Fostering fake news stories.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe
• Position: WORDS IMAGES

SOME COMMENTATORS CALL IT "faux news"; others refer to it as "fake news." It is not just "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report with Steven Colbert"--cited as the primary news sources for millions of people. It is the mainstream news media blowing up minor, unimportant events into "fake news" that replaces "real news" about important subjects. This affliction can influence any type of story and is the bread-and-butter of celebrity news. However, it particularly is annoying when it takes over serious news stories in areas that dramatically affect our lives, including politics, economics, and science.

For example, the overwhelming and continuous coverage of the misstatement by Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) concerning soldiers in Iraq swamped all other political coverage about issues or candidates in the November 2006 elections. All Kerry did was leave out a two-letter word, "us." The Republicans, looking for anything to distance themselves from the disastrous war in Iraq and ever-growing budget deficit, claimed Kerry was dissing the loyal troops fighting our war. Then the news media rushed in for the kill. Kerry's attack on Bush's handling of the war was lost in the error--"Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting [us] stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush." Reporters, commentators, and comics joined the Republicans in hazing the former Democratic candidate for president. The news media picked up the story attributed to "White House and Republican allies" and it dominated the headlines and TV newscasts for several days leading up to the elections. It replaced serious news coverage by emphasizing one minor gaffe. Even seasoned political reporters jumped on the bandwagon by writing stories analyzing the way the media covered the event, thus giving more publicity to the nonstory. It serves as one important example of a false news event given the status of real news in political coverage.

Pres. George Bush's miscues in grammar and relating facts usually take precedence over his far more serious errors in foreign policy and domestic economics. Mispronounced names and syntax slips become an uncomplicated story good for an easy laugh. Holding the President and his Cabinet responsible for a botched war effort or the largest deficit in this country's history is more difficult to report and write about. Real news always is.

Instead of presenting the...