FAKE NEWS?

a work in progress (unedited)

Social media along with some mainstream news agencies including television and newspapers are now being used as tools to spread erroneous information—this practice seemingly at an all-time high. I make this statement based upon my own personal observation, this after several years of using online forums of all type, along with watching television news, reading papers, or listening to radio talk shows before unrestrained bias reared its ugly head.

The days of Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, and David Brinkley are long gone. Although those deceased news anchors had their political sides, all three men were able to stay unbiased and neutral while reporting. Walter Cronkite was said to be an extreme leftist, yet I could never tell this because he was fair throughout his reporting. Some news announcers today are just the opposite, blatantly telling viewers how they should think.

Yellow Journalism is running amuck amongst several news agencies. Brian Williams, former NBC anchor, was found to have created sensationalistic stories about his time in Iraq during the war. Williams was ultimately given 6 months suspension by NBC before he eventually resigned.

CBS Correspondent Lara Logan was caught lying in her 60 Minutes report about a security contractor who fought a militant and scaled a wall of the Benghazi compound. In the fall of 2013, it was revealed to be entirely untrue and Logan was put on leave by CBS.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was caught lying in 2011 when she accused Rush Limbaugh of racism and cited “birther” remarks he made after Obama’s birth certificate was released. She was forced to apologize to Limbaugh and on the air when NewsBusters reported the video she used was from before the certificate’s release, one year old rather than one day.

The New York Times staff reporter Jayson Blair was caught lying about entire stories, sometimes making up quotes and scenes that never even occurred. The Times called Blair’s lying a “low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper” and fired him on May 1, 2003.

Stephen Randall Glass is an American former journalist. He worked for The New Republic from 1995 to 1998 until it was revealed many of his published articles were fabrications.

Perhaps the biggest news spin that I’ve witnessed in my lifetime, are some journalists and politicians calling January 6, 2021, an insurrection in Washington DC. I watched tape after tape of this activity after they were finally released, seeing nothing more than an out of control political protest.

ANTIFA and BLM protestors did the same numerous times throughout the country, setting fires and causing mass destruction, and those were erroneously called peaceful protests by some news organizations. Going by the New York Times way of looking at things, if January 6 is an insurrection, then the 0.4 tremor hitting Alaska on December 22, 2023, was a full blown earthquake.

Lately, on social media, I’ve never witnessed so many misguided statements, blatant lies, or trolling remarks slung out by individuals for whatever reason, other than perhaps the intent to pull someone’s string or create an illusion. I’m fortunate to still be able to intellectually discern between true and false after researching the facts. Others can do the same but sometimes choose not to.

Some friends and family seem to follow this herd and don’t take time to look into stories, especially where politics is concerned. These folks accept that if a reporter, or anyone for that matter, merely claims that Donald Trump or Joe Biden did such and such, then it must be the gospel truth. Many don’t want to learn the truth because it would go against their own, chiseled-in-stone, biased opinions. The truth is always out there, yet you sometimes have to dig to uncover it.

A case in point is our government’s flawed explanation for the explosion of TWA Flight 800 almost 30 years ago. Mainstream media seemed to finally agree with the FBI that it was faulty wiring inside a fuel tank causing the Boeing 747 to crash, yet suppressed evidence proves otherwise. I’ll never be convinced that it wasn’t a missile, this viewpoint coming from my own simple logic. Too many credible witnesses saw this streak of light or missile heading towards the plane to discount such.

Where social media is concerned, early on, I got suckered like so many others. Over time I ultimately came to grips with the situation, realizing that there are some really slick and sick folks out there mentally speaking, with online forums being their daily playgrounds. I’ll give you several instances on what I’m talking about:

I belong to a group of Nexus RV owners and enjoy reading what they have to say about maintenance and repairs. On more than one occasion, a couple of individuals enter the discussion with nothing good to offer about a particular brand. They let it be known that they no longer own one, yet believe that other owners “need” to hear about their discontent.

