[Ed. – A study a few years back noted that 6 out of 7 college teachers are liberal.]
Among our country’s many ailments is the spread of fake news. As Beth McMurtie argues in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “disinformation and propaganda are flourishing,” with people increasingly in “politically polarized media ecosystems.”
Fortunately, there are doctors in the house. Specifically, universities are full of professors with doctorates in education, history, and communication who seek to cure students of disinformation.
Unfortunately, a number of these experts also spread the disease, like medieval doctors who failed to sanitize their own hands.
For instance, one professor that McMurtie interviewed, Jennifer Mercieca, observes that many students following politics “lean toward conservative outlets.” That trend, she tells McMurtie, presents a particular “set of challenges” given the “right wing media’s war on truth,” including an attack on academics as “liars and misleading and corrupt.”
