Fake News, And The Solutions For It

Guest Post by David Erickson

I seldom watch TV news because I don’t have the stomach for very much pretentious nonsense from well-coiffed teleprompter readers, but I recently spent 1-1/2 days in the hospital (for a hernia operation). I didn’t have my smart phone, so my only news was the TV. So because of that, plus the fact that I occasionally watch TV news programs just to keep up with who the latest pundits are and what the latest fake news spin is, and because I was lying in bed with nothing else to do, I was able to tolerate watching TV news for a day and a half.

One of the things that struck me, which I have often noticed before, is that the films and videos that accompany the news shows are virtually always unnecessary at best, and frequently detrimental to understanding the story. The videos are often B-roll footage that is only tangentially related to the news story and/or irrelevant footage that doesn’t aid in the telling of the news story whatsoever. On those occasions where some pictures are actually worthwhile, a few pictures included with the story such as those that usually accompany newspaper and magazine stories are usually sufficient, and if not, then the short video clips that often accompany internet news stories are always sufficient. I have never seen a case where the continuous film footage shown on TV was necessary.

And this fact was highlighted by the controversy over the fake ABC film footage that accompanied the story about the war in Syria, which was actually apparently from a shooting range in Kentucky. All of the pundits were discussing the deception (or lack of deception) by using the fake footage, but the actual relevant question, which nobody asked, was this: Why was that footage even necessary for the story, fake or not? The answer: It wasn’t necessary. It contributed exactly nothing to the understanding of the story. Everyone with a room temperature IQ knows that war involves guns and bombs, and explosions are part of that. Showing the footage of some explosions that could have been from anywhere (and apparently were) contributed nothing to understanding the relevant issues such as who is fighting who, why are they fighting, why is the U.S. involved, etc.

Television news is seductive for most people because of the “seeing is believing” mentality engrained in most people. That is often a good trait, but that trait backfires when the “seeing” is deliberately manipulated by unscrupulous TV news persons to convey what they want the viewers to believe, not what is actually happening. And that is precisely why TV news is such a good medium for fake news. Newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post are certainly good at fake news, but I think the TV news programs on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc do more damage than the newspapers. And as long as a significant portion of the population are couch potatoes that are too lazy or too stupid to investigate other news sources, especially alternate news sources, then this is a problem that will continue to plague us.

However, I don’t have a ready solution for this problem. I usually don’t like to complain about anything unless I have a proposed solution, but in this case I don’t know what the solution is. But one thing I noticed that would help immensely at least as it relates to coverage of the president is that Trump should just ban most of the MSM reporters from his press conferences. My TV viewing also included watching the press conference where Trump was explaining his decisions about Syria, and some disrespectful idiot from ABC News kept interrupting him. Trump should have just instructed the Secret Service to remove him from the room and not let him back in, ever. And then he should have done the same thing with most of the other MSM reporters, especially the TV reporters. He should then invite reporters from alternative news outlets to fill those positions. That would solve a lot of problems, but unfortunately he is never going to do that. I long ago gave up on Trump doing the right thing most of the time. He has failed to keep almost every campaign promise that he ever made, including his promises to end the wars in the Middle East. I don’t think he actually intends to end U.S. involvement in Syria, and even if he does now he will cave to the pressure to keep the troops there soon enough. He is either a complete con man and/or he is wholly owned and controlled by the Deep State. There isn’t any other explanation. Another thing Trump (or an intelligent president) should have done when confronted with all the criticism from everyone over his decision about Syria, especially Lindsey Graham and other member of Congress, is make a statement similar to the following:

Okay, if you members of Congress think we should be fighting in Syria then perhaps you should do what you have failed to do for every war the U.S. has been involved with since WW 2, and issue a declaration of war. Have you ever read the constitution that you swore to uphold? It says that only Congress can declare war. So you guys need to deliberate a declaration of war, and explain the compelling U.S. interests, and define the objectives, and define how we determine when or if success has been achieved, instead of advocating for eternal war with no clearly defined objective, which is what you usually do. After you have done that and passed a declaration of war in both the House and the Senate then I will do my constitutional duty to prosecute that war.

