SO, WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

With the rise of “fake news,” it is now hard to tell what is the truth. Yet not all fake news is the same. News can be fake in numerous ways. That’s because the word fake has multiple meanings. What does fake mean and how are people using this modifier?

1) Primarily, fake means that the news has no basis in fact. It is false. Someone deliberately created it for the purpose of providing dis-information. The information is made-up, invented, and bogus.

2) The word fake sometimes refers to information that is biased and/or prejudice. It can be biased due to the words used or the hidden presuppositions that are implied. It can be biased due to the speaker’s beliefs, values, assumptions, references. Because of the bias, the news becomes distorted and untrue.

3) Sometimes the information is not outright false, but it is misleading due to a degree of inaccuracy. Here the news is partially true and yet partially false.

4) Sometimes the information could be true, there is that possibility, but at the time it is presented there is no evidence that supports it, or it lacks credibility, or it is just an opinion or supposition.

5) News could be fake because it is not actually news but a form of fiction— satire, a joke, etc. Perhaps it was intended for humor, but some took it seriously and passed it on as if it was supposed to be news.

6) The word fake is often used as a way to do some elegant name-calling. “It’s fake news” actually means is “This is news I don’t like,” “I disagree with this news.”

Let’s ask, Where does fake news come from? Who creates it and why? Those who create fake news do so usually for fraudulent purposes or for politically motivated reasons. They are selling something or seeking to influence an election. So, because they have an agenda, they are seeking to manipulate the results.

Some months back there were several so-called NLP Trainers who were claiming that they had a pattern for curing Covid19. Several members of the NLP Leadership Summit checked into what they were offering and found out what we suspected— it was a marketing ploy. It was fake news because they had no such thing and there is no such pattern.

Now if fake news did not work and if no one took it seriously, it would vanish. So what is it about fake news that makes it credible? The key to fake news is that it is plausible. What is presented could be true. That’s why partial truths can so easily become the content of fake news. It is just true enough that it passes muster for having some credibility.

Here’s an example of a most egregious forms of fake news. President Trump, in his conflicts with John McCain, once made a comment that said he didn’t think of him as a war hero, because

he got caught and imprisoned. He said he thought of heroes as the winners were not caught. Given that background, it was easy to spread a more recent accusation, that the President called the US Military troops losers. When asked about the source of the accusation, none was ever provided. Not even a single person came forward to take credit for starting the accusation. Meanwhile, when the accusation was first asserted, the President and four people who were with him on that trip to France immediately denied it. In the following days a total of 11 high ranking officials who were present made video-appearances denying it completely. Yet then, three weeks later, in the VP Presidential Debate, Harris quoted it as if it was a fact. She thereby propagated the fake news.

Given that we are all dependent on accurate, precise, and relevant information, what can we do? The overall strategy, of course, is to expose any and every “news” to critical thinking, specially to treat information which is framed as new, stunning, surprising, etc. Skeptically question it.

Question the source: Where did this come from? Question the credibility of the source: How credible is the source? Question the motives of the promoters: What is your interest or motive in presenting this? Question confirmation bias: Does this confirm what you already believe? Question the presence of dis-confirmation: What evidence goes against this that you have left out?

As you are doing this— there are things to avoid. Avoid mind-reading the person’s intentions and motives. Instead, ask about one’s intentions and motives. We all can present “news” which we sincerely think is accurate and later discover that it is not. We mean well. Our intentions may be good and noble, but the information we’ve been given is just false.

Let’s all check the facts as best as we can. Let’s look closer at the sources that promote and approve of the “news,” as well as the sources that do not promote or approve of it. Let’s aim to get both sides (or more if there are more sides than two) of the issue. The falsity in the news can arise because the facts are simply not true, distorted, exaggerated, partial, etc. News can be make false by attributing it to a made-up author, someone with credibility that is being used to make it seem true. It can be false when the sources which it quotes actually do not exist when you check it out. And because racially incendiary news can go viral due to “a rush to judgment” or because it supports one’s political agendas, let’s slow things down and take the time to check out the facts. Let’s ask, “Will the original facts hold up over time?”