What is “Fake News”?

Like usual, Donald Trump has taken something Hillary Clinton has said and used it against her. After she lost the election, Hillary Clinton blamed her loss on the propagation of “fake news”. Shortly after Mrs. Clinton echoed those words then President-Elect Trump used “fake news” to describe the shortcomings in modern journalism and it has stuck because of him.

So we ask ourselves the question, the important one at that, what is fake news? Simply put in the most layman terms possible, fake news is lazy journalism. In modern journalism and media the story must be out quickly - before any competitor. That usually means making assumptions and leaving out key facts. It’s mostly making grandiose assumptions though.

The Trump Administration is doing one thing right, admittedly. They are calling out the fake news propagandists for what they are, liars. Mainstream are liars and the spreading of fake news is immoral among a plethora of other things. If media giants like CNN, CBS, Washington Post et al. wish to be seen as legitimate they need to start putting in thought and waiting until they get the full story prior to publishing their “news”. It is also imperative that political ideology be removed from publishing news. The news should be a place to find unbiased truth whether or not the person writing the article is a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or Independent.

With the modern age of technology we are in a crisis. We are plagued with a lot of information, “facts” and opinions shrouded as facts and it is admittedly very difficult to figure out what is true, what is bullshit and what is garbage just by glancing at it. Thorough investigations by journalists, giving respect to the readers, and holding judgement back are just a few things that the “mainstream” media needs to do to regain our trust.