Fake news and alternative facts are not new phenomena. Although known by many names, they are as common as the air that we breathe and they are spread from many sources – sometimes our own government.
I was a 1950s elementary schooler when I first heard about “propaganda”. That was the word used in newspapers, radio and TV to characterize lies and half-truths told by Russians (USSR at the time) to trick people into supporting communist revolutions around the world. There were reports of communist “infiltrators” manipulating the entertainment industry, civil rights movements, labor unions, and even government agencies.
It became personal when anonymous people called our home with threats because my mother was leading a PTA effort to apply fluoride to the teeth of elementary school students. Some people were convinced by fake news that fluoride treatment was a communist plot; therefore my mother must be a communist sympathizer.
By the dawn of the 1960’s I wondered about a billboard in my hometown that read “Impeach Earl Warren”. Warren was a Republican Chief Justice of the Supreme Court appointed by President Eisenhower. The reason that I heard for wanting to impeach him was that he had led the court in deciding “Brown vs Board of Education” – the landmark court case which required integration of public schools across the nation. Earl Warren sounded like a hero to me, not a villain. The court’s decision held and Warren was not impeached but conservatives still rail against “activist” judges who “legislate from the bench” on issues such as same sex marriage. To me, those decisions are supporting equal rights for all Americans. I don’t understand people who see them as infringing on the rights of states unless the argument is that states have a right to discriminate against minorities.
Throughout history, strongly held beliefs and greed have tempted people to get their way by any means necessary including fake news, alternative truth, and propaganda. By whatever name, lies persist. Benjamin Franklin published a fake issue of a newspaper reporting that British loyalists sent the scalps of American patriots, taken by Native American allies of the crown, to King George as gifts. The claim was untrue but it helped build revolutionary sentiment. Was it OK for Franklin to do that in support of the revolutionary cause that he believed to be just? More recently, an anti-abortion Christian group created fake news videos that seemed to show Planned Parenthood executives selling body parts of aborted fetuses. The allegations are false but they still fuel efforts to de-fund and discredit Planned Parenthood. Tobacco companies created fake science to convince us that cigarettes are not bad for our health. Carbon fuel companies publish fake science to convince us that burning their products doesn’t cause climate change.
Russia publishes fake news with the obvious intent of undermining American confidence in our own political system, institutions and citizenry. They will incite mistrust across racial, religious, cultural, political or any other American division if they think it will weaken us. It works, and it shouldn’t surprise us. Do we do similar things in Iran, Russia and other nations that we see as adversaries?
Our own government has fabricated fake news to create public support for wars. President Johnson did it to gain congressional and public support for the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that authorized expansion of the Vietnam War. The Reagan Administration did it in order to carry out the Iran-Contra affair.
If fake news is all around us, how do we find truth as a basis for decisions? First, pay attention to competent, professional journalism across the political spectrum. Journalists are not shy
about pointing out the errors of competitors. Their self-policing will help identify fake news. Second, find credible sources in addition to mainstream news media. Two of my favorites are “Scientific American” and “Commonwealth Fund”. You can choose from many others. Third, don’t spread stories on social media without checking whether they’re true. Maybe it seems humorous, but there are people who actually believe even the most outrageous of posts. Fourth, don’t allow, and whenever possible prosecute elected and other government officials responsible for intentional publication of untrue information.
Our commitment to truth must be stronger than our desire to persuade others to our point of view. It is the truth that keeps us free.