Fake News?

[Rover]

You must be define 'smart' differently because seeking confirmation bias and having a closed mind is the opposite IMO.

Intelligence doesn't keep people from succumbing to confirmation bias. There are lots of psychological conditions that don't seem to correlate with intelligence. That's what makes this fake news/alternative facts issue so insidious. It plays on fear and bias.

[Jim Kyle]

For a short time, I was one of those invisible folk who wrote the headlines (for the old Oklahoma City Times, no less) and I can assure you that in those days, the only forces shaping the words that went into those headlines were accuracy, speed, and fitting the length of each lines into the tight specifications laid down by the publisher. We never even considered "bias" or "slant" because with four press deadlines every day, we didn't have time.

The news editor, who selected which wire stories to use and where to place them in the pages, did have a clearly admitted bias -- which was at odds with the policies of Mister Gaylord, but Turp got by with it in the early editions and Ralph saw to it that the Final Home edition, the one delivered to subscribers, was more evenly balanced. Turp's bias was that he felt mid-east politics was the most important issue of the day, and always put something about happenings there in the left-hand column of the front page (traditionally the spot for #2 story) unless he could put them in #1 as he did when the Seven Days War broke out.

The actual slanting of the coverage was much more subtle. "It isn't news until we print it" was the mantra, and things counter to the Official Policy were simply suppressed with no fanfare!

[mugofbeer]

I find at my office and even with my wife, so much of what they think is truth and news they quote from late-night shows. Trump doesnt have any problems creating news but they feel he actually did and said everything Jimmy Fallon jokes about.

[bucktalk]

Maybe we could simplify fake news by using these initials: FNBS. Fake News Bull Sh*t
So next social media fake news gets my FNBS. If someone asks me what the letters stand for....I'll be ready, lol.