Heroine Elizabeth Macquarie dared to defy fake news 200 years ago
February 5, 2021 — 11.08pm
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Fake news is a cancer that has the power to eat away at the foundations of a democracy, and bring it crashing down if it’s allowed to fester unchecked. We’ve seen its effects in the United States, but we have evidence of its devastating power closer to home too. Two hundred years ago this month, fake news had a massive impact on Australia.
Back then, there were even fewer people prepared to stand up and call it out than there are today among the cowed, power-hungry Republicans in the US. And it demonstrates the dangers of standing by and letting those with the loudest voices and most craven ambitions prevail, and to hell with the consequences – whether they’re spreading their fetid lies around government, racism, COVID-19, asylum-seekers … anyone and anything.