A Well-Known Expert On Student Loans Is Not Real (chronicle.com) 173
mi shares a report from The Chronicle of Higher Education: Drew Cloud is everywhere. The self-described journalist who specializes in student-loan debt has been quoted in major news outlets, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and CNBC, and is a fixture in the smaller, specialized blogosphere of student debt. But he's a fiction, and "his" site -- an invention of a student-loan refinancing company.
"Drew Cloud is a pseudonym that a diverse group of authors at Student Loan Report, LLC use to share experiences and information related to the challenges college students face with funding their education," wrote Nate Matherson, CEO of LendEDU (the company that owns Cloud's website, The Student Loan Report). Before that admission, however, Cloud had corresponded at length with many journalists, pitching them stories and offering email interviews, many of which were published. When The Chronicle attempted to contact him through the address last week, Cloud said he was traveling and had limited access to his account. He didn't respond to additional inquiries. And on Monday, as The Chronicle continued to seek comment, Cloud suddenly evaporated. His once-prominent placement on The Student Loan Report had been removed. His bylines were replaced with "SLR Editor." Matherson confirmed on Tuesday that Cloud was an invention. Pressed on whether he regretted deceiving news organizations with a fake source, Matherson said Cloud "was created as a way to connect with our readers (ex. people struggling to repay student debt) and give us the technical ability to post content to the Wordpress website."
"Drew Cloud is a pseudonym that a diverse group of authors at Student Loan Report, LLC use to share experiences and information related to the challenges college students face with funding their education," wrote Nate Matherson, CEO of LendEDU (the company that owns Cloud's website, The Student Loan Report). Before that admission, however, Cloud had corresponded at length with many journalists, pitching them stories and offering email interviews, many of which were published. When The Chronicle attempted to contact him through the address last week, Cloud said he was traveling and had limited access to his account. He didn't respond to additional inquiries. And on Monday, as The Chronicle continued to seek comment, Cloud suddenly evaporated. His once-prominent placement on The Student Loan Report had been removed. His bylines were replaced with "SLR Editor." Matherson confirmed on Tuesday that Cloud was an invention. Pressed on whether he regretted deceiving news organizations with a fake source, Matherson said Cloud "was created as a way to connect with our readers (ex. people struggling to repay student debt) and give us the technical ability to post content to the Wordpress website."
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Colonel Sanders was a real man. I met him at National Airport in Washington DC back in the 1970s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: Betty Crocker (Score:5, Insightful)
Fake people leads to fake news.
The problem is when people don't know anymore what to trust even in well-known media.
Even 4chan seems trustworty these days, at least you are mentally prepared for traps when accessing that site.
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But it slowly has gotten worse the last decades.
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Broken clocks are correct twice a day.
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You're not breaking your clock thoroughly enough.
Not in the digital age (Score:2)
Broken digital clocks usually don't display anything.
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No, they aren't.
STOPPED clocks are. A broken clock, even sticking to the traditional analog clock with a face and arms, can be broken in many ways that results in it never displaying a correct time. Perhaps the arms have been removed.
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When they are right by accident they change the history
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i have read that 4chan post too!!
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The words of a known liar, when he/she/it has a potential gain, MUST be assumed to be a lie
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If you call the police saying that your neighbor was involved in a drug ring with 12 other people in 14 other locations, and keeps talking about it, they'll ask you why you think that. If you go into a discussion about a symbol being displayed and oddities in emails, you're going to get brushed off, since the police have more to do than they can manage anyway.
GP didn't actually refer to the whole thing being wrong. GP referred to their being a complete lack of evidence, which was correct.
The story wa
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Crocker
Sounds like a crocker shit
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I heard just the opposite.
Drew Cloud? (Score:2)
That's a pretty suspicious looking name.
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That's a pretty suspicious looking name.
Yeah, never would have thought that was a pseudonym.
Neither of my cousins Faye K'Naim or Sue Donym fell for that.
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Rusty Shackleford.
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Sad to say, there were relatives of mine who didn't know who I.P. Daley was when he sent out an email about a family event. I knew immediately who it was.
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That's a pretty suspicious looking name.
They should have picked a better name for a fake spokesman. Something like John Barron.
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My company directory has at last 9 Clouds. It may not be common, but it can be a name.
state of journalism today (Score:1, Insightful)
The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and by NBC.
So major fake news sites quoted this fake journalist without even verifying he was real? No surprise
Re:state of journalism today (Score:5, Interesting)
Why is this a surprise to anyone at this point. I mean the major News operations have been running "RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTION" story for over a year now, on innuendo and whispers from "unnamed sources". Hey look a Porn Star!!!
Re:state of journalism today (Score:5, Interesting)
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In this particular case, it's not as if the journalists were presenting false information from an unconfirmed source. The only actual difference is that they used the pseudonym instead of "company spokesman". The problem would be if the pseudonym was being presented as an independent expert that was recommending the company.
