The Founders Anticipated ‘Fake News.’ Here’s What They Did About It.
Jarrett Stepman / @JarrettStepman / December 30, 2016 / comments
Hyperpartisan, scurrilous, and even phony news stories have been more common than uncommon throughout American history. (Photo: Andrew Parsons/ZUMA Press/Newscom)
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Jarrett Stepman
@JarrettStepman
Jarrett Stepman is an editor for The Daily Signal. Send an email to Jarrett.
Following the presidential election, numerous stories surfaced about how “fake news” influenced the results. This prompted a reaction from the media and a concerted effort by the social media giant Facebook to crack down on the phenomenon—announcing that it would in part by using liberal fact-checkers to distinguish the “real” from the “fake” news.
The truth is that while the American media landscape has been in a constant state of change over two centuries, the spread of hyperpartisan, scurrilous, and even phony news stories has been more common than uncommon throughout the history of the republic.
Ultimately, despite the increasingly Wild West state of journalism, Americans have been better at finding the truth than less free societies.
http://dailysignal.com/2016/12/30/the-founders-anticipated-fake-news-heres-what-they-did-about-it/
