Deceptive News

We have been hearing a lot about fake news. Conservatives have been highly vocal about dishonesty from sources that have a broad reach. Some liberals have also gotten involved, fixating on a few obscure lies told by conservatives.


The schools are trying to get involved in recognizing biased and fake news. They have provided a number of low-profile example of deceit from conservatives. I have yet to see or hear anyone associated with the teaching profession address a liberal lie. They have been portraying dishonesty as strictly a conservative concept.

Personally, I don't trust the media. I have seen all sorts of deceit. Despite my skepticism, I have to admit that they have fooled me on multiple occasions.

Many mainstream media sources insisted that the Mayans prophesized that the world would end in 2012. The extent of evidence for the prophecy was that the Mayan calendar was ending. While I realized that the evidence was insufficient to prove the prophecy, I incorrectly assumed that the calendar was ending.

I also partially fell for the AptiQuant hoax. I did a search, and couldn't find any evidence that the company was real. Everything I saw about the company related to the reported study of supposed intelligence of different web browser users. I ultimately assumed that the media had better resources than I did and could find what I couldn't. It turned out that I was wrong about AptiQuant being an incompetent company desperate to make a name for itself. The reason I couldn't find the information I was seeking was because the company didn't exist.

Obviously, there are multiple forms of deceit. Sometimes, you encounter outright lies. Sometimes, quotes are taken out of context. Opinions are frequently portrayed as facts. Even the selection of which truths the media wants to share can be based off of a desire to prevent individuals from knowing the truth.

With how much dishonesty is out there, I doubt you will ever find anyone who has never fallen victim to dishonest news sources. Anyone who says otherwise likely hasn't been willing to acknowledge mistakes from which to learn.

I have read that some places are pushing legislation to ensure that the schools address fake news. Not only do I lack faith in the schools in this matter, I have already seen evidence that they intend to provide students with a seriously skewed perspective. Fake news is a problem, but its existence should not be exploited in order to push liberal ideology on a captive audience. I may not be perfect, but I think I can do a better job of addressing fake news than insisting that we must trust fake news from the liberals.

I have decided to create a series of blog posts to explain deceptive news. This is not just going to be about outright lies. I intend to provide a few pointers that I have discovered. I am also going to acknowledge such things as liberal dishonesty and how the media destroying its own credibility is not Trump's fault.