But of course Trump is never going to do that.

One of the other things I noticed is that Fox News is almost a bad as CNN and MSNBC. It was slightly better, but not really enough to matter, with the sole exception of Tucker Carlson. For all intents and purposes Fox News could be called CNN-lite. I watched some idiot pundent on Fox News babble on at length about how the U.S. needed to keep fighting in Syria for all of the same inane reasons that you hear on CNN and MSNBC including the (false) fact that “Assad gassed his own people”.

So what is a solution to the problem of fake news? I would like to hear suggestions in the comments.

P.S. One other news item that piqued my interest was the current scrutiny on Rudy Giuliani because of his involvement in Ukrainegate. Now I am not interested in Ukrainegate per se, because it is obviously as contrived and farcical as Russiagate, but it is interesting to consider what might happen in the drive to dig up dirt on Giuliani. He was obviously involved up to his eyeballs in the planning and cover-up of 9/11. Trump’s enemies are so desperate to dig up anything they can to impeach him, including anything related to Giuliani, that there is a small but finite chance that they will dig up and throw out something on Giuliani’s involvement with that fateful day that will get past the gatekeepers into the mainstream news cycle. And it would indeed be interesting if that happened.

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Prof. Mandelbrot
Prof. Mandelbrot

The hidden agenda is this….

If you can mistake “weapons of war” in the hands of free Americans having fun at a gun range then we should ban guns. Oooohhh look how bad that video is now! Look at that fire power those AR15’s have. Ahhhh that that looks frightening.

That was the purpose. They did it purposefully. A simple shooting range with that kind of fire power! Guns are bad. Ban them. Mark my words you will hear that narrative soon by a gun grabbing treasonous leftist bastard.

22winmag - w/o tagline

“… by a gun grabbing treasonous leftist bastard.”

Such as Trump?

StackingStock
StackingStock

Take the guns first, due process second. Hmmmm….

yahsure
yahsure

So far he seems pro-second amendment to me. The left? Openly talking about taking guns.

Anymouse
Anymouse

The MSM is directed, exclusively by the CIA. Anyone who thinks that all these networks just coincidentally cover Trump in a bad light, may they ride over rainbow bridges on their unicorns to hell.

David Erickson
David Erickson

Anymouse, you are correct except that it is not exclusively the CIA that directs the MSM. The MSM is directed by the entire Deep State, which includes the CIA but also includes many other entities such as the MIC, the banking institutions, other 3-letter alphabet government agencies, some members of Congress, the Israeli lobby, etc. In fact the upper echelons of the MSM are PART of the Deep State.

Retired
Retired

I sympathize with the frustration over fake news and I personally would go full authoritarian on the ‘reporters’ because they are as phony as the news they make up. If Trump were to do anything suggested here –and thankfully he isn’t as impulsive as I am–he would be accused of being anti-democratic and a suppressor of the truth. What pisses us off is the absolute manipulation and distortion of the truth. How many ways can Adam Schiff lie? Answer that while you are posting shooting targets with your least favorite newsman’s face on it.

David Erickson
David Erickson

Retired, you are correct that Trump would be accused of being anti-democratic and a suppressor of the truth if he did anything I suggested, but he is already being accused of everything except the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby by all of the Democrats and even a lot of the Republicans. I don’t think that doing anything I suggested would make his condition substantially worse. And he seems to apparently enjoy antagonizing and sparring with the fake news media anyway, so why doesn’t he just take off the gloves, especially if it would achieve productive results. Right now his half-measures are angering a lot of people without producing any worthwhile results (other than entertainment). If he did what I suggested it would produce worthwhile results.

Retired
Retired

His Tweets and his direct attacks on all of his enemies –msm, Pelosi and her Party, and the faceless leakers in the govt–all seem to be effective. Check out what Aesop at The Raconteur Report wrote putting words into PDJT’s mouth when she melted down. i guess your ideas are not that harsh. At least we’re all trying to express our support for him since he doesn’t get much help.

