Well-wishers left flowers and notes outside Comet Ping Pong, the pizza restaurant in Washington that was the target of fake news stories linking it to a child sex trafficking ring. (AP)

Fake News

2/15/17, 5:40 AMThe fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!

Michael Flynn Resigns as National Security Adviser

Sensationalist and extreme designed to inflame passions and prejudices

Fake News - definedFake news - False information deliberately circulated by those who have scant regard for the truth but hope to advance particular (often extreme) political causes and/or make money out of online traffic…energized by social media.

False news - Information that is circulated by journalists who do not realize it is false…all unintended errors of fact in the history of journalism. Damages trust in media. False news is not intentional.

The manipulation of the term fake news: - News source that someone doesn’t want to acknowledge and so uses the term fake news to justify silencing it. Censorship of the press numbs scrutiny. Hostile to democratic process

Amol Rajan (16, January, 2017)-Bbc.com http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38636042

Related closely to the following:

Propaganda - The systematic dissemination of information, esp. in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a political cause or point of view. Also: information disseminated in this way; the means or media by which such ideas are disseminated. (OED)

Disinformation - The dissemination of deliberately false information, esp. when supplied by a government or its agent to a foreign power or to the media, with the intention of influencing the policies or opinions of those who receive it; false information so supplied. (OED)

Psychological warfare - The use (originally as a military strategy) of tactics intended to undermine the morale or allegiance of one's opponent or opponents, as opposed to physical force. (OED)

An example of how Fake News grows

• Fox News – Megyn Kelly reported it on her morning show although the quote was unverified

• BuzzFeedNews – Debunks the released transcripts https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/that-bucket-of-losers-clinton-speech-transcript-is-totally-f?utm_term=.vqG13ly6n#.cbBag6V9n

More than 2,000 emails belonging to Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta were released by WikiLeaks (October). In that cache of documents were details of paid speeches Clinton gave to Goldman Sachs and other financial firms. A fake transcript began making the rounds. It includes a section where Clinton supposedly refers to “a collection of generally under-represented, low social capital individuals” as a “bucket of losers.” http://www.realtruenews.org/

• The American Mirror reported it http://www.theamericanmirror.com/wall-street-speech-hillary-threw-americans-bucket-losers/

There is BIG money in Fake News

• Money comes from ads, provided by the self-service ad technology of companies such as Google (AdSense) and Facebook.

• How much money can you bring in by making stuff up and putting it on the Internet? “I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense,” Paul Horner, a prolific, Facebook-focused fake-news writer told us this week.

- Abby Ohlheiser, Washington Post, November 18, 2016

http://101geek.com/how-to-make-big-money-online-with-fake-news-full-guide

In fact you make big money creating your own fake news: For educational purposes only!

http://abcnews.com.co/obama-executive-order-bans-pledge-of-allegiance-in-schools/

President Obama signed an Executive Order banning the Pledge of Allegiance in schools nationwide?

- Real or Fake?

Fake. There was nothing to this report, which was just another recycled hoax promulgated by a malware-spreading fake news site - abcnews.com.co - that illegally appropriates the trademarks of legitimate news organizations such as ABC News. 2,177,000 Facebook shares, comments and reactions. (Real site abcnews.go.com)

http://www.snopes.com/pledge-of-allegiance-ban/

Did Pope Francis endorses Donald Trump for President?

-Real or Fake?

http://cf.factcheck.org/2016/10/did-the-pope-endorse-trump/

Fake of course. Pope Francis’ supposed endorsement of Trump originated on the satirical website WTOE 5 News, with the headline “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement.” 961,000 Facebook shares, comments and reactions

Top Republicans on the House science committee claim a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist “confirmed” that his NOAA colleagues “manipulated” climate data for a 2015 study.

- Fact or Fake?

https://science.house.gov/news/press-releases/former-noaa-scientist-confirms-colleagues-manipulated-climate-records

Global Warming

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/02/fake_news_hits_the_global_warming_debate.html

Fake News: Global Warming Edition

with the scientific process."

"These types of statements by policymakers that attempt to take one study/dispute and blow it out of proportion are both unhelpful and misleading…we will be working with the science committee to demonstrate the scientific consensus on climate change and to encourage them not to interfere.” - American Geophysical Union President Eric Davidson, 2/6/17

Energy & Environment News (E&E)

Fake news is killing people's minds, says Apple boss Tim Cook

"It's almost as if a new course is required for the modern kid, for the digital kid."

Allister Heath http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/02/10/fake-news-killing-peoples-minds-says-apple-boss-tim-cook/

The metamorphosis of Fake News• Post-truth - Relating to or denoting circumstances in which

objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief (Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year)

• Alternative facts - phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the attendance at Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States.

A good resolution is sometimes the most obvious