For some reason I really like the phenomenon of "Fake News". It was an idea launched fairly quickly right after the election. It spread fast. All over the news. The media, and even Facebook and Google throwing their weight behind it.<p>Nobody quite knew what it was. Was it just Lizard People news or did it include all news from Fox or just some. Was it just Macedonian teenagers making money or was CNN also Fake News.<p>Then something happened. The mass media channels which invented and promoted Fake News ended up being labeled by it. Search for "Fake News" in image search on Google and CNN is right there. That was not the intended result I am sure. So the last I heard the idea is to now retire it due to inconvenience:<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/its-time-to-retire-the-tainted-term-fake-news/2017/01/06/a5a7516c-d375-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html?utm_term=.0ec4321e17f6" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/its-time-to-r...</a><p>There is something sad and ironic about it. There is a pr lesson there as well perhaps...
Apropos of not much, I created a Chrome extension that replaces the phrases "fake news" and "alternative facts" with the phrase "real-life fanfic." It's made my browsing over the past few days much more enjoyable, including this post and these comments.<p>Also, my first Chrome extension, so yay learning!<p><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fake-news-to-real-life-fa/inojhidgcahbfmjdhdabcfipnlkkildg" rel="nofollow">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fake-news-to-real-...</a>
It may be that the days of near-absolute public faith, trust and confidence in top shelf journalism brands such as the New York Times and CNN is over. In place of that we should try to teach people how to do their own research and how to think critically and objectively about the source of news and other content they consume. (Maybe that's too much to hope for.) Either way this trend presents continued opportunities for entrepreneurs as the barriers to entry for news content continue to decrease. In a couple decades I can see at least the possibility of the Huffington Post, Breitbart, and the New York Times all having the same level of credibility (with more or less support among different groups).
The big media organizations have brought this onto themselves.<p>Take CNN for instance. The entire summer they beat the drums that the world is going to end if the Olympics are allowed to proceed in Brazil because of Zika. Way overblown. And then, after this propaganda exercise, they have the veracity to run an online poll to see how many people are in favor of pulling out of the Olympics.<p>And they do this with everything. Be it literally shilling for Hillary this entire year or anything else. They have a pretty uphill battle to make themselves trustworthy again.
Ironically, the word "Hysteria" marks this as yet more propaganda in my eyes.<p>Is it possible they have something useful to say? Anything is possible, but I refuse to let the propaganda consume more of my time (one of its goals) and there are so many great things I could be reading.
Here in Bulgaria we've observed Fake News for at least couple of years.... the nature of those sites (not just a single article in a reputable source) is just to generate outrage with false but legitimately sounding information.<p>Since this has happened there is a thought trending among people :
I disagree with you, so you are paid troll by (CIA|George Soros|Putin/Russia|EU liberals)
<i>When people voted last year, they did not vote with facts. They voted with beliefs.</i><p>That is true because the published facts cannot be completely relied upon to make a decision. Why? People change! Hillary Clinton's 30 year public service work is a fact. What do you think of it? That is a belief.
There's a lot of scrutiny on the present, but the same applies to the origin stories around us.<p>If history is written by the victors, what did the people who lost have to say? Reading books from the early 20th century for instance shows a society far less backward than some progressive goggles would have you believe. One should never confuse those who complain about things for those who actually intend to fix them.
We are so fucked. Trump supporters are giddy but there is nothing to be happy about even if your preferred policies will be implemented. The thing about the destruction of Democratic institutions is that they are incredibly hard to rebuild. And without them it is a downward spiral from here.