We all hear this term thrown around all the time, “fake news”. But what is it? What exactly does that phrase mean?
Well it can actually mean a whole lot of different things. I think that is misunderstood by many people, especially ones from the leftist ideology. They seem to believe that it means “news that you don't like.” How absurd. Right?
In my own experience, lefties are extremely triggered if I use this term fake news even if I'm making a joke. (Which I've also noticed they are too serious, and have no sense of humor when talking of politics as well as most social issues.)
So….this term “Fake News” is used wrong all the time, but here are the right reasons to use it:
- Something is a flat out deliberate lie, whether it’s sighted from anonymous sources, or it’s just plain made up BS.
- News, events, quotes, etc. that are not true, however may have some truth, but as a whole are not entirely true.
- Misleading headlines! This is the one I see the most. Most people only read headlines because they are too busy to read the entire story or too lazy to click. Most people will make a comment only reading the headline. The fake news headlines often IMPLY THE OPPOSITE of what the story reports.
- OMISSIONS OF FACTS! - This is way too common. Key information is left out, either in single accounts or in overall reporting, because it doesn’t fit with the negative or positive spin. This is frequently used when only reporting on the bad about one side and the good of the other, but conveniently leaving out the opposite.
- Prejudice, bias, skewed, opinionated, reporting that pushes are larger narrative, but would be treated differently if the subject/event was/were of a different race, gender, status, popularity, profession or another group/classification/assembly/mass.
- Opinions based on speculations, predictions and/or blatant bias. Opinions are not news. Opinions are perfectly fine when they are labeled as such, but facts must be presented to equal news.
- Opinions, speculations, predictions, rumors, hearsay and/or blatant bias based on unnamed, anonymous, and/or non-existent sources. It might be news worthy when an important person makes a statement that is untrue, but the statement itself, if false is fake news.
- False Talking Points. (I get so frustrated when I hear the same talking points repeated over and over, when they aren’t accurate, but they’ve been repeated so many times, people have accepted them as the truth but they are really just false facts or alternative facts if you will.) Ex. The untruth that 17 intelligence agencies agreed that Russia influenced the 2016 US Election. (In case you didn’t know it was the CIA, FBI and the NSA, per Congressional testimony by James Clapper, which of whom would definitely know.)
- Unverified and/or Unverifiable Claims
- Information about a subject of interest that would never be newsworthy otherwise the subject. (Something that would be better expected on the front of a tabloid, on TMZ or trending on Buzzfeed.) Ex. How many scoops of ice cream the president has vs. the rest of persons.
- Any other sort of published or officially administered information, news, statistics etc. that is misleading to the actual truth.
- FEAR MONGERING - Suggesting that there might be terrible consequences if you don’t choose to vote, act, or do etc. a certain way/thing.
- HYPOCRISY, SPECIAL TREATMENT, AND DOUBLE STANDARDS - This might be harder for you to distinguish if you are use to living in your comfortable information bubble. You can only notice a hypocrisy if you are seeing more than one point of view. (This is the fake news that gets on my nerves the most!)
This is what is NOT “Fake News”:
- Straight Up Facts
- News you don't agree with so you would rather label it as one of the above list
- News that you don't want to believe so you would rather label it as one of the above list.
- Only news that comes from FOX and other right leaning sites. (However these sources are perfectly capable and have been known to publish fake news as well.)
- News from a source that is unpopular, not well known, or posted in a blog. Just because it’s in a place you don’t recognized does not make it fake. The lack of truth is what makes the news fake.
- Quotes that can be verified (Although false statements are a form of fake news.)
- Interviews, (Although people frequently tout false talking points that make an interview become fake news.)
Here's a montage of two of my favorite conservative media moguls, DML & Ben Shapiro, mocking the fake news......
Fake News Vol I
Stuart Varney: Media Losing Credibility Because of 'Sheer Venom' Toward Trump [Video]
He said he's been struck by the media's lack of objectivity and the "sheer venom" they unleash against the president.
"Watching the performance of the mainstream media is, to say the least, annoying," Varney said. "It's not just the way they cover what they think is the news. It's what they don't cover."
