Faking news is an old gambit… it just got easier
WE HEAR a great deal about “fake news” these days. In the days before electronic hyper-babble I think fake news was known simply as “lies”. There have always been varying degrees of lying. We accept little white lies, for example, as being fairly harmless. Fibs are pretty harmless too. Then there are “rumours” which are the lies we tell in the hope they’ll be passed on to others.
Nowadays, with the arrival of the internet, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and all the other means of mass communication, rumours are just child’s play. We can press a few keys and reach a million people. Try achieving that over the back garden fence! Politicians do not lie. Good gracious no, because politicians are honourable people who have been elected to office by The People.
Politicians, however, have been known to be “economical with the truth”, which is understandable, because truth is in such short supply it would be irresponsible to use too much of it.
Fake news is an interesting commodity because it’s so easy to manufacture. I can, for example, post a Facebook entry claiming that I have seen the Loch Fish Hoek Monster and even managed to obtain a photograph of it. Look. You can clearly see its big ears and long fins, unlike any creature so far recorded in the bay. If you don’t believe me, here’s the picture. Anybody can add or subtract information from Wikipedia. I can call my local radio station and tell them there’s a 12-car pile-up on the N2 and cars are requested to take other routes. Then I can sit back and chuckle at the chaos I’ve caused. Fake news.
Often it’s very hard to distinguish between fake news and real news. I have seen several serious internet articles claiming that coconut oil has amazing medicinal properties and can cure anything from scaly legs to Alzheimers disease.
I have also read equally serious articles quoting reputable medical authorities, claiming that coconut oil is about as effective as water. The various sources offer plenty of so-called facts about good cholesterols and bad cholesterols and long-chain polymers and bio-hypermetric synapses of the frontal lobe – or whatever. Very few of us have the faintest clue what long-chain polymers or all the other medical language means.
Many believe the often repeated story that “big pharma” is a billion dollar industry that it actually suppressing simple cures because their expensive pills and potions are earning them so much money.
So it all comes down to us. We have to choose what to believe and what to reject as fake news. We have to do our own research before we believe anything.
But be careful that our research is not based on fake facts. There are plenty of them out there.
Last Laugh
A man went to see his doctor complaining about a serious and persistent cold. The doctor prescribed a course of pills, but the cold remained just as bad. Then the doctor advised: “I want you to go home, take a long cold bath and then stand naked in front of an open window for half an hour.”
“That sounds crazy, ” said the patient. “It’s freezing out there. Won’t I get pneumonia?”
“Yes, you will,” said the doctor. “and we know how to treat pneumonia, but there’s no known cure for the common cold.”