[Joeboy]

I'm sure there was a moment when "fake news" meant stories coming from superficially reputable looking websites, that in reality were fugaciously created to give a veneer of respectability to made up stories. This meaning of "fake news", which I think is actually meaningful and useful, seems to have completely vanished, or maybe I just imagined it?

[dredmorbius]

The term dates to the late 1980s when it referred to propagandistic video and audio "news releases" generally created by or for corporate interests. That usage continued through to mid-to-late 2000s decade.

It was applied to more general misinformation in the 2010s, before being 'undefined' by many of the promotors and beneficiaries of fake news.

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fake_news

https://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/execsummary/

https://www.prwatch.org/fakenews2/execsummary

[asark]

It didn't vanish so much as it was vanished. Trump and friends calling anything they didn't like "fake news" effectively destroyed any utility or specificity the term may, briefly, have had. Brilliant move.