He pointed out that the economy has been doing well, with huge gains in consumer confidence, an expansion in manufacturing and a booming stock market.
"That's all largely ignored," Varney said. "Why? Because the president is doing well in this area. And the media doesn't want you to know."
If you won’t listen to Stuart Varney, maybe you will listen to a female liberal journalist who legally immigrated to the US from India…..(below)
I’m A Liberal, And I Agree With Sean Hannity That American Journalism Is Dead
The 2016 election opened my eyes to this ‘Truman Show’-like media universe we’ve all been inhabiting.
My awakening came accidentally when I realized in 2016 that I just couldn’t support Hillary Clinton (I ended up protest-voting for Gary Johnson).
Ironically, had I been a Clinton supporter, I’d have likely been blind to the media bias. To be clear, I’m not talking about individual reporting, which is usually great, but a persistent institutional bias that colors almost all coverage and commentary.
Then I Couldn’t Un-See the BiasOnce you become aware of something, you keep seeing it all the time. So, almost every time I watched or read something, I saw the media bias: in the way headlines were framed, in what they chose to cover, in the way they devoted the barest minimum time to Clinton’s problems.
To be sure, the media on the Right is often biased as well. The degree to which Sean Hannity carries water for Trump is often amusing to watch. But the mainstream media’s bias is something else, and it affects me personally. It leaves me feeling angry, betrayed, frustrated.
As an immigrant from India who didn’t know much about the politics of this country 15 or 16 years ago, for years I trusted many mainstream outlets to give me an honest view of current events. It is now apparent to me that they haven’t presented an objective picture of current events, but a slanted, curated version that serves their purposes.
As an avid media consumer, I expect from journalists objective, honest, fair-minded presentation, and analysis of all the facts available in any situation without taking sides. Commentators and pundits, of course, can take sides, but they’re still expected to be fair, honest and rational. It is what I, as a part-time opinion columnist, try to do when I write for my city paper.
The minute journalists take sides and favor one side over the other, and try to actively affect a desired outcome, they lose credibility with their viewers and readers. Once lost, that credibility can’t be regained.
The 2016 Election Was a Blizzard of Bias
Throughout 2016, I watched with increasing trepidation what was happening to American journalism. Many media organizations decided to suspend normal journalistic practices to save the republic from Donald Trump, whom they believed was a danger to democracy. I agree that Trump is a danger to democratic norms, but think journalists seriously harmed their institutions by entering the fray.
Preening Is Not the Job of a Reporter
Things got even worse after the election. The mainstream media, shamed and humbled by Trump’s election victory, decided to attack him with a vengeance on everything he said and did.
They didn’t actually have to overdo it. By virtue of his personality, President Trump gave them a lot of material, and they’d have been fine if they’d covered his flaws and missteps straight up. But they overplayed their hand, and not a little. Many mainstream journalists have become a little grandiose. They’ve joined the “Resistance,” and see themselves as grand defenders of democracy, as brave protectors of norms and institutions.
The result is, you see a lot of preening, grandstanding, boundary-crossing journalism. It is painful to watch CNN’s Jim Acosta often preen and editorialize on-air even though he is a White House correspondent and his job is to report. It is painful to watch White House reporter April Ryan ask an overwrought question, such as “Does this [presidential] administration think that slavery is wrong?”
It is equally painful to see that these shenanigans play well with Democratic viewers. Unfortunately, liberal audiences have become so conditioned, so bubble-oriented that they don’t recognize the journalistic malpractice going on before their very eyes.
That’s only a small sample of the article. It’s a really well written piece and I recommend reading it in its entirety. However I do want to make it known that I personally do not agree that President Trump is a “danger to democracy.” I would really like those that think that, to give me actual examples and proof of why they feel that way. President Trump keeps giving power back to the states, and giving up federal government power. I do not see that as a “danger to democracy.” I see that as giving the power back to the American People instead of having a dictating federal government. Many things that the President has done have been misreported to sound like he's over stepping his power, when he actually did the opposite. It's so sad that our media is not doing their jobs, because it's confusing so many people and creating division.