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So to paraphrase you, it's fine for news organizations to make up sources and content, because they're under competitive pressures. Talk about rationalizing bad behavior.
My post simply identifies an issue (which also is not the issue that you allege), it does not judge it. In this particular case, these news organizations did not "make up sources and content", they were taking content from a source that was not who it purported to be. Reporting a story or content without due diligence and research is poor journalism. Making up subjects and sources is professional misconduct and, depending on the subject or content of the story, possible fraud or libel. Surely you have c
Well known indeed (Score:3)
I stumbled onto that site too once through /.
https://news.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
I thought it looked mighty fishy. Sea mammal sized fishy.
I think student loans are a reason to support Elisabeth Warren.
In other news.... (Score:5, Funny)
Industry analysts Chad Sudonim, Ima Puppet, Travis Hoxe, and Gnome DePlume all denounced the deception.
OMG! What's next? (Score:2)
Re:OMG! What's next? (Score:4, Insightful)
Here are some pictures of her https://www.gettyimages.com/ph... [gettyimages.com]
Re:OMG! What's next? (Score:5, Funny)
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Mrs. Butterworth? The Jolly Green Giant? My world is coming to an end!
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JGG is real! I saw him as I was driving past Le Sueur, MN.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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What, you mean Tiger Woods doesn't drive a Buick? None of what you say is a surprise.
But I feel like what is going on here is much bigger than astroturfing. It is intentionally lying to (lazy and gullible) media outlets to create a false narrative. Media should know better than to fall for this stuff, but that doesn't make it ok to do it.
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Does he even have a license at this point?
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It is intentionally lying to (lazy and gullible) media outlets to create a false narrative. Media should know better than to fall for this stuff, but that doesn't make it ok to do it.
It's okay if it advances the left's agenda. If it helps the right it's evil (re. Facebook).
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Don't pretend the right doesn't do this with Fox News.
They are all garbage. The problem is that people WANT biased reporting. I almost can't blame them for pandering to the far left and right. Almost.
schools banks need accountability with loans 11/7 (Score:2)
The schools and banks need accountability with student loans just having easier to get chapter 11 or 7 can fix issues with them.
Right now the schools and banks can push high costs and be like it's ok to have $250-$300 textbooks vs with accountability for defaults where they can say lower your text book cost or we will pick some other place to get them from.
Not the first time (Score:5, Interesting)
People eventually got suspicious and when Newsweek contacted the weekly he supposedly worked for they flat out said they'd never heard of him. Sony obviously didn't think they did anything wrong, which is hardly surprising seeing how around the same time they were caught having employees posing as movie goers in commercials, but they did eventually settle when sued.
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On a similar note, but far more interesting and worthy of respect: there was once a hugely productive, brilliant and entirely fictitional mathematician: Nicolas Bourbaki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Bourbaki).
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I'm shocked,shocked I tell you. (Score:5, Interesting)
A company created a fake expert to fraudulently advance their agenda? What is the world coming to?
It's one thing to create a fake persona for marketing purposes, but to present them as a genuine expert to media outlets? That seems like it should be crossing some sort of legal line.
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That seems like it should be crossing some sort of legal line.
If appeal to authority were a crime instead of a logical fallacy then Slashdot wouldn't exist.
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Great... (Score:1)
And the (Trump) plan now is to decapitate the CFPB? With this sort of nonsense going on?
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/02/598820472/trump-official-wants-to-put-tight-leash-on-consumer-watchdog-agency
Victor Appleton II (Score:5, Interesting)
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Right wing bias in media (Score:2, Insightful)
These days in America if you want any ne
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While you can. Youtube actively censors anything that isn't an "arm if the Democratic Party's left wing".
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Healthcare is an economic issue (Score:4, Informative)
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The just means the punishment is not enough.
Bribery of public office is relatively easy to stop, you just need to have enforced and large punishments,
As in mandatory jail time, confiscation of assets to a level of many times the bribe, banning from any public office, and public ridicule.
Wont happen of course, but that is the solution to bribery, not saying 'everyone does it, so whatever'
Remember, public office bribery is stealing from the public, because no one bribes for more than the value of what is gain
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Examples please (Score:3)
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As for them somehow trying to be balanced, it's basically just the exact same spiel
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Yes, the media leans left on social issues (gay rights and abortion mostly). But for anything that really matters (e.g. economics) they're entirely pro corporate
"Pro-corporate" is left-wing too, you know. That fact that you apparently don't know indicates that you self-identify as left because that's what you want to be seen as.
I used to be left. I now self-identify as egalitarian, because the left is an insane as the right, and I'd rather be a centrist than on either side.
