"Fake News" is not the enemy, misleading news is

 Ben Lindner

benjamincharleslindner@gmail.com  

 

"Fake News" does not exist at anywhere near the frequency many people seem to think it does. That is, at least in the way people usually think of it.

It is extremely uncommon for stories be completely made up or fabricated. What's common is: journalists twist the facts or present them in a misleading way.

This may seem like a small, pedantic distinguishment, but it is really important for readers to understand at a time when facts and opinions seem to blur together so much that many Americans can't tell the difference.

Many readers are operating under a binary assumption: either the story is true or it is a fake news. This is a flawed outlook. Many journalists know that they cannot get away with blatant lies, but they have found that they can get away with molding the truth to fit their agenda.

These same journalists also mislead the public about the importance of various issues. Many readers will think there is a controversy over something that is not a big deal, like when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez nominated Bernie Sanders at the DNC, a formality that was reported like a scandal.

Oftentimes, when writers try to "present both sides" of an issue, they actually are less accurate. Sometimes "both sides" of a story are not equally valid or often times one side is a small minority. This leads to stories that are not untrue, but do present the story in a disingenuous way.

It is important for readers to understand the way "fake news" really exists. It does not exist in a Stephen-Glass-esque fabrication. It exists in the slight oversimplifications, exaggerations and lies by omission much more common than making things up.

Picture source: eavi.eu

Very rarely does a story exist that does not come from some sort of legitimate reporting. However, there is a nearly infinite way that the good fact collecting can be translated to the audience.

This is what makes some fake news stories difficult to disprove. Technically, many of these stories are true, but they are not really accurate depictions of the story. They take the facts and make them into lies. They do not just make up lies.

Readers will only be able to tell fact from fiction when reading news stories if they stop thinking of seeing the story as true or false and instead carefully analyze each fact individually and understand why the information is presented in the way it is.

A smarter, more informed readership who is aware of the actual ways in which journalists might deceive them are much better equipped to understand the news.