There is money to be made with fake news. You set up a website and make up stories with headlines that catch eyeballs and watch the advertising dollars flow in. These fake stories spread mainly on social media (faster than real news) and the social media giants also rake in the advertising dollars. Election time is approaching and these fake news stories seem to ramp up right before elections. Remember back in 2016 when there was a news story that the Pope endorsed Donald Trump. That was fake news. It did not happen, but that fake news spread like wildfire on social media.
The problem is us. We like news that confirms our biases and shocking news is what draws us in. It is not just a few outlier websites with extreme news. Though better, mainstream news will tailor their news to their audience. In the mainstream news there has tended to be a liberal bias, so Fox News got its start to deliver the news with a more conservative slant. However, Fox News got into big trouble after the 2020 election. Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News for continuing to spread falsehoods about their voting systems throwing the election even after they knew the stories were false. Fox News was concerned that they would lose a large percentage of their audience if they stopped reporting the fake news. So right before going to trial, Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million and acknowledged that “certain claims about Dominion to be false”. I think that was a large price to pay to try to keep their audience.
So you need to ask yourself where do I get my news? Who do I trust to keep me informed? Is it social media posts? Is it blogs? Is it the websites of various organizations? Is it cable news interview shows? Is it radio talk shows? Is it cable news? Is it mainstream broadcast TV news? Is it newspapers? I put these questions in a rough order from what I consider to be in general untrustworthy to trustworthy? However, even a trustworthy news source can show a slant or end up getting the facts wrong. I consider it less likely for a newspaper to get the facts wrong than a social media post. There is still the issue of slant. The reporter has their own bias that they may or may not be aware of. They decide what the important facts are that will go into the story. And the editor must decide which news to publish. What news do they feel is newsworthy, and what news will their audience like? Those are decisions that can put a personal bias into the news.
You have your own personal biases and that can create some blind spots. Do you believe news because you want it to be true, and not because it is true? Fake news preys on people’s desire for the facts to align with their wishes. You need to be aware of your own biases, and you need to verify the truth of the stories, especially the ones that seem too outrageous to be true. Remember Pizzagate. On December 4, 2016, a guy entered a pizza joint armed with an AR-15 style rifle looking to rescue children from Satanic ritual abuse and a child sex ring. He had a blind spot and he acted on fake news. Fortunately no one was hurt, but he spent some time in jail because of the fake news.
So who do we trust to deliver the news that is truthful and where do we find the most unbiased news? There is a lot of distrust today. But I find that professional journalists have standards that most of them hold too, and there is enough competition that they will correct each other’s false statements. It is in their interest to get the facts right. They are more trustworthy than a talk radio show host. If the content of the article or video is sensational and/or the content is getting you emotional then I would guess that there is a strong bias in the content with possible false statements.
What are your news sources? Is there a strong bias? Are they accurately reporting the facts? There is a company that scores news organizations on their bias and their reliability/accuracy. You can check it out and see where your news sources fall. I like AP News and Reuters, because they are in the business of selling news stories to news organizations. Their audience is broad so their bias is small and they tend to be quite accurate in their reporting.
This post was inspired by the book “Beyond Fake News” by Justin P. McBrayer.
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