Beginning with the First Amendment, American principles have emphasized free speech, honest reporting, and active press, but recently, a spreading media epidemic challenges the validity of our media.
Americans take pride in their freedom of speech, and our press and journalism is well respected because of that. However, the moment intentional falsehoods compromise free speech, American journalists lose their reputations as trusted reporters and advocates of the world. In order to continue innovating, advocating, and progressing, both writers and readers must act under the truth, and not just what appears on the surface.
To most current Americans, it appears as if “fake news” is a wholly fresh issue, seemingly stemming directly from President Donald Trump falsifying reports that contradict his doctrine. However, the phenomenon is far from new.
Historically, the public has been influenced by false media before. Throughout American history, true news stories have been intentionally altered to sway the public favor. Beginning in the 1890s, the phenomenon, called Yellow Journalism, led Americans into the Spanish-American War. The Spanish-American War was as much a war on land as a war within the newspapers. Sensationalized writing flourished during this period, as writers discovered their power to convince the public to go to war and capitalized on it.
In 2016, the media found another opportunity to flood the mainstream media with false stories. Any presidential election calls for excessive news coverage. Nearly every person in the United States -- plus many more around the globe -- are tuned in, scrutinizing the candidates. Voters from every corner of the United States were especially aware of the 2016 presidential race due to the personalities involved. It was the media’s job to produce stories that captured the people’s attention -- and the media did just that. Taking advantage of all of the eyes turned to the screen, media outlets released story after story about candidates and their campaigns. While the majority of sources attempted to remain truthful, some writers released “fake news” onto platforms of all types. It was a battle of the left versus right phony journalists about who could create the craziest yet most believable story to sway a voter's opinion.
One such story led to a shooting at a local pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. The story of “Pizzagate” had particularly grasped public interest after a media outlet released news that Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton had been running a child pornography ring out of the restaurant Comet Ping Pong. While there was no evidence supporting this claim, the story snowballed as news outlets continued to proliferate it. One North Carolinian man, already frustrated with Clinton, decided to take the issue into his own hands. On December 4th, Edgar Welch entered the Comet Ping Pong pizza parlor with a loaded automatic weapon looking to bring an end to the “pornography ring”.
While Welch did not harm or kill anyone, he exemplifies a different danger: the increasing power of fake news. Shockingly, he is not alone in believing the false stories that are released to the public.
As our society transforms, media will change with us. Advancing technology will open doors to more platforms for news and entertainment. While political and societal climates heat up and debates intensify, fake news will continue to seep into our national news outlets. As we rely on journalists to notify us of what is happening in the world, we must pay close attention to what is true and what is false so that our society can develop and strengthen aided by fact and truth. It is up to us, the readers and the future, to filter out fake news and put an end to the frauds of journalism.
The phenomenon (of fake news) is far from new.
It was a battle of the left versus right phony journalists about who could create the craziest yet most believable story to sway a voter's opinion.
Tiwtter is a common source of fake news, as it is hard to differentiate fake and real accounts. Photo courtesy of Edisona.
Many people blame President Trump for the outbreak of fake news. However, the issue has existed for much longer and stems from many different sources. Photo from Pasa47.
The Importance of True Speech
By Sam Katz, Tracy Laughlin, Amina Mughnee, Max Wallach
Photo courtesy of Garry Knight
The Charger, May 2017
Back to Table of Contents