Throughout the course of the past 6 months, we’ve all heard the term “Fake News.” We’ve been hearing it from political pundits, the news, and national elected officials alike; from Donald Trump proclaiming and describing CNN as fake news to information reports circulating through the dark web. But with all the pomp, circumstance, and confusion, what is Fake News and what are its actual implications? Also, what are some implications of perceived fake news? I think that some clarity is needed through all of what’s been said about this politically charged subject.
I define fake news as stories circulated throughout various forms of media that is in false or not true. In the most recent context of the 2016 election, fake news was used as inflammatory knee-jerk reactionary ways to sway voters. Initially, the whole fake news epidemic that hit the United States began during the election as false news stories circulating through the deepest, darkest corners of the internet. People would post these stories as fact on various social media platforms and treat them as actual news without fact-checking or basing their posts on any substantial evidence. Slowly but surely these news stories started to get picked up by some of the more inflammatory conspiracy sites and likewise are treated as actual news. As they are shared on the inflammatory websites, they gain more credibility. Eventually, a few of the more believable stories were picked up by the mainstream media, giving them even more credibility. This type of reporting persists to this day.
To give an example, the most well-known case of fake news recently was the Seth Rich news story that started circulating last month. The fake news story is about Rich, who’s a DNC staffer who was murdered by a thief that had entered his home in July. It could have ended there, but conspiracy theories started making their ugly way through the dark web and facebook. These conspiracy theories revolved and centered mostly around the coincidental timing associated with leaks that were sent to the hacktivists known as Wikileaks. Many alleged that Rich had in fact leaked DNC documents to Wikileaks and the Democrats had him killed. The issue with this allegation is that there is no evidence linking the DNC or the Hillary campaign to this murder. Wikileaks has denied that Rich leaked the information and the police determined that this was ultimately a theft-gone-bad. Now, the latter false narrative was circulated throughout the deep web and eventually reached Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Hannity brought national attention to this false story that was disproved and debunked by countless news organizations and outside sources as well as the family of Rich himself. In fact, Rich’s family made an impassioned plea to Fox News to stop airing and discussing the story. Fox complied but Hannity continued to tweet and talk about it. As a result, several sponsors dropped their support for the conservative sometimes-firebrand. One can certainly see that fake news and its circulation can be disastrous. Now the other interesting thing about fake news is how the Trump administration has turned Fake News and its idea straight on its head. This is arguably more dangerous and disastrous.
It’s no secret that Trump has had a bombastic and sometimes hostile relationship with the media since entering the campaign race in June of 2015. This manifested itself during the campaign in the form of mocking reporters, calling publications “fake” or “failing,” and essentially disagreeing with every main story that showed him in a negative light. This type of combative tactic allowed him and his supporters to distance themselves from the mainstream media and establishment politics. It was a clever tactic that in part worked well with voters in November 2016 (in the states that he needed to win, of course). In the early months of his tenure as president, these tactics have sort of shifted and changed. Trump has used what we’ve learned about fake news into an all-out assault on the mainstream media. He has used the fake news narrative to justify aggression towards the media. His claims are that the mainstream media is in fact fake news because it either misreports things about Trump, lies, or purposefully omits information while reporting about Trump. It’s gotten to the point where Trump and many who support him call the mainstream media “fake news” itself. This completely misinterprets the actual meaning of fake news, which as discussed before, is defined as false information circulated through the dark web and social media sites.
This notion is dangerous for democracy and freedom of the press because it attacks the very media outlets that the first amendment protects. It pits citizens against the press and brews distrust. The media is often seen as the informal 4th branch of government that holds elected officials accountable when those officials act in a corrupt way or break laws. So, when people don’t trust the media as a reliable and credible source, they are more susceptible to believing things that are false. As such, if people start believing in what elected officials say, it diminishes the credibility of that 4th branch.
Freedom of the press is a guaranteed right that we all have as citizens of the United States and the road to a very dark place starts with discrediting the media. It’s a slippery slope that despots and autocrats have used for centuries. Fake news and this administration’s twist on the phenomena is the beginning of that slippery slope. To quote from one of my favorite scenes in Star Trek, “With the first the chain is forged, the first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied chains us all irrevocably. The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damage.” I think that it’s wholly applicable here.
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