I had a realization the other day. This April will make nine years since I started to write for Pipeline News, becoming editor shortly thereafter. I had been recruited from being the political, cops and courts reporter with the Battlefords News-Optimist for five years.
In the 1990s I spent one year doing all the editorial for the Saskatoon Journal, and another year with the Rosetown Eagle. This March will mark 25 years of writing a weekly newspaper column.
Yet one of the most significant issues of the day, these days, is fake news. When you have President Donald Trump calling CNN “fake news,” it’s a relevant topic.
So what is fake news? Hell if I know, and I’m an editor.
My Facebook feed is increasingly being populated by shared posts from organizations I have never heard of, and others whom I would have a hard time believing. These days, unless I am seeing it come from an organization I trust, and yes, CNN is near the top of the list there, I am increasingly dismissing it as fake news.
Let me scroll through Facebook on my smartphone and see what comes up, shall we? I’m not looking these up, just pointing out some that raise an eyebrow.
“Man points his camera at ice – then captures the UNIMAGINABLE on film.” That was shared by the Cypress Hills-Grasslands NDP. The website is dailyoccupation.com.
“‘Totalitarian’: Ontario gov’t bill makes it easier to seize children” came from Lifesitenews.com. Not so sure about that one.
“New batteries could last a decade with minimal upkeep” was from the Seeker Network, shared by the Discovery Channel. That sounds like a maybe.
“The Wolf – Trailer” This is actually an ad from HP Canada where Christian Slater very convincingly describes scenarios in a short video? Ad? Film? … something or other, that bad guys can use your office printer to hack into your company’s network, steal personal information, and bring down the company. I actually watched this in full the other day and it made me, a computer geek, paranoid.
“Ceremony halted by voice in the back of the church – when the bride turns around, she bursts into tears” came from Newsner.com
QZ.com had “China wants foreign submarines to stop travelling below the surface in the vast waters …”
“Poll: Trump more widely trusted than news media,” came from nymag.com. I don’t know what to think about that one.
“Breaking: Muslim Syrian refugee sexually assaulted young girls in WEM waterpark.” That came from debatepost.com whose slogan is "news worth debating."
“Inner circle staffer Katie Walsh named as White House leaker,” was posted by trunews.com.
This one might get you worried. “How sunscreen could be causing skin cancer, not the sun,” courtesy collective-evolution.com.
And it took a lot of scrolling, but I came across this as a photo post, not a news link. Posted by A Sheep No More, it said, “Freedom of Information Act has revealed 30 years of secret official documents showing the government has 1. Known vaccines don’t work. 2. Known they cause the diseases they are supposed to prevent. 3. Known they are a hazard to children. 4. Colluded to lie to the public. 5. Worked to prevent safety studies. The vaccine hoax is over!”
There are a few people who seem to post a lot of things like that vaccine hoax one. This is usually indicated by the words “Monsanto,” “vaccine,” “climate change,” “gluten,” “United Nations,” “agenda,” and so on. Increasingly, many things referring to “Trump” would also fall in that category.
Thus, I am more and more finding that if I didn’t see it on the National Post, CNN, Global, CTV, The New York Times and a few other media sources with traditional roots, I don’t trust it. My career is built on discerning this stuff, but most people's are not. Now the public are increasingly being fed news they would have been suspicious of on the pages of supermarket tabloids. Now, way too many people are believing it.
The way social media algorithms work, the more you click on something, the more it feeds you that sort of thing. It’s self-perpetuating. Thus, the more bovine feces you look at, the more bovine feces it feeds you. Eventually, you might believe some, or all of it, is true.
Is there a problem with fake news? You bet your sweet bippie there is.
– Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected]
