Why FAKE NEWS burdens don’t work
Over the last decade, there has become a common refrain making its way around political circles – FAKE NEWS!!!! Oddly, what started out as a way to deflect attention on the right is becoming a problem across our political spectrum. While “research” indicates, like one research article from The Ohio University says “…that both progressives and conservatives are susceptible to believing and sharing misinformation,” I think they run aground as they continue “but conservatives tend to be more affected by a larger volume of right-leaning fake news.”
I call bullshit here since ‘right-leaning’ and ‘left-leaning’ media both do the same thing just with a different stint. Some progressives I have talked with say, “But we don’t all out lie!” To which I have to say lies of omission are pretty damning. When you leave out important details or obfuscate the story in such a way to distort a point of view I think it can be called FAKE just the same.
Recent stories about the federal government shutdown – 2025 Edition are a great example of this. Both sides are saying it meant this or that but neither is really clear about the truth: the right just did what President Trump wanted without thinking and the left had no plan. And war requires a plan! Congress shouldn’t just carry out orders like it is part of the Executive branch and we cannot shutdown government because they failed do anything in May or June about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidy time bomb they knew would blow at the end of December.
Remember the long-winded marathon speech by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) earlier this year? Why? Why? Why? It was great press for something that really wasn’t anything at all. It was held up as a filibuster but it can’t really be a filibuster since he was not trying to stop any legislative action being pushed by the majority. He never even mentioned the ACA subsidies although this would have been a great time to do so. What was the purpose if not just to show that a 50-something year old man could talk for 25+ hours endlessly…?
The way the government shutdown battle nee tantrum ended was pretty unhealthy for the press. The Dems just give in and not a single commentator on the left mentions it was not only a waste of time but a show of utter helplessness devoid of any strategic thinking. Tantrums rarely bring serious change; this one will have long-term consequences on the power imbalance between Republicans and Democrats.
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