The 2016 election was a first in many ways. For one, it was the first election where a female was the presidential candidate for a major party. Also, it was the first election where social media played a definitive role in the general election. Additionally, it was the the first election where someone with no political or military experience won the electoral college. But most disturbing of all, it was the first election where falsehoods posted under the guise of legitimate media – fittingly called fake news – was a top issue in the election cycle.
Fake news is not a brand new concept. In 1475, a missing 2 ½ year old boy named Simonino became the centerpiece of a fake news story in Italy that blamed the boy’s disappearance on the Jewish community. In 1938, a theatrical performance of War of the Worlds on CBS Radio led to panic in the streets as rumors spread that the theatrical performance was a real-time radio news broadcast. In the 1950’s, the Red Scare, in which thousands were wrongfully accused of Communism, often included false reports on behalf of the threats. However, the magnitude of fake news during the 2016 election was unprecedented.
During the 2016 election, lines became blurred as fake news stories rivaled real news stories in terms of Facebook shares and overall readership. The religious community was fooled when articles claiming that Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump for president were spread just before the election. In December, Edgar Welch, a young man who read a fake news article alleging Hillary Clinton took part in a pedophilia ring based in a Washington DC pizza parlor, opened fire on said parlor leading to panic among the restaurant’s employees. Liberals had their share in fake news too, when a story regarding Ireland accepting Trump refugees began to circulate. The press began to refer to 2016 as the era of “post-fact.”
Words cannot explain how concerning the whole fake news debacle truly is. The prospect of Donald Trump being president is scary enough as the administration has already shown a distaste for telling the truth. For instance, Counselor to President Trump, Kellyanne Conway, created the fictitious “Bowling Green Massacre” to justify the unsettling executive order designed to prevent immigration from certain Muslim countries. The fact that there is an entire region of the media dedicated to falsifying information is a truly concerning prospect for those of us who want to hear the truth about things. It should not matter which side of the aisle you are on because fake news violates basic ethical principles that the media has generally followed for generations. As media consumers, and American citizens, I advise everyone to look out for “clickbait” websites and outrageous-sounding stories, or at the very least check the information with a quick search before believing it.
