In his first post-election press conference, Donald Trump refused to take questions from CNN, describing them as “fake news” because they had criticised his policies.
The Post-Truth Era: Dissing Information What’s the story? “Fake news” and “alternative facts”
“Fake news” is a recently coined term that refers to deliberate attempts to publish hoaxes, propaganda and disinformation masquerading as real news. The most common means of delivery is via websites, often driven by “spontaneous” (but actually carefully planned) social media to amplify their effect. Unlike satire - for example the UK magazine Private Eye, which presents obvious parodies of news stories for the purpose of entertainment - fake news wilfully seeks to mislead people. Some fake news websites use a technique called “spoofing”, in which the site’s design simulates a real and trusted news source to further fool the viewer. During the recent US presidential election and the UK EU “Brexit” referendum fake news became highly politicised, reaching new levels of sophistication and frequency. Many stories were designed to provoke anger, with the main aim of swinging undecided voters - for example claims were made that the EU planned to incorporate the British Army into a European one, or that membership of the EU was an open door to ISIS terrorists entering the UK. A more immediate danger presented by fake news was manifested in the USA when a 28-year old man, Edgar Maddison Welch, drove over 200 miles to fire an assault rifle into an Washington DC pizza shop falsely accused online of hosting a child sex trafficking ring run by Hillary Clinton. Fortunately no-one was hurt in the incident. Major search engines are now trying to develop new software that can block fake news.
Busman’s howler days Crowd control
Wagging the dog
Tweet dreams
Before the UK’s EU Referendum on 23rd June 2016, the Vote Leave campaign toured a bright red bus which stated “We send the EU £350 million a week. Let’s fund our NHS instead”. Many members of the British public interpreted this as a promise to redirect money to the NHS, and on that basis voted for Britain to leave the European Union. However, after the surprise narrow victory of Leave by 52 to 48%, senior campaigners attempted to distance themselves from the bus, Ian Duncan Smith stating that the message was intended to be a “possibility” rather than taken literally. Others denied they were even aware of the bus, despite being photographed with it. In October 2016 Prime Minister Theresa May announced that far from receiving any extra cash, because of Brexit’s devaluation of the Pound the NHS in fact faced further “efficiencies” of £22 billion.
Wag the Dog is a 1997 comedy film directed by Barry Levinson, which was loosely adapted from Larry Beinhart’s novel American Hero. It follows a White House spin doctor (Robert De Niro) who, to get a scandal-embroiled President re-elected, distracts the public by hiring a Hollywood film producer (Dustin Hoffman) to create footage of a fictional war with Albania. This “fake news” is then fed to the media. Some critics at the time pointed out that the plot was implausible because the White House was above such a deception. However, on February 2nd 2017 Kellyanne Conway (see left) attempted to justify Donald Trump’s travel ban from certain Muslim countries by referring to two Iraqi men arrested in 2011 for plotting a terror attack as the “masterminds behind the Bowling Green [Kentucky] massacre”. No massacre or even attack had actually occurred.
Democracy depends on a free and independent press, but in the USA there is an “ongoing war” between the Trump White House and the media. President Trump has tried to undermine the public image of any media critical of him by referring to journalists as “lying,” “dishonest,” “disgusting” and “scum.” Respected news network CNN has been barred from White House press conferences after questioning his policies, and Trump has threatened to attack the media further by stating “I’m going to open up our libel laws so... ...we can sue them and win lots of money.” Trump often bypasses the media altogether to communicate with the public directly via Twitter an irony as the word “media” comes from it being an “intermediate” between newsmakers and the public. His tweets have drawn criticism for coming across as often trivial, ill-informed, a means of settling scores or dangerously provocative.
In a press conference on January 21st 2017, Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary, stated that the crowd witnessing Donald Trump become President of the USA at the Mall in Washington DC “was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe”. The White House claimed the number attending was 1.5 million, but photographic evidence and experts specialising in crowd analysis suggested the actual figure to be much less, possibly even as low as 250,000. When numerous sources highlighted the fact that Spicer’s claims were incorrect, Donald Trump’s Counsellor and spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway, told NBC’s Chuck Todd in a TV interview that Spicer had merely presented “alternative facts”. Todd responded by saying “alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.”