Brian Stelter, the host of CNN’s Reliable Sources show, ranted about something he called “fake news” the other day on his program, pointing out that there were “unreliable” websites and pages on Facebook and other social media platforms and that viewers should “triple-check” their information before sharing it.
Stelter claimed that this was a big problem in the presidential election and that the results (ie., Donald Trump’s victory) were distorted because of so much “fake news.” President Obama made statements to the same effect to the press recently.
But what both Stelter and Obama are leaving out is that most of the mainstream media is just as much to blame, if not more so. In fact, a good example is CNN itself, which featured a correspondent (Donna Brazile) who fed debate questions to Hillary Clinton in advance and in a bizarre segment had host Chris Cuomo claim it was “illegal” for the public to read WikiLeaks.
When the publisher of The New York Times sends out an apology letter to subscribers saying that the paper of record got its coverage of Trump wrong and that you shouldn’t cancel your subscription, that’s an open admission that something is rotten.
When WikiLeaks publishes a list of 65 respected journalists who unethically colluded with the Clinton campaign, that too stretches one’s credulity when it comes to believing in journalistic integrity.
And on Facebook itself, when third-party “news” sites such as The Huffington Post, Mic, Vox, The Other 98%, U.S. Uncut and Raw Story publish 100-percent pro-Hillary Clinton, zero-percent pro-Donald Trump postings that Politifact rates “66% False,” that could be considered “fake news” as well.
So CNN is absolutely hypocritical in accusing independent websites of being “fake news” when the network itself may be the “fakest” news around.
