I agree that we have now a problem of Fake News that can be dangerous. But I have a slightly different take on this problem. The volume and sweep of news is hugely expanded via technology. In the pre-social media era, the bulk of the news passed through editorial review, sometimes including unacknowledged censorship or manipulative selectivity. Egregious reporting was often the result of vocabulary chosen to sensationalize and stretch the truth for the purpose of gaining a wider audience, an unavoidable downside of for-profit news. This hasn't changed as far as commercial news sources are concerned. The alternative of State sponsored news is potentially worse. What has changed then? It's this. In the "tweet age", "news" can originate anywhere and by-pass editorial review. We must be our own editors asking what is reasonable, what isn't; what makes sense, what doesn't. This places greater responsibility on we the readers and we the listeners to sort fact from fiction; unintentional misinformation from intentional disinformation. In addition, and this has always been necessary, we must remain on constant guard against our natural inclination to read something other than what is written, or hear something other than what is said. If we allow ourselves to, we will read or hear something that was neither written nor said, but rather something that better comports with our unreliable preconceptions. It's a battle we can not defer from and still be an informed participant. It's a battle that some of us are clearly losing.
Less than one short year ago Trump said there's plenty of water in California. And the fake news fact checkers got busy and went to work. Trump's Dubious Drought Claims - FactCheck.org www.factcheck.org/2016/06/trumps-dubious-drought-claims/ Jun 9, 2016 - Trump suggested “there is no drought” in California because the state has “plenty of water.” But California is in its fifth year of a severe “hot” Wired, May 2016: “Thanks El Niño, But California’s Drought Is Probably Forever“. “California Braces for Unending Drought“, May 2016.-NYTimes And now the tallest dam in the United States, which is in California, is about to run over. Oops. So who's full of it. Trump? Or the so called fact checkers on the left?
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump 19h19 hours ago Just leaving Florida. Big crowds of enthusiastic supporters lining the road that the FAKE NEWS media refuses to mention. Very dishonest!
Ann Coulter@AnnCoulter 15h15 hours ago Ann Coulter Retweeted Joe Scarborough More fake facts from MSNBC. WATCH THE VIDEO AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF: Stephen Miller on Meet the Press - http://bit.ly/2kAQqCVhttps://twitter.com/JoeNBC/status/830961303061725184… Ann Coulter added, Joe Scarborough @JoeNBC Miller was awful on every level. When I hear the White House praising him, they sound like they're living in an alternative universe.830949403712163840[/MEDIA]
you're wrong GWB, always have been always will be #NeverForget: https://www.politico.com/news/magaz...ho-are-most-likely-to-spread-fake-news-526973 To be clear, existing research has found that conservatives have a greater tendency toward misinformation than liberals do. For example, during the 2016 election, individuals who leaned conservative were more likely to engage with and share disinformation on Twitter and Facebook. Likewise, in the early months of the pandemic, conservatives were more likely to believe Covid-19 was a hoax, and to downplay the virus’ severity.