By KAREN PARKER
County Line Publisher Emeritus
I chuckled the other day while listening to a media expert on Wisconsin Public Radio note that a news item that Pope Francis had endorsed Donald Trump (not true) in the 2016 election was liked by 39 million people and shared by 31 million.
Hm, I thought. That would not happen to me, as I am a sophisticated reader who isn’t easily duped by nonsense.
As we know, pride goes before a fall. Then I took a quiz to determine which news was fake and which was true. I got only about half right. Yikes!
It’s not as though we weren’t exposed to fake news before. Most of us remember standing in the grocery store line, gazing at tabloids such as the National Enquirer, which would report that Elizabeth Taylor gave birth to an alien baby or some such bizarre blather. Most of us walked away knowing the Enquirer was a load of horse hockey, a few of us bought it, and maybe others passed on the titillating news to neighbors and friends.
And then it ended. We could not pass it to millions of people as we can today on the Internet. Sources such as supermarket tabloids were easily identified as rubbish, but when your news comes from thousands of different sources, maybe even from friends and neighbors, who can possibly distinguish the reliable from the untrustworthy?
Fake news about alien babies was mostly silly and entertaining. But now political groups issue it to confuse and mislead us. Remember, political advertising on the Internet is not required to meet the same standards as that of television and newspapers.
Foreign agents do not have our best interests in mind when they circulate “news” designed to divide us, stir up racial hatred, foster resentment of immigrants and introduce mistrust of our institutions.
Here is a quiz from NPR of headlines yanked from 2018 “news.” Are they true or false? The answers are at the end of this column.
1) 35-year-old man sues mom after being evicted from her basement
2) Frito-Lay announced plans to create a mega-size Dorito chip
3) French art college makes white students look black to appeal to U.S. market.
4) Trump distributes marshmallows to wildfire victims.
5) President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani says, “Truth isn’t truth.”
6) Adidas endorses Trump.
7) Mysterious vending machines sold $2 pens that were actually crack pipes.
8) Meet the guys who tape Trump’s papers back together.
9) Small dogs pee higher to lie about their size.
10) Many flu deaths occur from the flu after getting the flu vaccine shot.
How did you do? If you did not get 80 percent or more correct, then you may benefit from these tips prepared by Harvard University on ways to detect fake news.
1. Vet the publisher’s credibility.
• Would the publishing site meet academic citation standards? Just because a site is popular among your friends does not mean its content is accurate.
• What is the domain name? Be wary of unusual top-level domain names, like “.com.co.” A second-level domain like “abcnews” may appear credible. But note that abcnews.com.co is a different and illegitimate site, though designed to appear similar to the original.
• What’s the publication’s point of view? Read the “About Us” section for more insight into the publisher, leadership, and mission statement. Also, confirm that you have not stumbled upon a satirical news site like the Onion.
• Who is the author? Has he or she published anything else? Be suspicious if the byline, which names the author, is a celebrity writing for a little-known site or if the author’s contact information is a Gmail address.
2. Pay attention to quality and timeliness.
• Do you notice splling erors [sic], lots of ALL CAPS, or dramatic punctuation?!?!?! If so, abort your reading mission. Reputable sources have high proofreading and grammatical standards.
• Is the story current or recycled? Make sure an older story isn’t being taken out of context.
3. Check the sources and citations.
• How did you find the article? If the content showed up in your social media feed or was promoted on a website known for clickbait, proceed with caution. Even if the information was shared by a friend, be sure to follow the steps below to vet the publisher’s credibility. Who is (or is not) quoted, and what do they say? If you notice a glaring lack of quotes and contributing sources, particularly on a complex issue, then something is amiss. Credible journalism is fed by fact-gathering, so a lack of research likely means a lack of fact-based information.
• Is the information available on other sites? If not, then it’s very likely that thejournalistic jury is still out on whether this information is valid. Library databases are great resources for confirming the credibility of information — check out Harvard Library’s list of public resources.
• Can you perform reverse searches for sources and images? By checking cited sources, you can confirm that the information has been accurately applied and not altered to meet the author’s point of view. The same goes for images. In an era of Photoshop magic, you can’t always believe what you see.
4. Ask the pros.
• Have you visited a fact-checking website? There are many good ones, like FactCheck.org, International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), PolitiFact.com, or Snopes.com. Do your own detective work and feel more confident in being able to identify fact vs. fiction.
v v v
Quiz answers: 1) false; 2) false; 3) true; 4) false; 5) true; 6) false; 7) true; 8) true; 9) true; and 10) false.
