Since Democrats and their friends in the media lost the election earlier this month, they’ve embarked on a collective effort to blame so-called “fake news” for the loss. The term “fake news” is shorthand for news with a conservative bent. The list of “fake news” sources disseminated earlier this month by an assistant professor of communications at an obscure college, for example, contained only Rightwing publications.
Barack Obama specifically addressed the issue of fake news during a press conference in Lima, Peru. “Generally we’ve got elections that are not focused on issues and are full of fake news and false information and distractions,” he charged.
If “fake news and false information” really bother the president, he had better have a little chat with one his favorite media sources, NBC News. The network ran its own story how “fake news” proliferates on social media, and its satellite, MSNBC, did a segment titled “The Fight Against Fake News.” In it host Chuck Todd analyzed “how fake news stories spread like wildfire online – and why they are accepted for fact.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
This is all hilarious in hindsight, because despite NBC’s holier-than-thou position on the news notwithstanding, it is far from pure when it comes to the veracity of its reports.
Take a look at the headline in this story published on the “Meet the Press” website:
The phrase atfer the colon, “Not going to rule out anything,” sure sounds like the network is implying that Republicans are considering a Muslim registry, right?
Wrong. First of all, here is what Reince Priebus actually said.
Look, I’m not going to rule out anything. I wouldn’t — we’re not going to have a registry based on a religion. What I think what we’re trying to do is say there are some people — certainly not all people, Chuck — here are some people that are radicalized. And there are some people that have to be prevented from coming into this country. [Emphasis added]
Notice how NBC changed the meaning entirely by cherry picking a portion of the quote and juxtaposing with an introductory phrase.
Other providers of non-fake news ran with NBC’s formulation.
Here’s Time magazine:
And here’s New York’s Daily News:
The problem here is not just the mainstream media’s failure to practice what they preach. It’s the long-term implications of the Left’s attempting to silence “alternative” journalistic viewpoints by dismissing them as sources of “fake news.” So far, the MSM have a longer reach and louder voice. Forgive me for hanging crepe just before Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to end well.
Cross-posted in altered form at the Mental Recession
