“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” 1984, George Orwell.
And then came Trump… or did he? Journalists all over the world hold their heads in despair, some even in shame. We are all tarred now with the ‘fake news’ brush, fingers point at traditional/mass media and the verdict is that we are all guilty. We’ve apparently eroded the confidence of our audiences by taking sides and peddling lies, and we have damaged democracy in the process.
The fact is, journalists are easy scapegoats in societies enamoured of their new social media friends, who aren’t quite ready to accept their part in propagating what we have come to call ‘fake news’. Who hasn’t shared, liked and praised stories, memes or pictures without fact-checking them, just because they came from someone familiar, even if vaguely so?