What is Fake News?

Fake news can take many forms.  In broad terms, fake news is a lie someone publishes in order to influence public opinion.  For the purposes of this blog, fake news is usually one or more corporations or super-wealthy persons, who are trying to promote a product or industry.  The basic form this fake news takes is often very predictable, and fundamentally hasn’t changed in decades.

Fake news often originates from corporate lobby efforts.  The largest lobby groups in the world now, in order of size, are the food industry, the tobacco lobby and the oil industry.  Of course there are many others.  Nearly all fake news come from these groups, sometimes more than one of them combined, and you can often recognize fake news by associating it with these groups.

Fake news rarely comes directly from one of the above mentioned groups, but rather a seemingly unrelated organization.  For example, health and environmental organizations are frequently used to spread the fake news message.  These are often well known or generally trusted organizations, who put their names behind the message.  These organizations often have names or stated goals, that have nothing to do with what they really do.

Fake news is almost always a one-way message.  It often seemingly appears out of nowhere, and there’s no way to discuss or influence the message.  For example, a TV ad is just presented, and there is no direct way to respond.  Another example would be a public rally or meeting, without any real advanced warning on the material to be discussed, and no way to give your opinion.

Fake news often attacks a particular product or groups of products, that compete with a commercial product belonging to the source of the fake news.  This is often some cheap alternative they wish to have removed from the market.  An example of this would be standard light bulbs or square TVs, which compete with newer and more expensive alternatives.

The message also is often presented together with cited and published scientific research.  The reason is to intimidate the average person, who won’t have access to the means of generating such research on their own.

There is often a really emotional side to fake news, with very strong imagery.  It sometimes has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but is just intended to shock you.

Fake news often doesn’t come out of the blue, but rather there has been some ongoing effort to make the topic familiar with other activities.

Your Brain on Drugs

This American TV ad from the 1980’s is a very good example of many of the points I made above.  At the time, the Tobacco Lobby was the most powerful lobby force in the US, and it was later confirmed the sponsoring organization Partnership for a Drug Free America accepted money from tobacco companies.

The strategy tobacco companies take, then and now, is to make all alternative products as unavailable as possible.  For example, they were behind prohibition in the US, where the sale of alcohol was banned.

After prohibition, they established a sort of partnership with the alcohol industry.   This resulted in drinking and smoking ages, smoking always the same or lower than alcohol and little or no enforcement.   The goal here was to see young people first become addicted to tobacco, then reinforce this addiction with an addiction to alcohol.

So in this video you have an organization, Partnership for a Drug Free America, who’s name doesn’t have anything to do with what they actually promote.  Their real goal is to get young people addicted to cigarettes.  As an organization, they gained trust through ties with right-wing conservative Christian groups, who were very influential at the time, especially with parents of young children.

So if you were a parent at the time, were afraid your children might be using drugs, and tempted to give this organization money.  What you would actually be supporting was efforts to get your children to start smoking.

At the end of this video, “Any questions?”, is an example of the one-way nature of the message.  There is no way to talk back to or influence this message or organization.  They have one goal, to promote tobacco.  Their message is tobacco is okay, and everything else is drugs.

What Can You Do?

If you are a supporter or a part of an organization that promotes fake news, you can talk back and make others aware.  You can post about it on the Internet, social media or just tell others.  The more the truth about fake news gets out, the less effective it is.

If you’re an activist, and an organization you support publishes fake news, you should be very suspicious of anything else they ever tell you.  People sometimes make mistakes, but organizations generally don’t, and publishing fake news is an indication they are careless or being influenced.

Most large and wealthy organizations are not what they seem to be.  The world’s wealthy 1% often exert their power and control over us through these organizations and fake news.  You are often better off participating in a smaller organization that is more democratic in their way of thinking and working.  Any organization that doesn’t care about what you think, isn’t worth paying attention to.

Other Example of Fake News

Once you find a fake news story, one of the best ways of finding others is to look for something related.  For example the BBC is full of fake news, and it’s one of my favorite places to look.

If one environmental organization has a fake news campaign, look at the other organizations that are also promoting the same thing, and look at some of their other messages.

There are currently campaigns trying to phase out diesel engines, because they are old technology, and promote newer more expensive electric vehicle technologies.  Gasoline/benzine/petrol is also a more profitable fuel for the oil industry than diesel.

The food industry is trying to get people to pay attention to ingredients in food, rather than the quality of food itself.  This helps them promote their processed foods.  They are also trying to phase out common and cheap ingredients, like salt and sugar, in order to promote more profitable alternatives.

This blog has a Fake News category, with other examples of fake news.