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by jordigh 3071 days ago
No, "fake news" refers to a very specific phenomenon. It's not just any kind of misleading or incorrect reporting. Trump was the one to start saying "not fake news, YOU'RE fake news", but the phenomenon as initially encountered was about shoddy and small fraudulent websites, often trying to deceive their audience to believe that they were a different website, pushing the most anger-inducing news.

It's a far cry from the NYT or Fox News reporting incorrect things, whether deliberately or not, to someone called Foxx News or Non York Times reporting that Islam causes prostate cancer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites#Lis...
2 comments
tomc1985 3071 days ago
This phenomenon was previously called 'yellow journalism' and should be a core component of any halfway-decent, modern American History course.

Have we forgotten about the Spanish American war?

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jordigh 3071 days ago
I don't think yellow journalism has the same properties as fake news. For one, yellow journalism doesn't try to deceive its readers as being as the same source as another more reputable source. With print media, this was harder to do.

Fake news has a slightly different approach because it's much easier to reach an audience online and elude trademarks.

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IronWolve 3071 days ago
Interesting that "Before it was news" is on the list of fake news sites, its a page aggregator like Reddit and hacker news, fake articles can be posted, but doesn't make the entire site fake.

Community news/comments can be wrong, but that's a far far different than a site intentionally promoting fake propaganda, which is the true meaning of a fake news site.

And even then, propaganda can blur into a political view, then even farther into down right lies.

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