Donald Trump has managed to change the definition of a term.

Friday night, President Trump took to Twitter to deliver one of his favorite insults to journalists: "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" 

It's a phrase President Trump has now tweeted 15 times this month (10 times in all caps). He used the phrase seven times in his Thursday news conference.

This isn't what "fake news" meant just a few months ago. Back then, it meant lies posing as news, made up by people from Macedonian teenagers to a dad in the Los Angeles suburbs. Their absurd stories, like that a Washington pizza parlor was actually a child sex trafficking station fooled a few people on the fringes.

Now, Trump casts all unfavorable news coverage as fake news. In one tweet, he even went so far as to say that "any negative polls are fake news." And many of his supporters have picked up and run with his new definition.

The ability to reshape language — even a little — is an awesome power to have. According to language experts on both sides of the aisle, the rebranding of fake news could be a genuine threat to democracy.

"Fake New" has become something for the weak minded to scream at any press report that they don't like.

Fascinating. And frightening. A third of the US population has closed their minds and retreated into an alternate reality.

Last edited by Goose (2/19/2017 10:40 am)