22winmag - w/o tagline

“Fake News” is a worn out old meme from about 2 years ago.

It was created by Team Trump assholes and continually hammered at by fake Project Veritas with their lame expose on CNN fakery on Monday.


comment image

“Fake News” is a *planned diversion* from genuine issues: Fake Presidents, Fake Currency, Fake Rule of Law, Fake Congress, Fake Elections, and so many others.

There is no need to promote “fake news” or waste precious resources to ponder it.

And ANOTHER THING!

Trump is not harmless, nor is “Russia” aka the new USSR.

https://www.exposetheenemy.com/israel-russia

22winmag - w/o tagline

More negatives, please!

Fake News is a diversion from Fake Currency and Fake Elections!

Onnie

comment image?format=500w

James the Wanderer

[ He is either a complete con man and/or he is wholly owned and controlled by the Deep State. There isn’t any other explanation.]
Actually, there are lots of explanations. Let’s try a few:
(1) Not even military intelligence (who are being referred to as “Q”, in a famous “conspiracy theory” they are behind Trump’s mysterious rise to power over Hillary) knew just how bad the rot was; really, the top three levels of the FBI (now fired), the DOJ and the DoState were ALL corrupt and on Hillary’s payroll, working against Trump? “Wow, guys, we’re going to need the whole first three years and then some to dig out the moles, the leakers and the freakers just in D.C. ! We’re going to need a bigger prison … maybe, Gitmo?”
(2) They really DID know how bad it was, but had to take it slow to keep the pain as low as possible. Either it would be done this way, the way they are doing it, or accept 100X casualties, blood in the streets, open revolt from the socialists / communists, possibilities of SCOTUS balking on incarceration of maleficents, RINOs trying to invoke the 26th Amendment to remove Trump, and so on.
(3) No battle plan survives contact with the enemy – Sessions was supposed to get the ball rolling, but in a display of ethics / spinelessness recused himself, with the observed results. Repubs were supposed to sweep the House and Senate in 2018, but voter fraud and weak candidates left Trump high and dry, and delayed swamp draining even further. Wray is not helping, despite previous commitments to clean out the FBI when he was appointed … and all those “disappointing appointments” [Bolton, Mattis, & co.] took longer to EXPOSE (and remove from power and / or influence once exposed) than the initial timeline projected.
There, dude, three alternative explanations just off the top of my head. You just lack imagination (and comprehension of just how tough / time-consuming / entrenched the problems were)!

David Erickson
David Erickson

James, I must respectfully disagree.

(1) Q is and always was a complete psyop. Now I believe that there was a power behind Trump’s unexpected election win, but it wasn’t patriots in the military. It was a faction of the Deep State. There is a rift in the Deep State which has been ongoing for quite a while, and the faction that supported Trump (comprised of many Zionists among others) won out in the election battle over the faction that supported Clinton.

(2) & (3) These ideas are related, and might have some validity if Trump was actually trying to drain the swamp, but his appointments have mostly been the usual swamp creatures. Now I agree that Sessions seemed at first like a good appointment, and might have actually been intended to help start draining the swamp, but it was obvious from at least the end of his first month on the job that he was as useless as tits on a bull. He was much more interested in prosecuting marijuana users than fighting the Deep State. If Trump was serious about draining the swamp he would have shown Sessions the door immediately, and he certainly wouldn’t have replaced him with Barr who is the swamp creature’s swamp creature. And all of the other “disappointing appointments” were appointed by Trump. And even if he had a legitimate excuse for being such an abysmal judge of character, he could still direct them to do what he wanted anyway. Trump is the boss of Wray and Bolton and the others. All he had to say is “Do it the way I tell you to do it or I will show you the door and replace you with someone else”. And if he couldn’t find anyone else to do the job he could do it himself. The lame excuse that most Trump supporters offer up that “Trump can’t find anyone to help him” is just that – a lame excuse.

