OPINION: Seeking truth, 21st-century style
Real vs Fake News
Recently the Oxford Dictionaries declared “post-truth” as the international word of the year. From Britain’s “Brexit” referendum to the American presidential election, worries have grown that people are losing some common definition of what is true.
Like garden weeds, websites offering often sensationalistic and emotionally charged headlines, and spreading unfounded rumors disguised as “facts,” have sprung up and threatened to crowd out traditional news sources. Citizens seem to be as clueless about what to believe online as the Bible’s Pontius Pilate, who in trying to judge Jesus was left wondering “What is truth?”
A few years back a “fake news anchor” named Stephen Colbert on the TV comedy show “The Colbert Report” coined the term “truthiness” to describe people who’d rather believe what they want to be true and avoid information that challenges their beliefs. Fake news stories can feed these impulses.