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Striking a blow against fake news
The deal between prosecutors and the National Enquirer sends a message to the purveyors of falsehoods
At this time of year, we see a lot of posts suggesting a “word of the year.” Amy O'Rourke suggests the word “moments,” while Jessica Valenti proposes “trust,” Meghan Daum submits for consideration “f*ck,” nancy gibbs brings up “listen,” James Comey recommends “truth,” and Morgan Jerkins proposes “rage.” Any one of these is a good candidate, but I would advocate for another: “fake news.”
I don’t think any of the above words have been tweeted as regularly by the President of the United States as “fake news.” What’s somewhat shocking to realize given how circumstances have developed is that “fake news” was originally a term coined by the left, moderates and intelligence analysts to describe falsehoods spread on Facebook during the 2016 campaign. The source of many of these lies (let’s call a spade a spade) was bots based in Russia.
Upon hearing the term, however, Trump seized upon it. The term became a key part of his campaign to discredit the mainstream media that has traditionally worked for the public interest. Any time news sources report something Trump doesn’t like, he calls it “fake news.” Do the traditional media sources always get it right? Certainly not. But…
