True or False

By Hank Silverberg

17) True or False: Most mainstream news organizations produce fake news based on a political agenda. (3pts)

It seemed like a very easy question for students in my Introduction to Communications class. We had spent an entire session talking about the difference between pundits and reporters, slant and bias and how to detect fake news organizations. (See my blog from 2/2/18). I was dismayed when half the students in the class got it wrong. The answer to the test question is "FALSE." 

 I have gone over my notes and power-point from that lecture wracking my brain trying to figure out why the reality didn't sink in.  I intend to ask them about it when we go over the exam this week. But I think I already know the reason.

Despite all the tips I gave them about how to detect fake news, what constitutes a mainsteam news organization or a news organization in general, and what “slant” and “bias” mean, they are still constantly bombarded with rhetoric which contradicts logic. The President calls the press “the enemy of the people” and shouts “fake news” at any story he doesn’t like. Many candidates for office in next month’s mid-term elections are doing the same thing.

This week, “First Man,” a movie about Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, opened in theatres across the country. Those of us old enough can remember the thrill of 

(Armstrong stepping onto the moon, NASA photo)

watching Armstrong descend the stairs of the lunar module named “Eagle” and plant his foot on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. 

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” echoed over television sets worldwide.The final frontier finally looked attainable. Solid hard-core science (and the Cold War threat the Soviet Union would get there first) had gotten us to the moon.

But 50 years later, polls show a remarkable number of people (7%) believe that landing was faked—in other words, that it didn’t happen at all. Conspiracy theories that had floated across late night radio shows for decades now fill the Internet. It was all staged, they say.

https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/polls/democrats-and-republicans-differ-on-conspiracy-theory-beliefs/

That 7% average comes from a poll conducted back in 2013 which also said 51% of the public believed the Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy, and 14% believed in Bigfoot. In this new era of “fake news,” I suspect the numbers would be much higher than five years ago.

Also out this week, a new report on Climate Change from the United Nations. The 728-page document was constructed by 91 scientists from 40 countries using 6,000 scientific studies. It said basically that “rapid and far reaching” changes in human behavior must take place in the next decade to avoid a 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit rise in worldwide temperatures. Such an increase would lead to massive destruction of coastal cities, famine and other deadly consequences.

http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/

The reaction from the White House?

President Trump seemed unaware of the report. Not surprising, because he rarely reads anything. But when asked he said, “Who drew it up?” questioning its validity. It’s a message that is surely designed to reinforce his  bizarre claim that climate change is a hoax. 

The end result of all this is the dumbing down of the electorate. People no longer believe scientists, the media or politicians.   

I will try once again to educate my students to be good news consumers and find the truth buried in the garbage, but they are just a small group of the Internet generation. Tens of millions of people just aren't getting the message, and many remain ingnorant of what is happening outside the necessities of their daily lives.     

(Original 1984 book cover)

In his cynical post-World War Two book “1984”, George Orwell constructed the rules of the fictional totalitarian party. Among the “doublespeak” he created as the party's propaganda to maintain control over the masses was the slogan, “Ignorance is strength.” 

Perhaps the current leaders of our nation are using Orwell's dystopian commentary as more of a guide book.


            (Your comments and suggestions are welcome.)   



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