Is it true that social media is full of dubious news stories from illegitimate sources? Yes, it is. Fake news is a real problem. But it's a problem the mainstream media created for itself, by driving out all ideological diversity from its ranks, and thereby driving conservative views to the margins of the profession, and treating it as illegitimate, which some conservative news vendors quickly became, and by offering far too many fake news stories of its own.
The problem isn't going away anytime soon because the one institution that could do anything about it, by policing itself, the mainstream media, has zero moral authority to do so. But the fake news sites on the internet are no better or worse than the supposedly real stuff at the New York Times, and the mainstream media will just be the pot calling the kettle black until it gets its own house in order.
i learned at a fairly young age that newspapers are extremely unreliable. Every single local newspaper article I have ever read in my life, that described an event which I personally witnessed, from a funeral to a court hearing, has gotten major details of the story factually wrong, and spun the story to fit a pre-constructed spin. So why should I believe that bigger mainstream media sources are any better? From a lifetime of observing, here's several reasons why I do not now and never will trust the mainstream media, from their lies to their many examples of hypocrisy.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA LIES AND FAKE AND FALSIFIED NEWS
1. CNN edits videotape of Black Lives Matter Supporter calling for violent protesters to take their violence to the suburbs, by editing out her "take that sh** to the suburbs" statement, and calling the segment they do air: "a call for peace" by the young woman.
2. NBC edits portion of 911 call in Trayvon Martin case to delete 911 officer asking Martin Zimmerman for the race of the person he is following, to make it appear that Zimmerman volunteered this information as a sign of his racism.
3. Dateline NBC fakes the blow up of a GMC truck on video to claim the vehicle is unsafe. (No wonder NBC created MSNBC, they needed an outlet for this phony news stuff.)
4. Dan Rather reports a fake news story about a forged letter supposedly criticizing a young George W. Bush for missing National Guard pilot duty. Amateur typography enthusiasts are able to point out the falsity of the letter within moments of the report airing. Dan Rather loses his job, but Hollywood later makes a movie, called "Truth" claiming the letter was accurate.
5. Rolling Stone publishes a fake news story about a gang rape that never happened at a University of Virginia fraternity. Shortly after being hit with a multi-million dollar libel verdict for this fake news story, Rolling Stone publishes an interview with Barack Obama earnestly complaining about fake news on social media. Neither Rolling Stone nor Mr. Obama seem aware of the irony of this moment.
6. Long after it has been proven false that Michael Brown was saying "hands up, don't shoot" when slain during a tussle with a Feruson, Mo. police officer, the mantra is being repeated by news media across the country.
7. Walter Duranty wins a Pulitzer Prize for whitewashing the horrors of Stalinism and helping the Soviets hide the truth about the genocide of Ukrainian kulaks, while enthusiastically reporting on the glories of Soviet Stalinism for the New York Times. Of course, one could take any given year of New York Times reporting over the last 100 years, and find at least a dozen left wing lies per year, from enthusiastically endorsing the Piltdown Man hoax, to misreporting virtually every aspect of the Valerie Plame scandal.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA HYPOCRISY
1. Dan Quayle misspells potato. MAINSTREAM MEDIA REACTION (hereinafter "MMR"): "Too stupid to be the Vice-President." Barack Obama brags of having campaigned in 57 States. MMR: "Most intelligent candidate ever to run for the office of the President."
2. Bill Clinton terminates all 50 U.S. Attorneys in the nation, immediately upon taking office, and replaces them with hand-selected successors, in a throwback to the spoils system which so outraged Americans of an earlier generation that it was outlawed by early 20th Century Civil Service reform. MMR: Crickets.
George W. Bush, long after taking office, terminates 8 U.S. Attorneys. MMR: "OUTRAGEOUS!! A MAJOR SCANDAL!!!"
3. Ronald Reagan's 1980s are a decade of prosperity. MMR: "Let us bemoan this decade of greed."
Bill Clinton's 1990s are a decade of prosperity. MMR: "Let us celebrate this decade of prosperity!"
4. Republican Senators, holding a majority position, consider changing the Senate's rules to make it easier to override a minority party's filibuster. MMR: "This is a terrible idea! A 'nuclear option' which represents an immoral evil threat to the Republic, which would silence the minority and deprive and strip them of all rights and overcome Constitutional assurances of checks and balances; and lead to lions and tigers and bears and cats and dogs living together oh no!!"
Democratic Senators, holding a majority position in the senate a few years later, don't just consider, but actually enact the so-called "nuclear option" and make it easier for themselves to override minority party filibusters. MMR: "This is a great idea." Indeed, the New York Times editorial board actually publishes an editorial claiming it has changed its mind, and now favors implementation of the new rules, and has suddenly decided that it now disagrees with its own earlier editorial, published a few years before, arguing against the so-called Nuclear Option when Republicans were in the majority and were considering it. You can't make this stuff up.
5. Richard Nixon erases 18 minutes of a conversation from an internal White House taping system before turning it over to investigators to respond to subpoenas in the Watergate scandal. MMR: "Impeach this man!"
Hillary Clinton erases 30,000 emails, and has her personal assistants, literally, take a hammer to smart phones and tablets, which she never does turn over to investigatores to respond to subpoenas in the scandal involving her mishandling of classified information while Secretary of State. MMR: "Elect this woman!"
6. Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney is accused of having had yard work done by illegal immigrants (who were not hired by him, but were employed by a citizen-owned landscape company Romney had hired to do the work and whom Romney had instructed not to employ illegals). MMR: "Let's send a reporter to Guatemala to interview one of the illegal laborers who worked on Mitt Romney's lawn!"
Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign events are all picketed by a group of Haitians protesting the Clinton Foundation's graft and corruption in Haiti. MMR: "Should we send a reporter outside to talk to those Haitians? No, that would involve walking several yards, with all of our camera equipment in tow. We don't have the resources for that!"
7. Margaret Thatcher dies. MMR: "Three Cheers!!! The evil hag who proved the flaws in English socialism and helped win the Cold War is dead!!! Let us bring in an expert panel to discuss how horrible she was."
Fidel Castro dies. MMR: "Let us mourn the life of this courageous revolutionary, and discuss all the wonderful things the 'longest serving President' of Cuba did for his people, whom he loved. Viva la Revolucion!!"
8. A white police officer shoots a black suspect during an arrest. MMR: "The police are all racists and it's time to end police violence!!"
A black Black Lives Matter supporter takes sniper shots at police officers in Dallas, killing 5 of them, while ambush style assaults against police officers increase by 300% in less than a year. MMR: "The police are all racists and it's time to end police violence!!"
9. A county clerk refuses to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples, after ordered to do so by a federal court. MMR: "She has a duty, as a local public official, to follow the federal laws, regardless of her personal opinions about those laws. Order her to comply or arrest her."
City officials declare their municipalities to be "sanctuary cities" which will not enforce federal immigration law. MMR: "Such courage!"
10. Clarence Thomas is accused of having once said "there's a pubic hair on my coca-cola" to a female staff member. MMR: "This man has committed sexual harassment and is not fit to be on the Supreme Court."
Bill Clinton is repeatedly credibly accused of having raped, groped, exposed himself to, and otherwise sexually assaulted several different women, throughout his life, including during his time in the White House, and perjures himself about having sexually exploited an immature young intern during both working and leisure hours in the oval office. MMR: "Let's all just move on. This is a personal matter that has nothing to do with Clinton's continuing fitness for office."
