Fake News

January 17, 2017

Living in Italy has taught me many things, among them, the enduring importance of symbols and metaphors. According to cognitive linguists metaphors and symbols are useful because they can become a shorthand to explain complex subjects. The nativity scene is a visual example of this. According to Umbrian legends, St. Francis created the nativity scene to teach the story of Christ’s birth to the people in the countryside. Eight hundred years later this symbol of Christmas is alive and well in Umbria. Symbols that last for hundreds or thousands of years seep deep into our consciousness and often seem inseparable from that which is symbolized. As an exmple, one Umbrian farmer assured me that the living nativity scene in his small village had all of the animals from the original nativity scene. I asked where the camels were, and he replied, there are no camels in Umbria. Our nativity scene, he patiently explained to me, is a replica of the original nativity scene created by St. Francis. Nativity scenes in Umbria have become symbols of symbols.

Our use of symbols and metaphors are also said to be important in understanding ourselves and others in facilitating open dialogue. However there is no guarantee that my interpretation of the symbol is the same as yours. When I recall my symbol of a nativity scene, I am not thinking about the nativity scene that St. Francis created, or indeed the nativity scene in Bethlehem. I suppose I am thinking about a nativity scene I saw as a child in a church yard in Michigan.

The map is not the territory as Alfred Korzybski first said in an effort to point out the difference between symbols and reality. Our perception of the world is created in our brain as a “map” of reality. A good map, although it is not the territory, will have similar structure to that which it represents in order for it to be useful. The map I have in my head when I think of nativity scenes has been created through the use of my five senses that I have employed to collect information about the world. It is clearly not the same map as the Umbrian farmer who spoke with me.

And so we come to the topic of news. Is it correct to say that my real news is your fake news and vise versa, based upon the map in my head? Or is this explanation another example of false equivalency where I state that A equals B because A has properties of B ignoring all the non relevant properties that make them disequal? Is the term “fake news” a symbol or metaphor that is different to each of us depending on our internal maps, or is it an actual category that can be defined? Are opinion pieces, with which the reader disagrees, satirical articles, propaganda and news that contains factual errors the same as “fake news?” I have spent the last several weeks exploring these questions and reading “fake news” sites. These are my observations.

First, I need to further define some terms. Let’s start with propaganda. Webster’s defines propaganda as “The spreading of ideas, information or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, cause, or a person.” Webster’s next defines opinion: “A belief stronger than an impression and less strong than positive knowledge.” Satire is defined as “Wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly.” Fake news is defined in Wikipedia as “Sites that deliberately publish hoaxes, propaganda and disinformation using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect.”

Although these definitions have some properties in common –they are less strong than positive knowledge– however there are significant differences in intent. In propaganda the purpose of an article is to convince the reader to help or injure that which I am discussing. Satire seeks to expose or discredit something that strikes me as vice or folly and is usually written about in a humorous vein. Opinion informs the reader of my belief with the intent to convince the reader to join me in my opinion. Now we come to Fake News. Here the intent is to deliberately use disinformation to drive social media traffic in order to create a stir. Why does Fake News want to create a stir? Maybe they do it to cause disruption in the system, or maybe they do it to make money on the clicks or maybe they do it to see how stupid the readers are.

Russian TV or RT has been called a propaganda arm of the Russian government by the United States and some people refer to it as Fake New. If it meets our definition of propoganda it will be trying to injure the reputation of the United States or others that would not agree with a Russian point of view. Here are some topics that were covered in the last few weeks:

18 years old Americans are being trained to used video games to prepare themselves for war

The US stock market is being manipulate by BOTS

Low oil prices will send the US into a financial depression

Countless programs on the brutaltiy of the American police

Trump is right, the intelligence community is letting the American public down and is spreading Fake News.

The only ones who knew Trump would win the election was us (RT)

Their coverage, in my opinion meets the definition of propaganda, both in their reporting of a subject and in the selection of the topics that they cover. I would not define RT as “fake news.” They sometimes, not often, have commentators who are slightly critical of Russia. Most of their criticism falls on Sweden, Angela Merkle and the United States, although Trump, so far, has been given positive coverage, except for one commentator who insinuated that Trump received his initial funds for his business from the American mob.

Now let me review The Angry Patriot, a popular right wing news site that aggregates news and then comments on the articles. This site spreads disinformation through its headlines and commentary that are on the web site and are emailed to subscribers. (In the interest of getting out of my bubble, I have subscribed to this and other Fake News sites.)

Here is a recent article headline that caught my attention:

BREAKING- Just Before Leaving Office, Obama Caught in a $2.6 BILLION Scandal

“Barack Obama’s legacy just got another massive, and rather expensive, blemish. American taxpayers are livid over this betrayal, but the mainstream media has been silent!”

The article goes on to explain that “dead retailers” somehow redeemed more than $2 billion worth of food stamps. Okay, keep that amount in mind. The source for the article is an article posted on Free Beacon, another alt. right Fake News site. However a cursory read of this original article plus a bit of research unearths these facts:

1. In 2014 Food Stamps (SNAP) was a federal sponsored benefit of $74 billion dollars. The benefits themselves are distributed by each state.
2. The state of Ohio’s Food Stamp program is $2.5 billion.
3. In July of 2016 there was a $48,000 audit of Ohio’s program which found $31,000 in questionable costs…less than the cost of the audit.
4. There is no record of a $2.6 billion dollar food stamp scam.

This article meets the definition of fake news in that it was a “deliberate use of disinformation.” Did the authors of the article in Angry Patriot actually read the article in Free Beacon? Who knows, but if they did, then they deliberately misled the reader, if they did not read past the headline, they are still spreading fake news.

So what I have learned is that Fake News is not a metaphor or a symbol, and to define it as such sanitizes its dangerous effects. Regardless of our political positions, using logic and research, we can determine fact from fiction.

My advice regarding Fake News:

1. Check the URL on a site. The most popular Fake News site is ABCnews.com.co. People use this site thinking it is ABC news, but it is a fake replica of that site, note the “co.” At the end of the site. Many “news items” items from these sites go viral before they are debunked, so be careful when you retweet or forward articles.
2. It is vital to thoroughly check the sources of these sites. Keep searching until you find the original article, which may lead you into Byzantine tunnels! Most of these articles have some grain of factual truth, but it is encompassed in lies and distoritions.
3. I found that many of the headlines of these articles had little if anything to do with that which was written in the article. I think the presumption is that people will only take the time to read the headlines. Take your time. Read. Be informed.
4. Don’t be taken in when Trump calls CNN or the New York Times Fake News. This is like in the old days if the tabloids suddenly said they were legitimate and the legitimate papers were labeled as taboloids.
5. Use your common sense. I have many journalist friends. There is a rigorous process that professional writers go through before publishing their articles. It is fine if someone, such as myself, is publishing opinions, but beware of those who turn opinions into facts and facts into opinions. They are different.

Fake News is not a map, in the metaphorical sense. It is the territory. Don’t confuse them. I really believe that it is incumbent upon us as citizens to not turn away from what is happening in the media. If you see facts that are incorrect, call it out. If you see an article that is spreading disinformation, with a clearly malicious, mean-spirited intent, call it out. We are good-hearted people who do not want to be duped. We must use critical thinking skills when we approach news on the internet. I don’t think this is a right wing or a left wing issue. Facts are facts. Opinions are opinions and lies and misinformation and hoaxes are fake and need to be called out.

A final quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

“We are tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” (Letter from a Birminham Jail.)