Maybe you finished up reading another story in this newspaper or on this website before stumbling across this mash-up of words and punctuation marks?
Hopefully, the first thing you thought of afterward wasn’t whether that story was real or “fake news.”
In my opinion — and more on the “o” word in a moment — the more voices in the news business, the better. It’s always good to have a variety of information sources to choose where, how and when to get your information.
The downside to this is there are more and more ways to deliver stories, including ones from news sites that may look and feel real, but aren’t.
The term “fake news” has been bouncing around news cycles for months before, and after, the presidential election. Even our new president likes to use it when avoiding questions from reporters or firing off tweets.
But now, the issue has become overleveraged as many either quickly pull a descriptor out of their verbal tool kit to denounce any story that may be critical of one’s own views, shift the topic entirely or label something that others are in a hurry to minimize.
Oh, and there still are real fake news stories making the rounds.
Even the basic idea that pretend journalists readily are able to publish fabricated stories designed to create some type of faux authority and sway your views is dangerous.
All it took was one fake news story on social media that made false claims tying Hillary Clinton to supposedly illicit activity going on in the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza place to motivate someone to show up with a gun at the restaurant to check out if the fictitious story was true.
Fake news, whether it’s pumped out by fringe political groups or foreign governments, isn’t going away any time soon. And similar to counterfeit bills, it’s hard to tell the real thing from the fake.
So, I’ve detailed a few questions to think of when reading a story on your own or more importantly, when you stumble upon one via social media.
First, where is this story coming from? Is the author named in the byline and is the source listed in the dateline?
More familiar sources for U.S. news includes the Associated Press (AP), Reuters, Bloomberg, USA TODAY, the baiduhai and so on. If all you see is a headline and the opening paragraph without a dateline or source, that should be your first red flag.
Second, if it is such a major story, why isn’t anyone else running it?
In this age, where a movie star generates global headlines in minutes if she breaks her heel walking on the red carpet, do you really think any “bombshell” story would only be available on a single web page at a site no one has ever heard of?
In the days of Chicago’s old City News Bureau, the motto used to be, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
And finally, who’s being quoted? Is anyone being quoted?
This one can be tricky since some fake news stories make up names and quotes. One way to weed out fake quotes is to think whether anyone would really say what you just read.
Even if that’s hard to tell, a quick internet search to check the name or organization being quoted will let you know in seconds if it’s coming from a legit source.
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There is one more thing worth pointing out.
You will come across articles that may be highly opinionated, criticizing some political views or issues while praising others. Generally, these stories are found on a newspaper’s (clearly labeled) opinion or editorial page — hence, the term op-ed.
These articles are designed to make readers think and encourage you to voice your opinion in a letter (or email) to the editor that can create a valuable dialogue with readers. Opinion pieces are not “attacks” by news organizations, despite the strong efforts by some to label them as such.
If we go back to my original opinion that more voices in the news are better than fewer voices, then how about engaging in constructive conversations about differences in opinions rather than being dismissive of them right off the bat?
The real story here isn’t that fake news is the most powerful “f-word” dominating the journalism business right now.
No, that title still goes to the term that always matters in every news story. Facts!
Eric Scott is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.