Quite the brouhaha in here . . ..
People don't like to be found gullible. This is what makes bigots of us, or fundamentalist, or . . . simply programmed to read into what we see what we have been taught to see.
The
phrase 'fake news' hotly contested by some as 'undefined' is still strongly connected (in fact by the same people) to only one concept and no other - it stretches the intellect to drop all metaphors and read the phrase as it stands. To help in this, I'm going to pull out my teeny-weeniest thesaurus (so as not to stretch such intellects beyond the limits of their comprehension) and have a look at some of the synonyms that will help in understanding what the phrase
could mean.
Here's the teeny-weeny source:
Yes, it's the real thing, not a photoshopped image (ISBN 0-00-472379-1)
Let's get to the page that gives us some idea of what 'fake' means (without prejudice):
Now we can pick any one of those synonyms, and . . .
. . . right. We got a bunch of new words that stand for 'news'.
We can mix and match to our heart's content then, getting pretty much the same meaning for the phrase when we are talking about fraudulent information. Doesn't matter where it came from - the Imam, a priest, one's teacher, parents, neighbour, friends, the barkeep at the local pub, a TV screen, a tabloid . . . sometimes even a textbook - which is why sometimes textbooks, too, get revised.
I would have loved to table this discussion under the heading:
"Quack quacks? Here's the real McCoy!" but I'm sure that would surely have gone over the heads of those getting Lucifer to light their fags after having a butty.
In short - if you find something fraudulent that we have always believed, or being made to believe, and you have irrefutable proof that it is false (no argument necessary) then this is the place where we show off the 'real thing'.
That should take care of those confused about the 'political' title (merely biased imagination to think that way) and also why the FEMA link was placed in here - so that those confused by the plethora of 'fake news' being passed around during the hurricanes could look up the 'real thing' at a site reputed for its credibility.
And it's up to us to maintain that - for quite often we pass around fake information as real, unwittingly - but with the best of intentions.
_________________________
Now - a story how false information leading to political bias shot down a perfectly good piece of action that was actually benefitting a community:
'The Danforth', as is commonly known in Toronto, is an old and established street - a tourist attraction really - and (to keep a long story short; one can read up everything in the links provided for the details) the slogan 'Make Danforth Great Again!' was being used in a certain project.
OH! NO! A white suprematist slogan! How dare they! Etc.
The whole project went to pieces after that.
Ronald Reagan was a white suprematist? Why didn't someone tell me this before? There go all his movies into the trash. (I'm kidding - I knew the 'real thing'.)
“This country needs a new administration with a renewed dedication to the dream of America, an administration that will give that dream new life, and
make America great again,” Reagan said in a
Labor Day speech in 1980.
He also used the line in his
convention address that year. “For those who’ve abandoned hope. We’ll restore hope, and we’ll welcome them into a great national crusade to
make America great again,” said Reagan.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/make-america-great-again-who-said-it-first-n645716
Here's the story in detail:
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/it-s-ridi...er-make-danforth-great-again-slogan-1.3548952
Obviously trying to make the bigots who shot down the project, and were very, very 'offended', accept the 'real thing' was difficult.
They will probably take that sort of bigotry to the grave (while applying it to many other quack quacks they firmly defend)
This is why fake news gets engraved in stone and is passed on through generations, till people kill other people over it.
_________________________________________________________
The use of the Donald Trump articles I quoted before were merely examples of how insidiously op-eds get accepted as the real thing (and vice-versa) - it is not to signify that I voted for and support his policies - but merely to point out how easy it was to fool some of the people some (or all) of the time. That is dangerous - to all of us. The spread of ignorance is the primary mental disease we should all strive to eradicate - a reason why I also showed comparisons of the word 'sword' being used in two different Holy Books - since I was quite tired of people telling me that the Qu'ran was the 'Book of the Sword' and not the Holy Bible. Doesn't matter really about why one has it and the other doesn't, use the facts as one will, but let's stick to the facts as much as possible in a world where hunting down the real McCoy is becoming increasing difficult in a world where information (a lot of it false, or dressed up, or twisted, or bigoted,) is passed around as gospel, and moreover whose
fake authenticity is hotly defended (sometimes by those without even an iron in the fire but merely wanting to hoist the brand as real with the attendant reflected glory).
_________________________________________________________
As for 'denials' . . . that artful ploy used in days of yore to sell more newspapers (though, really, does anyone buy a newspaper these days? or even pay for cable TV?):
Lurid Trump allegations made by Louise Mensch and co-writer came from hoaxer
The hoaxer, who fed the information to Taylor by email, said she acted out of frustration over the “dissemination of fake news” by Taylor and Mensch. Their false stories about Trump have included a claim that the president was already removed from office in a process kept secret from the American public.
“Taylor asked no questions to verify my identity, did no vetting whatsoever, sought no confirmation from a second source – but instead asked leading questions to support his various theories, asking me to verify them,” the source said in an email.
After being approached for comment by the Guardian on Monday, Taylor posted what he described as a “mea culpa” on Twitter. “As a ‘citizen journalist’ I acknowledge my error and do apologize,” he wrote.
Mensch denied using the bogus information and said her allegations about Trump’s model agency came from her own sources. Asked why she had retweeted Taylor’s false posts, Mensch said: “I don’t think anybody can vet anybody else’s sources.”
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/polit...hoaxer/ar-AAqWimH?li=AAggFp5&ocid=mailsignout
_________________________________________________________
As a final note in this post - listening to the UN conference tonight about the sanctions on North Korea, it was said that that country looked very, very dark, blacked-out, from high up in the heavens while the rest of the world looked so bright and lovely and all. Right:
The above is a screen shot off MSN, text included.
Someone, please furnish me with a ticket to the Space Station.
