About Connections: Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history think it escapism. In truth, history is the clearest road map to how we got here: America in the 21st century.
In defense of a free press, Benjamin Franklin wrote: “A nation of well-informed men … cannot be enslaved.”
According to our founders, the twin pillars of liberty are free speech and a free press. Both were hard fought for, hard won, and today are easily perverted. Fake news is an increasing part of the flow of information, and it is not benign. Fake news kills.
Fake news tells people falsehoods, in a creditable way, to promote the goals and desires of those advancing the lies. They do not wish to inform; they wish to sway. They are pitchmen, not journalists. They lie about disease, politics, plain hard facts, and silly conspiracies.
Good journalism is objective. It reports what is going on without fear or favor. It reports the facts with fairness, disinterestedness, and nonpartisanship, telling the truth whether it furthers one’s interests and goals or does not. When journalism is done well, gaps in knowledge, opinions, and speculation are clearly identified and separated from hard fact. Original sources are credited, never plagiarized, and fake news, no matter how tantalizing, is not reported. The result is an educated electorate able to make informed decisions based on the facts, and correctly discern what course is in their best interest.
Disinterestedness is central to good journalism. Lack of it is the key to fake news. The purveyors of fake news are not disinterested; they are invested in a specific outcome. They know the end they wish to achieve, and they will say anything to convince you.
There is now a cottage industry in fake news. Fake news is akin to false advertising. Falsifying data to peddle goods is commonplace. It enriches the manufacturer to the detriment of the purchaser. A tawdry pitch becomes a threat to our way of life only when it is dressed up as news and peddled as fact to sell a candidate, a policy, a law.
Falsifying data to overturn an election is new. In real time, we are watching a peddler of death and destruction justify his war with fake news. It is terrible to watch but understandable as a tactic. Putin wants his war and is justifying getting what he wants. It is sad, immoral, infantile, and selfish, but understandable. What is truly inconceivable is why any American telecaster would further Putin’s aim. Why would he harm his country and its citizens including his viewers. The contempt he must feel for them as he peddles his wares for money.
Those who read and believe fake news are harmed. They do not have facts on which they can base a decision. Instead, they are fooled into “buying” something. False advertising can encourage the buyer to overpay for a second-rate widget; the cost of false news is exponentially higher.
Two studies, one by BuzzFeed and one by Stanford University, both came to the same two statistically significant conclusions. 1.) It was impossible for the majority of adults to distinguish a fake news story from the real thing, and 2.) 75 percent of voters believed at least one fake news story and that story influenced their votes.
Freedom of Speech complicates the issue, as does the Internet. Don’t we all have the right to say what we think? Isn’t the Internet the most democratic invention, making unfiltered commentary available to the masses? Is that right?Then what went wrong?
If, on cable news, facts are presented about an issue, to be fair and balanced must they present countervailing arguments even if they are not supported by facts?
If facts are facts, how are there two sides to the story? Have we developed systems that protect liars? Have we confused “unfiltered” with “accurate”? Has truth become the victim of policy? If facts are immutable and opinion is variable, how are we distinguishing the two? If truth is holy, then who is protecting it, and how?
There are many examples of fake news in American history. “Remember the Maine” is one. The USS Maine sank in Havana harbor in February 1898. It exploded, killing three quarters of the crew. The cause was unclear. The opportunity was not. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were in favor of a war with Spain. Through their newspapers, they blamed Spain for the explosion. “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain” became a rallying cry for action.
It was fake news, but the impact was real. “Remember the Maine” served as a catalyst resulting in the Spanish American War later the same year.
Today, fake news is often centered around medicine. Again, the news was fake but the impact was real — people died needlessly.
“Majority rules” does not mean it rules wisely or well.
Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.”
By the way, there is a falsehood in this article. It is a common mistake often repeated, but repetition cannot make it true; it can only make it sound familiar. It is false, but is it fake news? It is fake news only if it is an intentional falsehood told to cause a specific outcome. Fake news is not an honest mistake. It is not a mistake at all. Fake news is purposeful and promulgated by the selfish and unprincipled.
The mistake in this article was to attribute the opening quote about “a nation of well-informed men” to Benjamin Franklin. He did not write it, but most would believe it because it “sounds right.” The truth is Dr. Henry Steuber wrote it. Steuber was not defending a free press, but gathering support for public libraries.
Franklin did write “liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
One way to be armed is to know truth from lies, good from evil, and the disinterested from the self-serving.
