Unless you've been living in a cave 5,000 feet below sea level in an ocean off the coast of Neptune, chances are you've heard the term fake news. It's made its presence known on Facebook, cable news, fact-checking sites, and perhaps no more than via the mouth of the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
So what exactly is fake news? According to nonpartisan sources, it "refers to false information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news."
Nobel Prize-winning fact-checking site, Politifact, defined the term a bit more colorfully, as they said, "Fake news is made-up stuff, masterfully manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports that are easily spread online to large audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word."
In other words, fake news is when a person spreads bullsh*t as fact. Oddly enough, Donald Trump and his supporters have arguably clamored the most about fake news, yet tend to hold a different definition of it.
Headline: "Trump's approval rating dips to 32% in latest poll"
Trumpsters' reaction: "Fake news!"
Headline: "Trump riding Obama's coattails on job creation"
Trumpsters' reaction: "Fake news!"
Headline: "Mueller's Russia probe getting mighty close to Oval Office"
Trumpsters' reaction: "Fake news!"
Headline: "Confederates lost the Civil War"
Trumpsters' reaction: "Fake news!"
To Donald Trump and his minions, if a poll or article sheds any kind of negative light on the president, whether true or not, they regard it as fake news. To them, fake news isn't spreading bullsh*t as fact; it's spreading facts they don't want to believe. In other words, Donald Trump and his supporters tend to live in a fake reality, for they often times believe facts to be fake news and fake news to be facts. Ironically enough, Trump and his minions are arguably the biggest propagators of fake news.
Just look at President Trump's scorecard on Politifact. He's had 442 statements graded by the Pulitzer Prize winner. Here's a breakdown of the scoring:
True: 21 (4.8%)
Mostly True: 52 (11.8%)
Half True: 64 (14.5%)
Mostly False: 92 (20.8%)
False: 144 (32.6%)
Pants on Fire: 69 (15.6%)
Just 16.6% of Donald Trump's statements have been graded as "True" or "Mostly True," while 69.0% of his claims have been scored "Mostly False," "False," or "Pants on Fire."
Look at those numbers again. Think about that. The President of the United States is 52.4% more likely to tell a lie than tell the truth when he opens his mouth. While there's approximately a 7 in 10 chance he's about to spout nonsense when he begins speaking, there's only between a 1 and 2 in 10 chance he'll be accurate in what he expresses.
Sadly, this mentality seems to trickle down to his supporters. Just the other day, a picture went viral of an alleged antifa protester beating up a police officer at the Unite-the-Right Charlottesville march a week ago. Well, guess what? The picture was photoshopped, as it was actually taken in Greece last year.
It's highly ironic that the biggest protesters of fake news are the biggest propagators of it. Fake news is the act of spreading lies as truth in order to advance a political agenda. For as much as Trump and his supporters would like to believe it, spreading facts which may be detrimental to their leader doesn't constitute as fake news.
Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 election. Fact.
Donald Trump has never served in the military. Fact.
Since the height of the recession, Barack Obama helped lower the unemployment rate and raise the Dow Jones at far greater levels than Donald Trump has done thus far. Fact.
Donald Trump has accomplished more in his first 6+ months as president than anyone before him. Fake news.
I'm sorry, Trumpsters, but facts dictate reality to us; we don't get to dictate reality to facts.
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/
https://www.fastcompany.com/40455091/that-viral-photo-of-an-antifa-protester-assaulting-a-police-officer-is-fake
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