Fostering fake news stories

SOME COMMENTATORS CALL IT "faux news"; others refer to it as "fake news." It is not just "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report with Steven Colbert"--cited as the primary news sources for millions of people. It is the mainstream news media blowing up minor, unimportant events into "fake news" that replaces "real news" about important subjects. This affliction can influence any type of story and is the bread-and-butter of celebrity news. However, it particularly is annoying when it takes over serious news stories in areas that dramatically affect our lives, including politics, economics, and science.

For example, the overwhelming and continuous coverage of the misstatement by Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) concerning soldiers in Iraq swamped all other political coverage about issues or candidates in the November 2006 elections. All Kerry did was leave out a two-letter word, "us." The Republicans, looking for anything to distance themselves from the disastrous war in Iraq and ever-growing budget deficit, claimed Kerry was dissing the loyal troops fighting our war. Then the news media rushed in for the kill. Kerry's attack on Bush's handling of the war was lost in the error--"Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting [us] stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush." Reporters, commentators, and comics joined the Republicans in hazing the former Democratic candidate for president. The news media picked up the story attributed to "White House and Republican allies" and it dominated the headlines and TV newscasts for several days leading up to the elections. It replaced serious news coverage by emphasizing one minor gaffe. Even seasoned political reporters jumped on the bandwagon by writing stories analyzing the way the media covered the event, thus giving more publicity to the nonstory. It serves as one important example of a false news event given the status of real news in political coverage.

Pres. George Bush's miscues in grammar and relating facts usually take precedence over his far more serious errors in foreign policy and domestic economics. Mispronounced names and syntax slips become an uncomplicated story good for an easy laugh. Holding the President and his Cabinet responsible for a botched war effort or the largest deficit in this country's history is more difficult to report and write about. Real news always is.

Instead of presenting the issues of both sides of important political and economic issues, reporters treat elections and the economy as sporting events or horse races--who is the favorite and what are his or her odds of winning, and by how much? What stocks are front-runners? How high did the stock market go today?

Covering politics or the economy becomes a numbers game with the news media reduced to being second-rate handicappers trying to predict the outcome. These amateur prognosticators are abetted by one meaningless poll after another. No one seems to care that many of these polls are run by special interests, usually Republicans or Democrats. GOP internal polls usually say the Republican candidate is going to win or is doing better than expected. Democratic internal polls say the Democratic candidate is going to win or is doing better than expected. The news media print both polls as if they were valid indicators of what is going to happen on Election Day. How these polls were taken, the methodology used, the actual sampling amount--this information seldom is included in the story. The false story is: Who is going to win and by how much. Little attention is paid to what each candidate stands for or the issues involved. The real news is ignored in favor of reporting a horse race.

False news destroys good science reporting. The scientific reasoning behind global warming is reduced to a boxing match in which two sides duke it out with platitudes and insults. Those with no scientific background who merely have a set of beliefs to back up their opinions are given equal time with individuals who have spent a lifetime studying a particular phenomenon. Facts are ignored in place of opinion. All voices are given equal time and equal value by the press. In false news, credentials and experience simply do not matter. It is personality and celebrity status that dominate. How you say something becomes more important than what you say. It is style over substance. In the world of fake news, the punch line is everything. If what you say is funny or clever enough, it really does not matter if it is based on fact or superstition. Fake news will crown you the winner of any debate if you are clever enough to win it. Pity the poor scientist, economist, or politician who does not understand this; they usually end up being ridiculed and slandered. Experts become alarmists. War heroes become cowards. Patriots become traitors. Democrats become liberals. Republicans become right-wing fanatics. Welcome to the wonderful world of fake news.