Lucky for me, I was busy all day and did not learn about this until it was over with. ABC News reporter Brian Ross put out a report this morning with most of the crucial details wrong – causing the Dow 30 Industrials to drop 350 points. The false report was broadcast as an interruption to regular scheduled programming, as well. Seven hours later, Ross issued a weak clarification; in fact, his report should have been retracted as much of…
In a survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for BuzzFeed News, 71 percent of self-identifying Democrats surveyed mistook fake news headlines for real stories. Those who identify as Republicans fell for the false headlines at a higher rate, with 84 percent of those surveyed believing they were true. Source: The fake news stories that fooled liberals in 2016. Read the original report here. (UPDATE: This link goes to Buzzfeed, which confirmed in Jan 2017 that they lack traditional media editorial standards…
Many of the fake stories conservatives are tricked into sharing have been deliberately planted by the left to make fools of us. Source: The Left is Busily Planting Fake Red-Meat Conservative News Sites | The Stream Similarly, many of the fake stories published by Occupy Democrats are used to trick liberals into sharing and making fools of themselves (see prior posts on this topic). We’ve written about this before and this also illustrates how the MSM does the same thing, as…
Under pressure to meet click thru targets, reporters and editors start putting out fake news. Really. Truth no longer matters. Imagine what this does for propaganda opportunities!
TL;DR Summary: TV news, especially, but print news too, relies on a concept of “emotional jolts per minute” to engage their viewer or reader. An emotionally jolted viewer or reader is more likely to retain the story in their head. An emotionally jolted person is more susceptible to advertising messages, which is good for the business. The Washington Post ended their Internet meme fact checking column because they discovered that no one cares if the meme is false; as long…