James the Wanderer

I disagree with your disagreement!
This has never been done before – a President trying to reverse the cultural direction of the country, against the combined opposition of: the other party (given), the entire MSM (consolidated to six owners in the last fifty years), the entrenched bureaucracy (including a lot of DNC operatives), the previous administration (conspiring to prevent his election AND implementation of his objectives / agenda), most of the court system (with opposition he cannot remove due to life service guarantees), and the inertia of the population in general.
All my life I have watched as morals were destroyed, discipline was removed from schools and churches, infamous fools lived libertine lives without remorse or censure, and honor and dignity were eviscerated. Trump is no saint, but he is trying to reverse the moral decay of a whole nation against the will of its idiots in public life, celebrity and institutions. It is a battle he may not win, but I do not think he is fighting for fame, glory or wealth; can you say the same of anyone else outside the military?
I hope he wins.

David Erickson
David Erickson

Well, I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Your first paragraph (starting with “This has never been done before”) is 100% correct, except I would add that it STILL isn’t being done. And I also disagree with portions of your second paragraph. I DO think he is fighting mainly for fame and glory. He seems to be more interested in things like adoration from his fans at his rallies, and getting re-elected next year, than in fighting the Deep State. He has no guarantee that he will get re-elected next year, and if he doesn’t get re-elected then his presidency will have been a complete failure if he doesn’t get anything done in this term. If he was serious about saving America he would be going toe-to-toe with the Deep State instead of worrying about the election next year. And incidentally, I don’t think Trump will win re-election next year. I think the Deep State is coalescing around a Democrat, probably Elizabeth Warren.

James the Wanderer

Disagree again. Nothing done?
SCOTUS nominees. TPP stopped. NAFTA renegotiated. District / appeals court nominees (9th Circuit flipped from mindless liberalism to near-parity). Car mileage requirement penalties scrapped – pushing towards stripping CA of the ability to punish us all with ridiculous CAFE-type regs. Exposure of endless corruption in D.C. and environs. Three top levels of corrupt FBI / DOJ / DoState partisans fired. And my favorite –
HUNDREDS of pedophiles arrested and convicted and put behind bars in three years.
DESPITE organized and coordinated resistance from every demoncrat, holdover sitting judge and bureaucrat there is.
I can’t make Pelosi rational and I can’t make Schumer patriotic – but I can support the good things Trump has done, in defiance of the vast socialist / communist network across America.

Uncola

Thanks for posting your observations and perspectives, David. It’s something I think about quite often as well.

Advertising works, repetition sells, and headlines tell the stories. People are so busy with their jobs and their own lives the only sense they have from beyond their circle comes from random impressions:

A glance at a newspaper in a convenience store. Links on email hosting sites like AOL or Yahoo, cell phone apps and internet browsers. AP or Fox News breaks on radio, and CNN perennially playing at airports or at the dentist office.

And from these impressions opinions are formed. People perceive things are stirred up in Washington DC. Or at least more so than when Obama was President. Therefore, they conclude Trump must be the problem.

The next thing we know, the Drudge Report has links posted like this one from tonight:

PEW: 54% SUPPORT IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS…

Seeing is believing, but our eyes deceive. Nothing is as it seems and the simplest explanation is generally close but no cigar.

I can offer no solutions. Only choices.

Thank you again for the post.

David Erickson
David Erickson

Thanks Doug! I appreciate your words of encouragement.

BSHJ
BSHJ

Drudge? It is now part of “them”

Uncola

Wierd isn’t it? Drudge. Fox News. All the old heroes have feet of clay. To hell with ’em all, I say. Burn it down.

Mygirl...maybe

Drudge bounced off to the dark side recently and joined the Trump bashing leftists. Fox got the Murdoch leftist brothers running the show and, apparently, their goal is to run off their customer base ala Gilette and then they’ll claim that being a social justice warrior is a higher calling than making money.

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