Stunning analysis reveals severity of media’s war on Trump
An analysis by the Media Research Center was released Tuesday, who reported they have been documenting media coverage against President Trump all year long, and noted the media has shown “unrelenting hostility” toward the president.
“Our latest numbers show that coverage of Trump on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in September, October and November was more than 90 percent negative,” MRC reports.
Just on these three networks alone, the numbers are stunning:
- September: 31 pro-Trump statements, 359 negative
- October: 41 pro-Trump statements, 435 negative
- November: 33 pro-Trump statements, 320 negative
In total, just for the past three months, media coverage on President Trump has been 91 percent negative.
Again, for the months of June, July and August, media coverage was also 91 percent negative.
What is Fake News?What is fake news? Is Donald Trump correct when he says CNN, The New York Times, and other mainstream outlets report fake news? Commentator and bestselling author Andrew Klavan explains.
He explains that almost all of the big news organizations are liberal and run by democrats. Only 7% of journalists that donate to candidates donate to republicans. 96% of the journalist that donated in the last election, donated to Hillary Clinton.
These journalist claim that they can stay non-bias, but psychologist have shown that people that surround themselves with only people that think the same way as they do, suffer from groupthink, confirmation bias, and lose their ability to see events clearly.
Andrew Klavan's 3 Rules of Mainstream Media Journalism(These can transform any story whether it’s true or not, into fake news.)
- Whenever Leftwing prejudice is confirmed by a single event, that event is treated as representative. But whenever Leftwing prejudice is contradicted by an event that event is treated as an isolated incident, and if you treat it as representative it’s deemed as hateful. The Leftist media cherry picks when an event illustrates a larger narrative. That’s FAKE NEWS (We see this a lot with gun violence, terror, racism and law enforcement. See video for examples.)
- When a scandal breaks on the Right the news is the scandal. When a scandal breaks on the Left, the news is who wrongfully disclosed that scandalise information. (Leaks seem to be just fine when they are about people on the Right, but when leaks happen to people on the Left, the media wants to report on who could have leaked that information and was the information obtained legally. Fake News.
- Individual extremists on the Right are highlighted, the overall extremism of the Left is ignored. (Example is that Tea Party was labeled as racist when all they really wanted was lower taxes and less government spending. The media represented their protests as ugly and violent. Whenever an individual Tea Partier said something wrong it was sighted as evidence that the movement itself was tainted. Meanwhile the continually violent vandalizing, anti-semitic socialist movement that went by the name Occupy Wall Street was hailed by journalists as an important social development right up to the moment it vanished without a trace except for the pile of litter that it's protesters left behind. The peaceful Tea Partiers wanted the small government prescribed by the Constitution so ‘they were Radicals.’ Violent Occupiers wanted widespread government intrusion of socialism so ‘they were heros.’ VERY FAKE NEWS!
Why does Trump attack the media?Schieffer: Trump Media ‘Attacks’ Are ‘Undermining the Foundations of Our Democracy’
On CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” former CBS’s “Face the Nation” anchor Bob Schieffer argued President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media were “undermining” American democracy.
He said that although he had been attacked and that he did not pay much attention to that “stuff,” attacks on the media’s credibility were what troubled him the most.
What I do take seriously is when he tries to destroy the credibility of the media, an independent press that can gather information that people can compare to the government’s version of events and that is what we do. It’s as crucial to our democracy as the right to vote, and when people try to undermine that, I think they’re undermining the foundations of our democracy.
_________________________________
Dear Mr. Schieffer,If the media would report on the facts, then the President of the United States would not feel the need to “attack the media.” I think it’s so stupid when people have such a fit over President Trump’s feud with the media. He has done nothing but speak of the inaccuracy. If the press reported on the facts, instead of constantly attacking him, he wouldn’t feel the need to correct them all the time. If the media stuck to reporting the truth, the American people would believe their accounts.
This president has done nothing but speak of his disappointment and disapproval of the false reporting that happens daily. He hasn’t put forth any legislation or made any moves to silence anyone. So it’s very OVER DRAMATIC to say that he is “undermining the foundations of our democracy.”
