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December 6, 2016

With regard to fake news : Why? and So what?

If fake news deluded the masses into electing Donald Trump, and sophisticated Russians were responsible for the fake news, then an explanation for 2016 had been found that absolved the news media: a way out of the labyrinth.
But such things never happened. To anyone who follows information effects, fake news is a sideshow, a byproduct of our chaotic information landscape. Its impact, while difficult to measure, probably comes close to zero.... If fake news were a salient part of the 2016 elections, they would have been exposed and exploded. If they weren’t exposed, it was because they never crossed the public’s awareness threshold. Politically, they did not matter. It was only after the fact, and out of the trauma of a shattering repudiation, that the news media tried to explain its failures by positing a parallel universe of counterfeit news and Russian manipulation. The news media: Surveying the wreckage | the fifth wave

Posted by gerardvanderleun at December 6, 2016 11:10 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

My Pappy used to say, "Them as gits suckered in by fake news are natural-born suckers, will always be natural-born suckers, and deserve everything they get.

Posted by: BillH at December 6, 2016 1:43 PM

Fake news? You mean it's not propaganda or improperganda? Whatever happened to respectable lies, obfuscations, and pristine BS?
Will the term 'fake news' become the new mot de jour? Will it be 'iconic' or 'paradigmatic?'

Will Orwell turn over in his grave or in someone else's grave? If we laugh happily in a grave, is it less grave?

I have more questions, but the sedation is taking effect.

Posted by: Howard Nelson at December 6, 2016 3:54 PM

If the mainstream media, that has been putting out fake news for decades, says another organization is putting out fake news does that mean they are really putting out real news?

It's all so confusing.
Glad I stopped watching that stuff in the 90's.

More and more everything is becoming untrustworthy.

Posted by: ghostsniper at December 6, 2016 7:30 PM

Just give me the "Lewis Carroll News Hour.

Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck at December 7, 2016 1:44 AM

It's not the fake news. It's the interpreted news that is so deadly.

Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at December 7, 2016 4:14 AM

I seem to be having issues distinguishing between riddles and serious questions of late, whereas what is news about fake news considered?

Posted by: Dave J at December 8, 2016 4:44 AM

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