ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced story.” It is an editorial by the editor.
“All of your children are poor unfortunate victims of lies you believe… A plague upon your ignorance.” — Frank Zappa
It happens more than once every day on Facebook — Someone posts an outrageously false claim in a meme that was carefully crafted and manipulated by someone else to spread cancerous lies on the Internet. And, as has been observed astutely before, a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can get his pants on.
My model of community journalism must include Facebook because, despite its obvious drawbacks, it occasionally provides a way to obtain valuable information. As long as the user knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Unfortunately, much of this chaff is skillfully created by toxic underground political and shadowy cultural figures who have an agenda to discredit certain public officials with whom they disagree or despise.
Because of this growing disturbing trend of deliberately posting and promoting falsehoods in the public arena, I have developed a personal policy to handle these issues for myself.
I don’t really have a problem with the circulation of opposing opinions. That should be obvious in simply reading Townbroadcast, in which two columnists every week have their positions presented, despite my strong personal misgivings. As a community journalist for more than 45 years, I have held an abiding belief in a robust debate in a free marketplace of ideas and opinions.
So when I see a right-wing opinion posted on Facebook, I almost always duly note it and move on. I don’t wish to get bogged down in exchanging opposing opinions with people whom I will never change or win over.
However, my blood boils when I see flat-out lies posted and circulated like malignant tumors, masquerading as truth. Though it’s probably impossible to keep up with the plethora of deliberately misleading and fake stuff every day on Facebook, whenever I can, I challenge them by responding with fact-checking services such as Snopes. Politifact and Factcheck.org.
Even though I have confined my activity only to challenging lies, I still find myself getting the intellectual and rational life of me sucked dry by Facebook users who don’t know or even don’t care about the truth.
It usually starts with a local right-wing zealot posting a meme excoriating the likes of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi. Congresswoman Omar or Rashida Talib. It’s one thing to oppose these people and be critical about their attitudes or proposals, but it’s quite another to trash them falsely and deliberately with manipulated data and photos.
After I respond with a fact-check service, the poster reacts with the question, “You don’t really believe Snopes, do you?” The notion is that the fact-checkers themselves are corrupt and untrustworthy.
So that begs the question — what news or truth source can be used to referee this disagreement? According to the person who started the literary fight, only sources he believes in or trusts. In other words, more right-wing sites such as Brietbart, Fox News or the Daily Caller.
So I somehow have been sucked into an evil debate in which I am set up to lose, regardless of what the actual truth is. It’s a deliberate waste of time.
The new Queen of Targets for the right-wing blogosphere is freshman Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who has really pushed their buttons since bursting on the scene only a little more than a year ago.
The most recent was a photo of her with a captioned quote about technology and mountains.
“A fact-checker said, ‘In early 2019, Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King posted a meme that ridiculed his Democratic Congressional counterpart, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (often known by her initials AOC), a frequent target of scrutiny and misinformation, mostly from right-leaning critics.”
I recently lost a “friend” on Facebook because I took umbrage with posting a photo collage depicting recent presidents with the American flag in the background, but Barack Obama speaking in front of an alleged Muslim prayer curtain.
My fact checked response was, “There is no such thing as a ‘Muslim prayer curtain,’ and the patterned drapes shown behind President Obama bear no ‘Arabic symbols’ or other markings of significance. They’re simply gold silk lampas curtains that have adorned a wall in the East Room of the White House (a site commonly used for presidential press conferences) through several presidential administrations since the early 1960s.”
I was accused of trolling and acting as the Facebook Police. My crime was objecting to the continued circulation of toxic lies.
One again, I must be clear that everyone is entitled to an opinion, whether it’s based on truth or not. But I consider it morally reprehensible to use deliberately doctored and Photoshopped material, circulate it and then act indignant when called out for the ghastly crime.
“You can’t handle the truth!.”
Mr. Young makes important, valid points in this piece. I, too, have run into that wall of willing misinformation from people who post false memes. I have used the same sites to check the veracity of such posts (snopes, politifact, and factcheck) and run into the same denial of trust (you believe THEM?).
I cannot speak conclusively, but I would wager that all of Mr. Young’s contributors, left or right, check their facts before making claims. (I do.) It is the responders to those contributors I would question.
Be that as it may, one might be interested to know that the American Library Association recognizes snopes.com, PolitiFact, FactCheck, Hoax-Slayer, PunditFact. and TruthorFiction to all be reliable sources of discerning truth from lie. A new source, USAFact, was highlighted on 60 Minutes recently which also shows promise but does not yet appear on the ALA web site.
The bottom line here is that spreading lies is far too easy. Spreading truth requires a little effort and sleuthing. And there are believable sites to which one may turn.
Like Mr. Young, I embrace intelligent debate on all sides of any issue, and vehemently support free speech, especially when it serves to enlighten and educate.
Like Mr. Young, I peruse Facebook daily, sort of a way to keep a finger on the pulse of what Americans are saying, believing, espousing, and falsely spreading about. Kind of like I had to do professionally as a librarian, keeping up with what was on other media (TV, radio, movies, etc.) even though I didn’t enjoy those particular shows, films, etc., in order to serve my library clientele satisfactorily.
Intelligent adults may hold differing points of view. Intelligent adults act responsibly when offering data to support their views. Intelligent adults seek truth. And Townbroadcast contributors seem to fall into that category.
Make a note of the above named ALA endorsed sites for checking facts. The American Library Association is dedicated to being a non-partisan, non-biased source of information in all formats.
Great information. Thankyou both.