Fake News and How to Spot It

"Fake News" will go down as one of the catchphrases of the decade, and with good reason. The proliferation of talk radio and talk TV, where individual views are batted around endlessly in 24-hour news cycles, has led to opinion spouting by people around the globe. They may not be journalists so much as entertainers.

It's so pervasive, in fact, that Pope Francis has made it the theme of his message at the 2018 World Day of Social Communications, in an address entitled "The Truth Will Set You Free: Fake News and Journalism for Peace."

This isn't society's first run-in with slanted news. It used to be called yellow journalism, when reporters wrote "purple prose," embellishing a story for the shock value. The idea was to sell newspapers at a time when there were many papers competing. There were also the reform-minded muckrakers, who wrote their stories during the Progressive Era, to shine a light on particular societal ills, such as children working in factories or the exploitation of immigrants in the early 1900s. Good intentions perhaps, but slanted nonetheless.

So what is fake news today? Is it gossip, is it simply biased, or is it more nefarious than that? It often is just people spouting off without knowing the facts. Perhaps a television or radio talk show host ventures an opinion and it's quoted and then misquoted until a distorted story is taken for truth. But it's also journalists manipulating the facts to tell a story in a particular way to further their particular view, not unlike the muckrakers of the past.

J.R. Havens is the news director at KFYR-TV in Bismarck, ND. He says news mistakes or factual errors happen for a variety of reasons, not the
least of which is stations or networks looking for a competitive edge. "It can happen because they want to be first. Sometimes they sensationalize because they want to pump their own tires. And sometimes it's just carelessness."

Does this mean you should distrust all journalists? Havens says at the local level, at least in his newsroom where reporters tend to be young, there is somebody senior looking over shoulders to try to ensure they are balanced in their reporting.

"Another set of eyes makes sure there are no opinions in there. Training is the key," he says. "Training, training, training."

But he can't vouch for every newsroom. So what can you do to make sure you're getting the real story?

Al Aamodt, a longtime news manager at a television station in Fargo, N.D., says the important thing is to be educated and know what's going on in the world around you. "Have a good understanding of both sides of an issue," he says. "You can spot the bias on any story simply by being informed. Ask questions. The reader or viewer is not as stupid as some people think they are."

Or,  you can rely on the good reporter's favorite question: how do you know that? If you can't verify it, don't repeat or repost it.