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Fake News



If you've been following the news the last couple of days, you will note the flurry of copy devoted to fake news.  Both sides are blaming whatever has befallen them the consequence of fake news.  Let's look at this phenomenon a bit. 

 When I was a student years ago, a friend climbed some mountain in Peru.  A article was written in the local newspaper about the event.  In only three column inches, the newspaper made about six errors.  An easy article to write you say?  Just interview and reproduce.  Yet so many errors?  The question is this: was this fake news or bad reporting? 

The idea here is that fake news comes in various flavors.
  • Bad reporting – errors made by the author or editor
  • Opinion presented as news  
  • Deliberate creation of falsehoods to favor a point of view   
  • The reporting of selected truths to favor a particular point of view

Now we have the big social media sites venturing in to clean this up.  So, there will be a “news” person at the switch deciding which article is fake and which is not.  Thus, we can add to our list:

  •        Fake news created by omitting undesired news.
  •        Fake news protected by favoring desired news.
  •        Deciding real and honest news is fake.
  •        Fewer people than ever will control the news cycles.

The upshot is that the media is bent upon a course amounting to what only be called a Fake News Paradox.  Prediction: News reliability will get worse.

Freedom of speech implies fake news and bad reporting will always exist. Yet, we live in an era where every citizen is assumed to be stupid and must be protected from whatever is the boogie-man of the day.  We should really be protected from a terrible educational system that creates stupid citizens needing protection.
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