(I originally wrote the following as a comment on Oui’s recent post “Dutch Media Take EU Disinfo Watchdog to Court.” It grew, so here it is as a standalone.)
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False news.
This is currently a burning issue, right?
But…what is the real definition of the term “false news?”
Can an anti-false news site actually be propagating false news itself?
UH oh!!! There’s a dangerous geometric progression if ever I saw one.
Everything I say is a lie.
Think on it.
Can false news really be false news if it comes from so-called “trusted” media like the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times, or must it be the kind of false news that can be traced to foreign powers that are trying to dictate opinions in other sovereign states through the use of social media? Can a given sovereign state propagate false news to dictate the opinions of its own citizens? Or is that simply a different kind of false news?
Propaganda news, maybe.
Is it “false news” when an important functionary of a given government lies through his teeth to that government’s power centers and escapes criminal punishment? (See “James Clapper” for more on that idea.) Does it become “true news” if he is pinned for it?
Is news necessarily “false” if it does not reveal its sources? (A knotty question, that one.) Maybe we need a new term. Say…”semi-false news” or “questionable news.”
If the so-called “false news” discovery channels like Snopes and the “Fact Check” part of Google News seem to have political biases…and they do, to my eyes…do we then need a “Fact Check” that investigates Google’s Fact Check? A Snopes for Snopes? A Snopes for the Snopes that fact checks Snopes?
“UH oh” squared!!!
Where does this geometric series end?
Do geometric series even have an “end?”
Damned if I know.
I mean…I know where it ends for me. I only believe what my eyes, ears, experience and intuition tell me is true. I automatically believe no information, no matter from what source it emanates. I began to lose my own kneejerk belief system during the Assassination/Vietnam years, and further events have consistently supported my own observations.
How about you, my dear readers?
Where does your own trust in the media end?
Or are some of you false readers?
UH oh!!!
A false reader turns true news into false news and then propagates that result.
And down the rabbit hole we tumble.
There’s a novel in there, somewhere.
Oh.
Wait a minute!!!
Orwell already wrote it.
Now we’re living it.
My bad.
Nevermind.
Yore freind…
Emily Litella (also known as “Winston Smith” in some circles.)
