Something called “fake news” has been growing quickly on the Internet. It’s getting so Internet users don’t know what’s fake and what’s true regarding what’s happening. To make matters worse, more than half of Americans are now getting their news from social media on the Internet, especially from Facebook and its News Feed. And fewer Americans are getting their news from television broadcasts. Most alarming, I think, is that only 10% of Americans get their news from newspapers. Actually, that’s understandable, though sad I think, since newspapers have been struggling financially due to the digital revolution.
The question even came up as to whether or not this fake news on especially Facebook contributed substantially to Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidency. For example, over one million Facebook users read the fake news report that Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump for U.S. president. Nothing could be further from the truth. I posted that this summer Pope Francis held a mass on the Mexico-U.S. border, reportedly attended by 200,000 people, as a protest against Donald Trump’s constant claim that if elected president he will build a wall on the border to stop the serious problem of illegal immigration into this country. When Pope Francis then flew home in his airplane, reporters asked him what he thought of Trump’s claim to build a wall. The pope replied that anyone who builds such walls is “not a Christian.” That’s putting it pretty blunt, so that no one should be deceived into thinking Pope Francis endorsed Mr. Trump.
Donald Trump has made matters worse. During his presidential campaign, he often berated newspapers. Casting a wide net, he said newspaper journalists are “dishonest people.” And he made it a habit to announce constantly on his Twitter account and thereby avoid newspaper journalists. It appears that during his presidency he will abolish using the press corps and resort only to Twitter. If so, he will avoid journalists asking him questions. Journalists do this on behalf of the people, posing questions they think most people want answered from the president. It’s an important element of our freedom of the press that ensures our democracy.
Besides, most newspapers have a column, usually called “Corrections,” in which anything written in the previous day’s newspaper that was false is corrected. Oftentimes, the newspaper will even invite readers to inform any false reporting of facts. Of course, opinions are a different matter, and that is really what Trump is talking about, though calling journalists “dishonest” is very deceptive.
In contrast, during Trump’s presidential campaign, he rated by far the highest of anyone, including Hilary Clinton, on abusing the facts, thus not telling the truth, according to all fact-checking organizations such as PolitiFact.
During the presidential campaign, Facebook was cited as the main source of fake news in the world, thus not just on the Internet. Now, Facebook has announced that it’s going to clean up its fake news. To do so, it is partnering with ABC News, the Associated Press, and PolitiFact. It will have thousands of fact checkers. Fake news will get eliminated or flagged as “Disputed” on Facebook. Plus, Facebook is also part of First Draft Coalition which also will be the scourge of fake news. This coalition also includes Google, The New York Times, CNN, and Twitter.
I wonder when President Donald Trump does his Twitter thing in the future, if any of his Tweets will ever get eliminated or Disputed as fake news. But then, will he be tweeting fake news or just an opinion? That’s the dividing line for the fact checkers.
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