The Power of Fake News

We have a friend in the social media world (real world as well) that often posts very illuminating articles from national magazines and newspapers on politics, the war on terror, government, education and the economy. The guy really finds some good stuff, and we always make sure to take a look.

And then there was today. He put a quick link to a story that stated "Samuel Adams Apologizes for Boston Sucks Pilsner." First reaction was that someone in quality control really blew it, but then we read the source. It was from the parody site, The Onion.

We apparently are not alone in mistaking Onion news for real news, of course, we had the sense to know better. Consider the following website, which shows people's real responses to fake news. It is very scary. People really think (and get really upset) with the government when they learn that Planned Parenthood has built an abortion complex complete with nail salon. For the record, they didn't. Apparently, this happens a lot.

This leads into our homestretch for the day. For generations people got the vast majority of their news from newspaper, radio, television and bathroom stalls. They usually knew which one was the least accurate. But now with millions of websites all regurgitating the same stories or editorializing on real events thus blurring the lines of faction and fiction, it is tough for people to know the difference between legit and fake news.

It's the power of fake news people in a new media marketplace. We will need to get used to it.

Brett Banter