Wielding Claims of Fake News, Conservatives Take Aim at M$M (their former partners in crime)
... with the recent emergence of patently nonsensical, fake news reports, Conservatives are taking the opportunity to call any news in M$M that is less than adulatory of Conservative policies or politicians, 'fake news'. Conservative propagantists have been purveying counterfactual bullshit for decades now. So it is particularly hypocritical of Conservatives to point an accusing finger at ANYBODY promulgating fake news. But for them to call legitimate news reports as 'fake' news is just one more step in the Conservative assault on a rational, fact based understanding of reality. Of course, the monstrous irony of the situation is that Corporate owned M$M has performed a service of incalculable value to the Conservative cause against Hillary Clinton, by helping to sell the biggest fake news story of the decade, the Hillary Clinton email "scandal". M$M played a major part, perhaps THE major part, in aing and abetting the King of Clowns with his Electoral College scam of Democracy in November. You'd think the Conservative Republicans would show some appreciation. I guess there is no honor among thieves or mountebanks.
Wielding Claims of ‘Fake News,’ Conservatives Take Aim at Mainstream Media
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/25/us/politics/fake-news-claims-conservatives-mainstream-media-.html?_r=0
WASHINGTON — The C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the White House may all agree that Russia was behind the hacking that interfered with the election. But that was of no import to the website Breitbart News, which dismissed reports on the intelligence assessment as “left-wing fake news.”
~~
~~
Until now, that term had been widely understood to refer to fabricated news accounts that are meant to spread virally online. But conservative cable and radio personalities, top Republicans and even Mr. Trump himself, incredulous about suggestions that fake stories may have helped swing the election, have appropriated the term and turned it against any news they see as hostile to their agenda.
In defining “fake news” so broadly and seeking to dilute its meaning, they are capitalizing on the declining credibility of all purveyors of information, one product of the country’s increasing political polarization. And conservatives, seeing an opening to undermine the mainstream media, a longtime foe, are more than happy to dig the hole deeper.
“Over the years, we’ve effectively brainwashed the core of our audience to distrust anything that they disagree with. And now it’s gone too far,” said John Ziegler, a conservative radio host, who has been critical of what he sees as excessive partisanship by pundits. “Because the gatekeepers have lost all credibility in the minds of consumers, I don’t see how you reverse it.”
(more)
= new reply since forum marked as read
