In his most recent Wall Street Journal column James Taranto remarks, sardonically, about the “fake news” brouhaha:
“Fake news†is a problem on the right—but not only on the right. “Real†journalists, most of whom lean left, ought to look in the mirror. Or perhaps they are looking into their own distorted mirror and don’t recognize what they see.
What I don’t think Mr. Taranto appreciates is that with, the exception of egregious cases like a bunch of Macedonian teenagers clickfarming Facebook, the real news/fake news story is the same old turf battle the newspapers and other major media outlets have been fighting for decades. They’ve lost their gatekeeper status, they aren’t getting it back, and they resent it. As I noted a few days ago, self-importance among journalists is not a recent phenomenon. “Real news” is what they produce. “Fake news” is what anybody other than they produce.
The irony of this is that for every instance of “fake news” produced by bloggers or Facebookers you can probably find ten produced by the newspapers and major media. IMO that is to be expected with the present 24/7 news cycles, thousands of media outlets, staffs cut to the bone, and a general lack of reporting skills on the part of the latest generation of J-school grads working for the husks of newspapers and TV news bureaus that remain.
Keep in mind that there’s more than one way to fake the news—there’s what you report and what you won’t report. Again IMO the biggest scandals right now are what the major news outlets are reluctant to report.
“Again IMO the biggest scandals right now are what the major news outlets are reluctant to report.”
Perhaps the most prevalent and insidious technique. Probably born mostly of major media groupthink, the bias of friendships and careerism.