“…and so people have become lazy and assume that the news they get through their main channel (be that Fox News, Brietbart, The Hill or the New York Times) are correct.”
People have not become lazy. They have become comfortable knowing their positions are rooted in an echo chamber more than independent facts and there is nothing new about fake news. We had this same exact problem when we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq because neither could be justified based on the facts.
The scary aspect is realizing even the correct information, years down the road, cannot touch the rewriting of history.
Here is a poll from a discussion forum asking a multiple choice question about T Martin killing:
“Why did Zimmerman shoot and kill Martin?”
- Martin had a knife
- Martin was beating him up
- Martin tried to grab his gun
Granted, only 36 votes were cast but 83% voted for #2 even though Zimmerman never provided that as a justification for the killing. He gave one, and only one reason for pulling the trigger:
Martin tried to grab his gun and claimed he was going to murder him.
But why invent a justification never provided by the shooter? Because the one he gave was impossible to believe. It is unfathomable Martin somehow saw a gun that is smaller than a dollar bill that was tucked inside Zimmerman’s pants on his back right hip (as Zimmerman was on the ground and Martin straddling him), in the dark while it was raining after a brief fight. Zimmerman made a reenactment video and it includes him admitting the fight was over before he pulled the trigger, but his supporters ignored it.
Fake news exists because of fake people.