Author: Fake News Fighter

To the Editor:

Finally! The liberation of America and the republican party from the tyranny of the democrats has been solved by our 45th president. The greatest of all our presidents has figured out, with his brilliance, a catch phrase that has liberated us all from the terrible democratic war mongers. By now we all should know it. The catch phrase is “Fake news” which means every word spoken on MSNBC, 60 minutes, most newspaper, channel 4,5,7, t.v. etc is democrat fake news. But now we have Fox News! What a relief.

If you believe what is stated above, you deserve all the repercussion of having no democracy and dealing with the whims of a dictator. This label “fake news” has already divided our country with sinister diabolical intention to change our democracy. Please believe that.

-Don Willis, Ukiah

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

CLAIM: The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wanted to lower the age of consent for sex to 12 years old.

THE FACTS: This bogus claim first emerged during Ginsburg’s 1993 confirmation hearings when official testimony misinterpreted a recommendation by Ginsburg in a 1977 report published by the United States Commission on Civil Rights. It has lingered in the public forum ever since.

In the days after Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, misinformation about her has circulated online, including the decades-old false claim about her views on the age of consent.

“Why is everyone pretending to be sad that RBG died?” read a tweet that was later screen-captured and reposted on Instagram. “It was GOOD riddance by a long shot, she wanted to lower the age of consent for sex to 12. She is a pedophile sympathizer and deserves nothing less.” The Instagram post was viewed more than 54,000 times and received more than 4,000 likes.

Similar claims were shared by Twitter and Facebook accounts associated with QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory that centers on the president fighting off satanic pedophiles and other enemies in the so-called deep state. The 1977 report, “Sex Bias in the U.S. Code,” was prepared by Ginsburg and attorney Brenda
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A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

CLAIM: The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wanted to lower the age of consent for sex to 12 years old.

THE FACTS: This bogus claim first emerged during Ginsburg’s 1993 confirmation hearings when official testimony misinterpreted a recommendation by Ginsburg in a 1977 report published by the United States Commission on Civil Rights. It has lingered in the public forum ever since.

In the days after Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, misinformation about her has circulated online, including the decades-old false claim about her views on the age of consent.

“Why is everyone pretending to be sad that RBG died?” read a tweet that was later screen-captured and reposted on Instagram. “It was GOOD riddance by a long shot, she wanted to lower the age of consent for sex to 12. She is a pedophile sympathizer and deserves nothing less.” The Instagram post was viewed more than 54,000 times and received more than 4,000 likes.

Similar claims were shared by Twitter and Facebook accounts associated with QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory that centers on the president fighting off satanic pedophiles and other enemies in the so-called deep state. The 1977 report, “Sex Bias in the U.S. Code,” was prepared by Ginsburg and attorney Brenda
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If a news story pops up in your social feed and it has hundreds of likes, does that mean the article is true or just popular? Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.

It is growing increasingly difficult because of how digital platforms like Facebook and Twitter have supplanted National Public Radio and the tried and trusted evening newscast as the vanguards of journalism, ushering a new definition of what constitutes news, said a panel of current and former news reporters in a livestream hosted by Northeastern University and the World Affairs Council.

Dave Thurman is the regional chief executive officer and dean of the  Seattle campus. Screenshot by Northeastern University

Tara McGowan, who left journalism to engage in the hand-to-hand combat of Democratic politics as a digital strategist, explained the nation’s political tribalism as a byproduct of the quick and easy convenience of social channels, which can be read anytime and anywhere on a phone, in turn making people more susceptible to the conspiracy theories and misinformation that abound on the Internet.

“Voters are busy, they have multiple jobs, they have families,” she said. “They’re no longer turning on the news at night or listening to NPR in the morning.”

In some instances, they’re not turning on the local news because small media outlets are disappearing.

“As somebody who believes in truth and
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Brussels first sounded the alarm about coronavirus pandemic-related misinformation and disinformation in early summer. “The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an unprecedented ‘infodemic,'” said European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourava. The disinformation campaigns were not only dangerous for public health; they were also designed to undermine trust in governments and the media.

The commissioner referred to the sharp increase in the number of opponents of vaccination, known as “anti-vaxxers” — in Germany. According to one study, the number of those prepared to be vaccinated decreased by 20% in two months. The commission also saw the false claim that drinking bleach can help against the virus, which is widespread on social media, as a further attempt at deliberate deception. “Disinformation during the coronavirus pandemic can kill,” said EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell.

Unsubstantiated conspiracy theories have also become widespread since the pandemic began. A common theory falsely claims that the virus was spread as a pretext for forced mass vaccination; another one alleges that the pandemic is a way for Microsoft founder Bill Gates, working together with the EU, to monitor people.

“Anti-vaxxer” demonstrations have become more common in Germany, with targeted disinformation campaigns circulating unsubstantiated claims about vaccination effects

Propaganda and cyberattacks

To counter these campaigns, the European Parliament has set up a special committee that has now set to
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