So just stop it!
Examples of the media caught pushing fake news:
The media's Russia probe meltdown: 3 screw-ups in one week
Four Viral Claims Spread by Journalists on Twitter in the Last Week Alone That are False
Newsweek Runs INSANE Cover Connecting Trump To Hollywood's Sexual Harassment Epidemic
Trump Tweet: Responds to WaPo reporter’s apology over ‘fake news’ photo
The media's Russia probe meltdown: 3 screw-ups in one week
Police Murdered This Unarmed Man — But Media Is Completely Silent Because He Was White
DEBUNKED: Top 5 Trump/Russia Fake-News Stories! | Louder With Crowder - Steven CrowderLouder with Crowder takes you through 5 of the top fake news narratives touted by the media
Nolte: MSM Always Knew Trump Camp Was Wiretapped — They Just Lied About ItPresident Trump’s total vindication over his wiretap claim reminds me of one of the most important things I have discovered over the past couple of years: If the national media loses its ever-loving mind and launches a campaign to brand Trump a liar, that can mean only one thing — that Trump is not only telling the truth, he is telling a Big Truth, an inconvenient truth, a truth the MSM does not want the American people to hear.
Almost exactly two years ago this sick pattern developed over then-candidate Trump’s assertion that he had seen “thousands” of American Muslims celebrate the September 11 terror attacks. For weeks after, every media outlet in America trashed Trump as a racist and liar. What we eventually learned, though, is that Trump was 100% correct; that at the time, local media reported on “swarms” of American Muslims celebrating 9/11, and that for more than a decade our media had bent over backwards to cover this disturbing truth up.
Jersey City 9/11 Celebration Report CBS
Trump’s March 4 tweet-storm claiming the Obama administration wiretapped his campaign.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” - President Trump tweeted.
Ever since, despite the fact that the MSM knew Trump told the truth, despite the fact that the MSM itself had previously reported on the Obama administration’s wiretaps and surveillance of Team Trump, the media has coordinated another campaign to brand Trump a liar.
In fact, to the surprise of absolutely no one, the MSM is STILL lying about this. For example, here is CNN’s Chris Cillizza today using about a million words to try to write around his own network’s report from yesterday about the Obama administration’s wiretaps — before and after the election — on no less than Trump’s campaign chairman(!), Paul Manafort – including a renewed FISA warrant (despite no evidence from the 2014 one) that extended into early this year — you know, when Trump was a sitting president.
Regardless, the news of Obama’s abuse of surveillance power was all over the MSM early this year, in The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, McClatchy, NBC News, ABC News, the BBC, CBS News, the Associated Press. Prior to Trump’s March 4 tweets, each of these news outlets informed the American people that the Obama administration had in some way used the mighty powers of the federal government to spy on Team Trump, including outright “wiretaps.”
(Obama Administration wire tapped Manafort while he was living in Trump Tower)
Exclusive: US government wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman [video]
I bet there are some of you that still believe President Trump lied about wiretaps.
Well go ahead and click all the links. Read all the proof, and watch all the reports. You will find that he did not lie. The media lied and they did to make him look as stupid as they possibly could, because that’s what they’ve been doing every single day, since he decided to run for President of the United States.
They also do everything they possibly can to protect “the Obama Legacy.” Barack Hussein Obama is their God. (You know it’s true.)
The technicalities of the “wiretap” allegation is what the press zero in on in order to discredit it. President Trump said in a now infamous tweet, that ‘President Obama’ “wiretapped” Trump Tower. Well maybe former President Obama didn’t do it personally, but the Obama Administration did.
They fixate on the word “wiretap” in its literal form, claiming that it’s an absurd claim and no one physically “wiretaps” anymore. They also obsess over the part of the assertion from President Trump that it was Trump Tower that was “wiretapped.” Technically, if the people that were being surveilled were living in Trump Tower at the time, that is exactly what happened.
Paul Manafort was in fact living there, in Trump Tower during a period of time that he was being spied in on. So yes, the statement is true. The wording is loosely stated, however the basic concept of the tweet has been proven.
