Fake or Biased News?

I sat for a while the other night and watched a public forum type show on one of the German public networks.  The chief item of discussion?  Fake news, Covid-19, and the anti-Covid demonstrations.

Discussion went hard and fast against 'fake news'.  Smart Germans would not fall for it....lesser-intelligent Germans would fall for it.  That was the angle by the item of this journalist's rant.

There's some belief that 'fake news' was a created item out of the US.  But you get the impression that not much thought has been put into this, or where the creation starts.

So this is an essay to explain 'fake news'.

You see....it's a poorly defined creation.  What it really is....involves biased news and the effort to bring you to one single conclusion. 

Instead of just giving you basic facts over something.....you go out as a journalist and mix in a blend of facts, that fit to a conclusion that you want the viewer or listener to reach. 

It's a simple task in a public forum.  You bring in one moderator, and five guests.  One guest will present the opposing view....the rest go with the moderator's view. 

If you are writing a article, you circle around the dozen facts to the story, and grasp that three of the facts don't help present your conclusion....so you dump those three, and sharpen the remaining nine to fit your narrative.  It's not a 'lie', but it's not entirely the whole story.

A good example of this involves the Russian involvement in the 2016 election.  For their efforts, the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize.  Piece by piece, the Times told the story.

At the end of the Mueller investigation over Russian involvement....there was anticipated to be all of these 'crimes'.  Well....the only crimes that resulted in charges and court action.....had NOTHING to do with Russians or Russian involvement in the election.  NOTHING. 

The Pulitzer Prize?  It sits there in New York City with the Times, but it really demonstrates more or less....nothing.  There is no Russian story to tell. 

The Covid-19 business having false or fake items?  No.  You can't find much that you would qualify as fake. 

It is true....at the very beginning, the German virus experts appeared on TV (in public forums) and said that masks were of marginal value.  They were fairly insistent upon that.  It took about 90 days for that opinion to disappear.  No one brings up this topic today, but most all remember how the initial story went.

The need to shut down various businesses in March, April and May?  You can go back and question the wisdom.  The number of people who won't recover financially, and their life savings gone?  It is part of the story, but told less often because it could influence you to do something stupid (like support far right-wing causes).

I don't want to condemn any journalist for trying to make 'fake news' into something dangerous.  But slanting a story to a biased level.....is equally dangerous as well.  Eventually, people will begin to ask questions, and be more skeptical of forum chatter.  Then you end up in the US or British situation where two-thirds of the general public questions nightly news.