Over the last couple of years, and in recent weeks especially, the topic of fake news and how credible news sources are has risen. In times where anyone with access to the internet and social media is capable of spreading information whenever they please, the possibilities of misinformation, intentional or otherwise, increase. The whole notion of "fake news" boils down to whether or not false information is intentionally being put out for public consumption. As CNN host Don Lemon puts it "Fake news is when you put out a story to intentionally deceive someone and you know that it is wrong."
Recently, President Trump has taken to his twitter account to call news sources that are known to criticize him to be "fake news" and "...the enemy of the American People!"
This notion that all news sites that do not agree with President Trump have no credibility and only promote fake news is completely unsupported by facts. A fundamental reason for political news existing is to criticize and call out those in power when their actions are unfavorable to the people they are governing. While mainstream news outlets like CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News may all have their own minute forms of bias in their information, that does not diminish the quality of their news or discredit them in any way.
The Trump administration is in no way exempt from the intentional spread of misinformation as they would have you believe. In response to claims about the attendance of the recent presidential inauguration, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe." After this was proven to be false, Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway describes this misinformation as "alternative facts".
Conway's use of the term alternative fact was in her mind an alternate way of saying that Spicer lied in his press conference. Instead of straight up admitting to the falsehood made by her colleague Conway attempted to sugarcoat the transgression as lesser the attention being brought to the recent headline. Her actions however proved to be for not as this only brought more mainstream attention to the matter.
Many people are starting to see that, while President Trump is trying to skew people's view of the mainstream media, people in his own inner circle are guilty of doing the same type of misinformation spread that he is directly condemning. After the whole incident with Conway and her alternative facts, many news organizations have challenged the legitimacy of her statements. Most recently MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski has come out to say that she refuses to book Conway on her show Morning Joe. She is quoted saying "I won't do it, 'cuz I don't believe in fake news or information that is not true. And that is — every time I've ever seen her on television, something’s askew, off or incorrect."
This title made me laugh, especially considering there is no real truth to the concept "alternative fact." Any scientist who has seen that term has probably already gone beet-red with fury.
ReplyDeleteI like how you take a position here--this is a persuasive post--and that you use examples to bolster your point. Maybe the only real benefit to the angst and conflict in our country's current political arena is the fact that we have much to study and evaluate considering modern political rhetoric.
I wonder--how do you convince those who believe (because of political persuasion) Spicer and Conway and Trump to move beyond their electronic reading comfort zone? How easy is it for someone to change or grow politically once they're an adult?
Hayden,
ReplyDeleteYour article was humorous and a lot of fun to read. I just about died laughing at the title of your piece. You’ve beautifully summed up what fake news is today, and you’ve introduced instances where political figureheads and their teams have used fake news against rivals to discredit their arguments. That being said, is there any clear reason as to why the American people, in this context, still choose to believe or unsuspectingly fall for the fake news stories that are being pumped out by the media?
Personally, as I mentioned in my post from earlier this week, I feel that the average American citizen is catered to when it comes to news stories and the answers to their problems that politicians and television personalities offer up. It is challenging to sit back and determine why it is people continue to defend and believe fake news stories, but it isn’t surprising once one does a little research as to why people continue to act the way they do.
You wrote in your last blog post about the development of modern day yellow journalism, and I feel that you have connected the concerns that you raised in your previous post with this new post. You discussed in your last post that yellow journalism, “has begun to creep up again in digital forms of media, because of how easy it is for someone to put their work into the open air,” and I feel that this applies to television news, as well as newspaper stories.
I look forward to the discussions that will come up around these topics within the next few weeks!
Sincerely,
Emma