What’s the big deal about fake news? How much of the news that we get isn’t already at least partially fake?
Would you stake your life on the information you hear on talk radio? What about CNN? Fox? MSNBC?
I’m not aware of any news source that limits itself to the facts; I used to give that credit to NPR, but sadly they too place agenda above journalism.
Sometimes half-truths are worse than outright lies. You can skew logic by picking the facts support your position and ignoring anything that contradicts it.
The bottom line, in my humble opinion, is that the amateur news organizations have started using the same tools as the “professionals.”
As the Irish say, “More’s the pity.”
sfnowak 
Steve, your blog on FAKE NEWS is very timely and important. I must admit just after the election I thought this FAKE NEWS thingy was just another BIASED MEDIA- liberal democrat scheme to gain back all the people they lost as a result of their shenanigans against Trump. But now, like you say, it’s hard to tell what news has integrity and which does not…if any at all.
Among my 7 brothers and 6 sisters—and one tough, no-nonsense Mexican dad—I had one sister who my dad labeled “histrionic,” whose behavior characteristics remind me of FAKE NEWS. She was: Excessively attention-loving; melodramatic; impractical, often irrational; felt like she needed to be the “beacon of light”; wanted to influence the community-to-turn-mob; and enjoyed being the center but not the cause of distraction. All like the “histrionics” to watch for in the likes of the Huffington Post, for example.
You’re right, there is “powerful and slanderous bias” in the media. However, because the so-called “journalists” have lost their professionalism and journalistic integrity, they have also lost sight of the one major quality of their audience: Sensitivity.
Sensitivity is the fundamental part of all of us that allows us to be touched by goodness, insight and discernment. It’s the mechanism that provides us with an internal warning signal that lets us know when we’re in situations that may be hazardous to our intellectual, emotional or spiritual health. As we grow in our understanding and practice self care, our sensitivity level rises–and we pay closer attention to what we need to feed our inner self.
It reminds me of a college debate I had at Oxford in which I argued the society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity–will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water. In other words, people who put others down can’t lift themselves up.
Media bias also reminds me of how we are to be aware and discerning of the modern paradox of guilt, blame and shame. Both FAKE NEWS and the BIASED MEDIA try to be “progressive” and forward-looking by fixing “our” gaze “backward.” They insist that America’s “shameful past” is the best explanation of its “current” social problems. They seemingly tells us to look at the “present,” but only to see the “past.” Instead of having us fooled, they have us anxious or depressed.
So it’s really up to us—as responsible individuals both personally and professionally– to get the facts right and take control over the information we allow ourselves to ingest. For in the end there are only two freedoms: The FALSE where we are free to do what we “like,” and the TRUE where we are free to do what we “ought.” Sooner or later we will be followed or judged on that.
If we want to be most productive, we need to become master of our minutes by being perceptive, discriminating, judicious, astute and even tasteful of the media–and use stress as a powerful driving force, not an obstacle.