A Personal Essay by John Jones (11/22/19)
When looking at the “news” especially on social media there are TWO quick ways to spot when it’s totally FAKE NEWS. This first is to look at the headline. If the headline is: Biased, Subjective, Inflammatory, Misleading, Omission-filled, Out of Context, Hearsay, Unsubstantiated and Uncorroborated or Out-Right Untruthful then you can be SURE the story won’t be much better. Let’s look at a recent nytimes headline: “Trump Wanted to Order Justice Dept. to Prosecute Comey and Clinton”
The headline has two main problems. The first is that its not illegal for someone, including a president, to want to prosecute someone IF they have done something illegal, we all know the hillary and comey have committed multiple crimes and second it gives no source for the unsubstantiated statement. Third, the headline is blatantly vague and inflammatory.
The second way to spot news is to look at the story content and whether it is: Biased, Subjective, Inflammatory, Misleading, Omission-filled, Out of Context, Hearsay, Unsubstantiated and Uncorroborated or Out-Right Untruthful. Let’s look at the first paragraph from this article.
“President Trump told the White House counsel in the spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute two of his political adversaries: his 2016 challenger, Hillary Clinton, and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with the conversation.”
Where did this so-called Trump statement come from? Not one but TWO anonymous sources AND furthermore it is hearsay from these “two people familiar with the conversation” who may or may not have been in the room when the alleged statements happened. As in the headline, ask yourself, is it illegal for the president to ask why can these people be prosecuted? The answer is it is NOT and therefore the entire article becomes a non-story designed to solely inflame the reader. This first paragraph also clearly shows bias, uncorroborated, and misleading reporting.
There are numerous examples of further Biased, Inflammatory, Subjective, Misleading, Omission-filled, Out of Context, Hearsay, Unsubstantiated and Uncorroborated or an Out-Right Untruthful statements in the article but the FACT of the matter is:
All it takes is ONE example of Biased, Inflammatory, Subjective, Misleading, Omission-filled, Out of Context, Hearsay, Unsubstantiated and Uncorroborated or an Out-Right Untruth in ANY part of a story for it to become FAKE NEWS.
FAKE NEWS IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!
To the media: If you are offended at being called the enemy of the people then you should look in the mirror and look at why the President and America says that about you. If you are not the enemy of the people you should be able to show us and the world your fair and balanced coverage you claim to have.
To the people: If you support the media NETWORKS who criminally mislead the people in the many ways described above then you, too, are THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!
As Americans we should not allow ANY politician of ANY party and FAKE NEWS Media networks to continue to commit these crimes. Whenever you see FAKE NEWS you have a duty to call out these perpetrators and give them no support and no quarter and no votes for if you do then you are just as guilty as they are!
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6/18/22: CNN Spreading Disinformation: The headline said: "...false claims threw primary certification into question." This is opinion because NO court has determined any election fraud claims to be true OR false, and headline didn't specify what fraud claims where being levied, either!
The story itself DID NOT state ANY of the election fraud allegations suggested in the headline. The text said that "The all-Republican commission had refused on Monday to certify the results-citing concerns about Dominion voting machines and questions about a handful of individual votes in this month's primary." The story DID NOT state what or who made election fraud claims. IT does, though, the say dems went to court to FORCE the certification even though some had concerns about faulty voting machines and some of the ballets!
Result: Headline is a LIE. The story is a LIE. The writer Fredreka Schouten is a LIAR. CNN is a LIAR. Anyone who reposts and claims it as fact is a LIAR! It makes ALL of them yeasty toad-spotted malt-worms!
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