Brady Bunch wrote:

Just Fred wrote:

I'm always reminded over and over and over again what Donald Trump said in a 1998 interview with People Magazine.  This time he was right and I agree with him.

You mean the quote where he says "If I were to run (as President), I would run as a Republican.  They're the dumbest group of voters in the country.  They believe anything on Fox News.  I could lie and they would still eat it up.  I bet my numbers would be terrific"?

Is that the quote you are referring to?  I presume it is since that is the only People's magazine quote attributed to him in 1998, but there is one problem with that, it is a FAKE STORY!  I guess people on both sides are susceptible to fake news when it fits their personal belief system.  How ironic.

Well, yea, Brady.
We've been saying exactly that for at least three weeks now.

But, it gets drowned out by the guy who freaks out, denies the existence of fake news, and derails the thread every time the topic of fake news is brought up.

One might do well to reflect on the irony of that.

Any thoughts on the topic of the thread?

Last edited by Goose (12/27/2016 6:11 pm)

You mean the quote where he says "If I were to run (as President), I would run as a Republican.  They're the dumbest group of voters in the country.  They believe anything on Fox News.  I could lie and they would still eat it up.  I bet my numbers would be terrific"?

Is that the quote you are referring to?  I presume it is since that is the only People's magazine quote attributed to him in 1998, but there is one problem with that, it is a FAKE STORY!   -  Brady

Good catch, Brady.  You are right, I was wrong.  My bad since I usually fact-check this kind of stuff, but this time I didn't.  Lesson learned.
 

Brady Bunch wrote:

Just Fred wrote:

You mean the quote where he says "If I were to run (as President), I would run as a Republican.  They're the dumbest group of voters in the country.  They believe anything on Fox News.  I could lie and they would still eat it up.  I bet my numbers would be terrific"?

Is that the quote you are referring to?  I presume it is since that is the only People's magazine quote attributed to him in 1998, but there is one problem with that, it is a FAKE STORY!   -  Brady

Good catch, Brady.  You are right, I was wrong.  My bad since I usually fact-check this kind of stuff, but this time I didn't.  Lesson learned.
 

No problem Fred, it happens to everybody.  

As you mentioned, it is always a good idea to fact-check everything you read and understand what sources people use in their articles.

It is easy to get caught in such "false news" and that is the point of this whole discussion. We (and the media) need to find better ways to weed these things out. Apparently this particular one started circulating in Oct of 2015 via email which is a hard thing to monitor since what happens is that people just tend to pass these things along to like minded individuals they know. Not quite sure an effective way to halting this but SNOPES is at least one avenue to check when receiving such emails. I have some people I like that tend to pass articles along that once I check them on SNOPES I find they are fakes. I am surprised that so many of these things happen. BTW, it is NOT ALWAYS in the political arena that these fakes float around.  

On the other hand there are the posters that deliberately post misleading and false info either for their own fun or profit on various public entities (usually Internet bases such as Facebook as an example) . These CAN be better monitored and filtered or stopped by the same sources that allow their posting. 

Similarly hard right and left wing pubs need to be fact checked as many of these contain misleading information. That unfortunately falls more on the shoulders of the readers and I don't believe many readers really take or want to take the time to dig deeper. 

Then there are the pubs like the ONION that ARE fake news but are aimed at comedy. Do people confuse them with actual news. Sure. Should they be come under scrutiny for it. Probably not, but a case could be made for it as well. 
 

Last edited by tennyson (12/27/2016 9:01 pm)

flowergirl wrote:

One thing people could do is stop hitting the "Like" button on so many Facebook posts.  A lot of garbage gets passed around via "Like."  Even if I know the poster I still look closely at the authenticity of a message. 

So true. I see many things either liked or shared on FB that don't even pass the initial smell test.

So, it looks like fake news presents two problems. 
1. People believing things that just aren't true.
2. People coming to believe that any story they don't like can be dismissed as "fake".

And so, people retreat deeper and deeper into self-affirming informational bubbles.