Countless times, forum readers tell them to move on but they don’t. I once made a statement that the habitual complainers evidently worked for competitors, which is probably true. That didn’t stop them. Like gum stuck to the sole of a shoe, they continued to toss out snide remarks not even pertinent to the subject on hand. I doubt these people ever owned the brand motorhome they were talking about. The administrators of this site should’ve tossed them off but didn’t.

A truck selling forum I belong to has similar riffraff, yet the trolls seem to be there for a different reason. I’ve watched person after person list their vehicle only to be attacked by someone sitting behind a computer. These troublemakers always start their uncalled for comments by saying the price is much too high—going on to mention that they’ve seen similar trucks in far better condition advertised for less. Before long, other trolls jump in having to offer their two cents. It’s pure recreation for these folks to stir the pot.

Smart sellers ignore these deadbeats and don’t reply back. There are some though that take it personally and retaliate. That’s what the instigators want. I’ve had a few trucks and cars to sell, yet avoided listing them on these free sites just because I don’t like going there. I place my ads on pay sites and don’t have to deal with tire kickers, creeps, and trolls.

Locally, here in Lake Havasu City, we have such an online site where people can toss out unwarranted or unproven information about businesses, even downright slander. I’ve read countless comments where someone eats at a local restaurant and they become incensed, perhaps just because their green beans were cold. At this point, others come out of the woodwork, detailing how they too suffered the same calamity.

They say that birds of a feather flock together, and this particular site is full of such people with nothing better to do than complain about nothing at all. Who really cares if a server was having a bad day and perhaps was a little slow or didn’t seem upbeat. It happens daily throughout the world. People aren’t perfect except for one.

I’ve often wanted to go on that site and write, “Get a life!,” yet doing so would only make things worse, along with making me a troll. Some forum members had the courage to do this with it instantly igniting a keg of dynamite.

A recent tragedy in Bullhead City, Arizona, involving the death of five children, sadly brought out the educationally uninformed along with troublesome trolls in droves on a couple of forums. Erroneous comments were made about the Bullhead Fire Department response time, with social media gadflies taking this unsubstantiated gossip and running with it.

That’s how social media seems to work. People read something, and then instead of investigating whether it’s true or not, instinctively put it out there on the grapevine for all to see. “A friend of a friend of a friend told me this and I’m telling you!”

On Facebook, I’ve seen post after post about this or that, supposedly the information being fact, when in reality their information is as bogus as folks claiming years ago that the earth was flat. These days, whenever I come across information that I deem to be suspicious, whether it be on social media or mainstream news, I think back to the last two lines of that classic piece of poetry at the end of “Nights in White Satin,” by the Moody Blues.

The ending lyrics to “Late Lament” align perfectly for those of us that are wise enough to take time to learn the truth. Unfortunately, many out there are incapable of further research for various reasons. Sadly, these are undoubtedly the ones believing everything they hear on their respective news channels where politics is concerned, and vote accordingly.

There are even people knowing that something’s fake, while at the same time brazenly spreading the word that it’s real. I can think of several politicians that are experts at this, yet will refrain from name dropping to avoid another keg of dynamite going off.

When I finally hear CNN broadcast journalist, Anderson Cooper, inform viewers that red is actually grey, and yellow without question, is white, I’ll know that we’ve reached the end of the road where fake news is concerned. With some news outlets going along with woke agendas and political correctness regarding male and female identity, we’re not that far off.

“LATE LAMENT”

Breathe deep the gathering gloom,

Watch lights fade from every room.

Bedsitter people look back and lament,

Another day’s useless energy spent.

Impassioned lovers wrestle as one.

Lonely man cries for love and has none.

New mother picks up and suckles her son.

Senior citizens wish they were young.

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night,

Removes the colours from our sight.

Red is grey and yellow white,

But we decide which is right

And which is an illusion.