Fixation on Fake News Overshadows Waning Trust in Real Reporting
Fake news should be shunned, but the discussion of it misunderstands a new media world in which every story is at risk of being discredited, not by argument but by sheer force.
Something is deeply wrong when the pope’s voice, reputation and influence can be borrowed by a source that describes itself as “a fantasy news site” to claim that he has endorsed a presidential candidate, and then be amplified, unchallenged, through a million individual shares.