then it said and I think he could be right. Another one talked about a shooting in California with 6 dead, and then it said is this the new Norm? There was one headline talking about Google executives being upset when Trump won the presidency. Honestly, it's a little strange to get opinionated headlines like this that almost seem to be coming from Google search results they are lifting from Reddit and blogs.

Yeah that is bizarre; I've never heard anything even resembling those things except the "new norm" thing, which is a pretty obvious rhetorical question that's been asked for years. And you can't change the source list?

 

[Gary02468]

I don't think it's a technical problem with your phone that it reports things you never heard from your usual sources.

And if someone wants to ask how to change their Google news sources, they can ask that without using the question as an excuse to hijack this forum as a platform for off-topic anti-liberal propaganda.

 

[Gayle Lynn]

I just looked at that media bias chart. They list ABC, CNN, USA Today and MSNBC as being towards the center (neutral). That's laughable. Makes me wonder who is actually funding this chart, Google and Facebook?

There is censorship going on, by Fb

Last year, Facebook announced that it would partner with The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, to “fact check” news articles that are shared on Facebook.

A story about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was “false,” a category defined by Facebook to indicate “the primary claim(s) in this content are factually inaccurate.”

The Weekly Standard has a history of placing right-wing ideology before accurate reporting.

So much for getting news when Weekly Standard has it hand on the scale.

https://thinkprogress.org/facebook-weekly-standard-fact-check-thinkprogress-6176df1d5749/

 

[Misterb]

Yeah, and you sound like one of them...

Some people perceive reality-based reporting as being biased against their point of view.

 

[Misterb]

I don't think it's a technical problem with your phone that it reports things you never heard from your usual sources.

And if someone wants to ask how to change their Google news sources, they can ask that without using the question as an excuse to hijack this forum as a platform for off-topic anti-liberal propaganda.

So sensitive. Go back and read my first post. I was very careful not to interject one side or another in to this. Was simply looking for a solution. You on the other hand, are the pot calling the kettle black.

 

[Misterb]

I did, but it's still pulling from Google, and not from the news source I selected

Yeah that is bizarre; I've never heard anything even resembling those things except the "new norm" thing, which is a pretty obvious rhetorical question that's been asked for years. And you can't change the source list?

 

[Javier P]

Mod note. I think we need a break here. Please use the dedicated forum on the Android Central Lounge for any political discussion. Thanks all.

Thread closed for now.

 

[Javier P]

Thread reopened. Please let's keep political discussions to the political section of the forum.

OP, feel free to open a new thread in the Politics forum to explain why you think there's a political bias in your news. I'm sure that many members, including me, will chime in and post their opinions.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

I did, but it's still pulling from Google, and not from the news source I selected

And just to be clear, how are you getting to the alarm interface? Is it "ok google, set an alarm or 05:00" or pressing a button and then talking to assistant, or something else?

 

[Misterb]

On my home screen I just have the Google widget which allows me to do a search or I can click the microphone icon next to the search field and then I would simply say set an alarm for tomorrow at 6 a.m.

 

[Gary02468]

Just by way of contrast: when I set an alarm via either 'OK Google' or the built-in Clock app, it results in an alarm tone and nothing else. When I ask Google for the news, it responds with sources that I can select in the Google Assistant settings. I've never encountered an unsolicited recital of information on my phone.