The center left you behind (Score:2)
If you are actually left (meaning you believe food, shelter, health care, education & transportation are natural rights) then you are now _far_ left. If yo
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you believe food, shelter, health care, education & transportation are natural rights
Maybe that's what leftists used to believe. I now consider myself egalitarian. I refuse to be associated with HRC, feminism, antifa and all the other nutjobs.
I cannot call myself "left" when the term is associated with irrational *AND* violent quacks. I've never advocated for shutting down opposing voices using the excuse "it's only censorhip if the government does it".
The left sets cars on fire when they don't get their way. They prevent people from speaking because in some weird way they are afraid of ha
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However, you can blame an entire political wing for things a small number of them do, so there's that.
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However, you can blame an entire political wing for things a small number of them do, so there's that.
I'm not blaming, I just refuse to associate with the left. Besides, it's not a "small number" of them that push feminism, is it? To me it looks like most of them.
Most people are egalitarian. Ever wonder why egalitarianists don't support feminism?
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Most of us do believe that women are people, just as much as men are.
That's the egalitarian view, and feminism as a movement is at odds with egalitarianism as a movement. One is for the equal treatment of everyone, the other is for affirmative action.
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Personally, I hang around with leftists, and you don't (as you said), so you'll understand that I think my observations are more reliable than yours. If you don't associate with feminists, you're getting your information from people who want to sell something. Ideally, it's people who want to report accurately and sell your eyeballs. There's plenty of organizations with more sinister purposes.
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The entire mainstream media was for Hillary. It wasn't a "right wing" thing.
I would say head to Youtube for alternative media, but damn if they haven't pretty much wiped them out by now. It's a pity, I had hope that they were the future of our Republic. It's really sad that our decentralized internet, tool of the people to speak truth to power, was taken over and centralized by corporations staffed with SJW leftists. I just wouldn't have expected that one.
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Not new (Score:4, Insightful)
Nicolas Bourbaki asks me to tell you that he is not impressed.
Really, how does it matter? What matters is how true and relevant what they wrote is. Knowing who they are may shed some light about that, especially when financial gain is involved, but it is only a proxy.
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The difference is with a person, we can maybe determine they are lying to promote a business. If people knew out of the gate that this was a corporate construct of PR, they'd know immediately to ignore everything that was said.
Fact checking (Score:2)
I'm glad, that in the era of fake news, the news organizations are fact checking each story they publish and not just blatantly copying each others feeds.
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Lazy, incompetent media. (Score:2, Insightful)
For the "Washington Post" , CNBC, "The Boston Globe" and others to run stories based on this fictional person passing propaganda, is telling.
The media today, does little if any due diligence or fact checking. When FakeNews get thrown around, it is also because of lazy and incompetent "journalist" who will take any source, to allow them to write a story fast and cheap.
Please (Score:2)
Please don't tell me that Rob BigData is a pseudonym too!
Yeah, Betty Crocker, Dear Abby etc (Score:2)
But here's the question that comes up for me and it comes up in conjunction with another article I saw recently (no, I don't have a link) in which a passing mention was made along the lines that millennial wealth, housing, etc difficulties wasn't due to not being able to earn enough in absolute numbers, but earning enough in relation to the debt they carry (student loans).
Which way is/was this figurehead steering? Is/was it steering? Why use a pseudo person for this? Doe sit make what is being presented
private student loans need to have bankruptcy (Score:2)
private student loans need to have bankruptcy or rules like max rate / max pay back time / min income aka if you are under this you pay 0 / etc.
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To t
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This 1000 times.
Making student loans dis chargeable on bankruptcy would be the single worst thing you could do to any and all responsible students.
Why? It will greatly increase the cost of repayment to those who actually do repay their loans.
(to the grandparent of the post)
I know I know, its so very unfashionable to not just steal from others so you can fund your political studies 'course' which mostly involved backpacking through Uzbekistan instagramming it then discussing your deep insights over soy latte
A lobby for the masses (Score:2)
So how is this any different than lobbyist groups targetting political entities for support of their interests, with mostly not-so-transparent financing from all-industry heavy hitters with money to spare in "deep marketing" and whatnot? What about Media conglomerates partially or totally owned by pollitically-inclined organizations? Or even TV channels, newspappers fully flavoured to a social entity? Isn't every part of the pollitical spectrum supposed to have the right to the same alloted audience? Or sho
In other news ... (Score:2)
Does this mean...? (Score:1)
There's nobody named "Slashdot"? Aw, man.
Slimy (Score:2)
Except you're not an online media organization. You're a finance company. Who sells student loans/refinancing. Who created a fictional character, to seem "just like you [the borrower]", and presented yourself as an independent person collating and commenting on news related to student loans.
maggots
And in mathematics (Score:1)
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President Donald Trump is also not real?
No, he's the real deal. We did have a fake President. He was named Barry Obama.