Fake News

If you don't like the news, well, just call it fake. It sounds like heaven for anyone that faced any news that wasn't in their favor. I don't like what you must report, so you know where I am going with this little spiel. 

It is hard to believe that our president could get anyone to believe that the news reports are just fake news because they are negative or unfavorable to the presidents' agenda. But it seems to work because he loves calling the news fake. 

Yes, the media and the president haven't always been chummy, but that is the way the news media is supposed to be with the president. They are a check of power that we need in our society.  When they report only favorable things about the president we all should worry about the ethics of our news. 

There are now a plethora of websites and newspapers doing fact checks of news reports. With a simple search of "fact checking" and you find several websites covering every issue in the news.  

It also seems foolish to believe that every news story is going to be perfect, and some of the false reports start with social media. Reporters rely on sources, and sometimes these sources might fit a news angle or get used because of the need to have instant news. 

We also have to remember that our president is a social media master and excels at firing up his base with outlandish Twitter rants. He uses Twitter to make random comments that probably makes his staff cringe and want to head to the local bar to have a drink or five. 

Does anyone seem shocked at what the president says or does? His supporters are going to stick with their man because only they know why they like him. We can take polls that have findings of negative ratings, but that is just fake news anyway. 

I wish I could have used the fake news ideas when I was young. Wait, I did use something like that and it didn't work because mom and dad knew the truth. I trust we as a nation know the truth and know that a little fact checking will show us that fake news is sometimes painfully truthful news. 

Donald Trump isn't a career politician and he isn't familiar with "double-speak." It might be why he just screams fake news when the news isn't good for him. He hasn't learned how to talk like a career politician and that might be why his base loves him. He seems original, but he still pushes a Republican agenda that seems unoriginal. 

Will fake news soon be replaced by something catchier and trending with the Trump base, but for now, the president seems willing to distract us from what is really going on in Washington.