Conservative roots of "fake news"

I am going to switch from discussing deceptive news to discussing fake news. The reason for this shift is because I want to write about how the term is actually being used.

Fake news is not a new phenomenon. Widespread use of the term "fake news" is a more recent occurrence. The term was popularized by conservatives who were frustrated with deceptive practices from the mainstream media.

Some Republicans have gone too far, insisting that all negative news should be treated as fake news. Despite this tactic, it should be clear that the Republicans are not to blame for the media destroying its own credibility. Declining trust in the media has been going on for a long time, and this decline is rooted in legitimately dishonest and unethical practices from the media.

Lately, Democrats have been trying to change what "fake news" means. They are focused on obscure dishonest conservative websites and social media posts. They reject the use of the term in reference to legitimately dishonest articles and reports from mainstream sources, which are usually skewed in their favor.

Some of the pushback is coming from liberal news sources. I recently read an opinion piece from the highly liberal Associated Press. The primary focus of the article was on how using the term on mainstream sources undermines trust in the media. They used skewed information including Donald Trump's fake news awards which included legitimately fake news from mainstream sources. They failed to acknowledge that anything on the list had been disproven.

Depending on how you view fake news, an argument can certainly be made that this Associated Press article qualified. Technically speaking, I don't think they lied. That's why I generally talk about deciptive news rather than fake news. I will likely add examples of deceptive news as I continue this series.

As a final note, I wanted to bring up the evidence that has emerged showing that conservatives are more vulnerable to fake news. Most of this evidence comes from liberal sources. Since they are fixated on fake conservative news sources, their results are likely skewed. I don't have any doubts that conservatives are more likely to fall for fake conservative news than liberals. That said, I am certainly not impressed with the success of Michael Wolff's book or the number of the number of times I have seen liberals cite opinion pieces as though they are fact. It's clear that fake news is not one sided, despite liberal claims to the contrary.