If you recall all the hysteria over that incident, it should make you very angry to now know you were completely “played” by the mainstream media. We all were and continue to be daily.
NY Times Admits To False Report That Trump Blocked Hot Meals To Puerto RicansThe New York Times released a false report earlier this week stating that the Trump administration was blocking Puerto Rican food stamp recipients from using federal funds for hot meals.
The original article took the governor’s claim at face value. But later, the publication sheepishly updated it to reflect that the statement was misleading.
“Though Mr. Rosselló said on Tuesday that the federal government had denied a request to allow hurricane victims in Puerto Rico to use food stamps at fast-food restaurants and other places that serve prepared hot meals, officials at the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the federal nutrition program, said they sent a letter to Puerto Rico on Sept. 30 approving a waiver that would allow food-stamp recipients to use their benefits to buy hot food. The agency granted similar waivers following hurricanes in Texas and Florida.”
The Times says the misreport was the result of an editing error.
“Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the status of a request from Gov. Ricardo Rosselló that the federal government grant a waiver permitting hurricane victims in Puerto Rico to use food stamps at fast-food restaurants.”
“The Department of Agriculture granted the waiver on Sept. 30; it was not still pending on Tuesday,” the correction reads.
But then how many Trump haters read that article before it was updated and then never saw the correction? They just got super mad, their hate grew and they still to this day, believe that President Trump was denying people food. I’m sure there are way too many! That kind of journalism is so irresponsible.
This is part of the misinformation that is killing our country. It’s making you believe negativity about the president and his supporters that isn’t true. It’s causing racial tensions, chaos, and confusion. The media is not doing the job they were sworn to do. Journalism use to mean reporting on the facts and truth. Now it’s just pushing a bias narrative that furthers an agenda.
The media has so much power, and they are very reckless with it.
MSNBC star Rachel Maddow is being called out by her fellow liberals for an anti-Trump conspiracy theory so outlandish that even the HuffPost criticized it as “so flimsy that it could be debunked by a quick glance at a map.”
Chad recently pulled its troops out of Niger, and Maddow seems convinced that Trump having included that country in his revised travel ban is the reason extremists attacks led to the death of 4 Americans.
Typically as anti-Trump as they come, the HuffPost published a story headlined, “What the hell was this Rachel Maddow segment?”
The news outlet then debunked Maddow’s ridiculous theory with quotes from Colby College Department of Government assistant professor Laura Seay, who said that “any expert” would have said Maddow’s conspiracy theory was “crazy” and the pullout of Chadian troops isn’t necessarily related to the Trump’s travel ban.
“Everybody that I know is appalled by this,” Seay told the HuffPost. “I would like to think that Maddow’s researchers are more responsible.”
Obama did the same thing Trump did when he was in China.From The Daily Caller:
The media attacked President Donald Trump Thursday for not insisting that journalists be allowed to ask questions at a joint press conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping, forgetting that former President Barack Obama did the same thing on his first trip to China.
Facebook’s “Fact Checker” posts Fake News about Trump, Facebook does nothing about itOn Friday December 1st, Facebook’s fact-checking partner reported fake news that caused the stock market to drop significantly, thus, causing incredible losses for investors worldwide.
The false report was made by ABC News Friday morning. But ABC News didn’t correct themselves until Friday evening even though it was clear by afternoon that the story was fake.
The false report stated that Donald Trump, as a candidate for president, had asked General Michael Flynn to make contact with Russians. It wasn’t until “World News Tonight,” that ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross said the source who had provided the initial information for his story later told him that it was as president-elect, not as a candidate, that Trump asked Flynn to contact the Russians.
Related Links:CRIME Wikileaks: Here Are The 65 Reporters That Went To Clinton Campaign Chairman’s House For “Private” Dinners
Jimmy Carter calls out media: You’ve been ‘harder on Trump than any other president’
PragerU: Why No One Trusts The Mainstream Media
Media meltdown over election of President Trump
Trump 100% Vindicated: CBS Reports ‘Swarm’ On Rooftops Celebrating 9/11 [video]
CNN scrambles to correct false report on Trump Jr (video)