I read with interest the story of some French politicians trying to manufacture positive news about a school-goods price reduction...will they never learn? In 1999 I was a Fellow in the RIAS cultural-exchange program to Germany, and I quickly learned elected officials in Europe expect to have a journalist's questions provided in advance. Amazing. No wonder they think they can create fake news events.
Never happen here, right? Well yes, it does. How about all of those townhall meetings and the shouting about wanting "my country back". Just what is it we're seeing? Actual grassroots political activism? Or manufactured/special interest led anger? How good a job are reporters doing examining the root causes of those events rather than just reporting the surface heat and light? Then there's the whole question of VNR's, which we've addressed on the MMMM before. With a big 2010 election cycle already underway here in Alabama, there should be ample examples of fake news being offered up as the real thing. As the number of places you can get information has increased, so have the opportunities for people with an agenda to plant "news"that is really propaganda. Can you trust every tweet on Twitter? Or each posting on Facebook? Or the ramblings of bloggers (-:
We'll be watching!
[NOTE: Coincidentally, there was an excellent article in the NY Times about photographic fakery. A good read.]
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