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What is Your Opinion on "Fake News"?

Is it real, as in is it really fake as Trump says? Some is, depending upon the source. The National Enquirer comes to mind for fake news.

From what I can read and research, it's not fake, it's more that it is news he doesn't like, or that is inconvenient for him.

True, sometimes, infrequently though, reported news is wrong, even fraudulently wrong; but mostly when a major news source finds they have printed incorrect information, they correct it.

What are your thoughts?
CountScrofula · 41-45, M Best Comment
Fake news is, in its original form, news which is completely fabricated. As in there was no reporting done, someone just sat down and mad shit up, and posted it online to get facebook shares and revenue.

Buzzfeed (strangely enough) broke the story on it originally.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo?utm_term=.cvyPJYKKe#.lqaro7qqK

This is what started the fake news thing. The fake news tended to be pro-Trump because that got more circulation. The fake news was so prolific and such a problem a lot of people think that it was a major aid to Trump in the election.

So it becomes a major news item and Facebook/Google take steps to stop it and demonetize it. Trump seizes on the 'fake news' language, and flips it on the liberals to criticize the mainstream media. If press coverage is negative, that's now fake news.

But in its original form, it's news that is literally faked.
frequentlyme · 70-79, M
@CountScrofula Correct! I just wanted to see what people, without being feed answers, would say.

SatanBurger · 36-40, F
This is all from my opinion but I've done research on a few things as to what Trump calls fake news. From the way I research it, it seems like in Trump's opinion fake news is objective media where as real news (to Trump) is far right fringe websites and off facebook.

It sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I'm not. Even a Harvard study pointed out that far right fringe facebook posts got shared about 18 million times. This is far more than any actual news source.

What I find about Trump is that his use of fake news is more to convince people away from objective media and into the fringe because his rhetoric relies on those supporters.

[quote]After authorities arrested a handful of Donald Trump supporters for plotting to car-bomb Somali immigrants in Kansas in 2016, the defense attorney for one pointed to a novel defense for his client: fake news. Per the attorney, Patrick Stein – whose Facebook was littered with both fake stories and support for then-candidate Trump – was motivated to plan his slaughter because he thought then-President Barack Obama was on the brink of declaring martial law, misinformation he picked up from fake news sites.

Stein’s plot, of course, was foiled, but his case helps sum not only the threats posed by the spawn of fake news sites over the past few years, but the propensity for Trump supporters to find themselves consuming fake news sites at far higher clips than other demographics in the U.S.[/quote]

[quote]Moreover, according to the paper, nearly 60 percent of the total visits to fake news sites “came from the 10 percent of people with the most conservative online information diets” – with older Americans “much more likely to visit fake news” based on the variables examined in the paper. Such findings back up earlier research, including a 2017 fake news-related conference at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center that concluded that “misinformation is currently predominantly a pathology of the right.”[/quote]

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-supporters-consumers-of-fake-news-c511ba18c1e0/
frequentlyme · 70-79, M
@SatanBurger You'll get no disagreement from me - your thoughts are, as far as I'm concerned, right on track.
Loretta78 · 46-50, F
The explanation is very simple:

All news which are good for Trump = Real News

All news which are negative for Trump = Fake News

That's at least what the POTUS thinks about it. 😅
frequentlyme · 70-79, M
@Loretta78 Bingo! 😁
Loretta78 · 46-50, F
Pherick · 41-45, M
Fake News is a term created bt trump so that he can use the idea of "deny deny deny" to try and forment splits between people and their sources of information. Sadly its working.
frequentlyme · 70-79, M
@Pherick Yep, there are those (many of them) who are not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, or run about 5 bottles short of a full 6-pack.
Bean17 · 46-50, F
“Fake news” is just a scapegoat and means to deny responsibility and accountability for the most part these days.🙄
frequentlyme · 70-79, M
@Bean17 Yes, used as a way to "muddy" the waters, as a diversion from facts.
Bean17 · 46-50, F
So true!@frequentlyme
therighttothink50 · 56-60, M
Yes the correction usually gets buried on the 57th page of a newspaper or website. On tv it is one blurb/correction of thirty seconds. You exist in the age of trial by media but nobody ever holds them accountable.

We live in a world of perception and the use of perception as an intimidating force. We found out Obama's IRS was illegaly auditing conservatives tax returns. The justice department is paying out settlements to these people as we speak.

But did it really matter if the IRS was auditing conservatives, wasn't the perception that they were doing it just as bad? Wasn't the perception used to intimidate people of conservative views from ever speaking out if they had conservative views for fear of repercussions?

The same thing with fake news, get something out there and run with it. If we have to make a correction, we will for thirty seconds on one single day and the only thing which will remain in the person's mind is the narrative we created, not the facts. Propaganda 101, tell a lie often and it eventually becomes the truth to people. People never remember the correction.

We live in the age of unaccountability, news is no longer the focus of a citizenry lost in their own worlds of illusion. The news media is never held accountable by anybody. High people in government are never held accountable by anybody. Society is breaking down because people have become totally jaded. Everybody now has the perception that most major news outlets can't be trusted and with good reason.

Until somebody is held accountable and goes to jail, nothing will change. Until people start living in reality rather within their own perceptions and confirmation biases we will forever remain polarized. Logic and reason no longer apply to a society all lost in their group thought cults.
TexChik · F
[image deleted]
Pherick · 41-45, M
@TexChik You don't watch Fox, yet you assume we all watch CNN? And you wonder why no one takes you seriously.
Pherick · 41-45, M
@frequentlyme She is a source of great entertainment to me, she just pops up now and then, yells "Libtard and "CNN Fakes News" for a while like a parrot and then vanishes.

Its great.
frequentlyme · 70-79, M
@Pherick Actually I'm having a bit of fun with her myself. Although, I should probably be ashamed of teasing an obviously challenged person.
Quizzical · 46-50, M
It's 1984... Double-speak, thought crimes, The Ministry of Information.

1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual (and I wish I could remember who first said that)
lorne13 · 61-69, M
in 2004 Faux News won their legal battle and were allowed to make up shit and call it news, they are the prime source of fake news. Remember when Americans used to laugh at the USSR for having the news controlled by the Kremlin? Guess who has government controlled "news" now
frequentlyme · 70-79, M
@lorne13 If you are talking about the lies/misinformation and diversion spewed forth from the current U.S. White House, then yep, it's Donald and pals who have taken the lead.
Northwest · M
reputable media, makes mistakes. They retract/correct. BTW, the National Enquirer, is a major Trump source and the publisher is one of his biggest supporters.
redheadchick · 31-35
Oh there's def "fake news" and I'm getting tired of him always saying that 😅
The mainstream media is waging a war against Trump, and they engage in journalistic malfeasance to that end. They are beyond ridiculous in their obsession to hurt Trump and his family any way they possibly can, and they fuel the insanity of the TDS mob with their nonsense.

 
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