The concept of fake news should be pretty clear, but it's not.

YouTube: Consequence of Sound
YouTube: Consequence of Sound
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Okay, let's keep politics out of this one and stick with facts.  My thought of "fake news" would a story that is made up to look like news. "

So let's look at other stuff that is being called "fake news" which I think shouldn't be referred to under that name.

First up would be "slanted news" which would be news that favors a particular side of an argument.

Then there would be "propaganda" which would be news mean to aggressively push a particular agenda (kind of like "slanted news" x 10).

I would also say there is "sloppy news" in which the reporter didn't dig down to all of the facts.

And finally on this list is "sensationalistic news" in which the headline or teasers are blown up a bit to make a story more interesting. The picture in this blog is a GREAT example of this because the gorilla did not "jam out", it more like ran it's fingers across the strings of a bass that Flea took into the cage (sorry, the gorilla was not ready to join the Rockafella Explosion).

I really just don't think the term "fake news" should be applied to all of these categories. Heck, in some of these cases calling the things by their real names is worse than calling them "fake news".  We have to communicate with each other on some level and using short-hand terms like "fake news" doesn't tell you anything about the motivations of the writer.

The opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author and are not representative of the opinions of Townsquare Media Lubbock, its advertisers or affiliates.

 

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