Priyantha Hettige
False
propaganda (lies) – Fake news is a good way to destroy your competitors or even
your enemies. It is unbelievably effective -and its use is as old as the hills.
·
Speaking
the truth is the mark of a good person, a reliable person; civilization is
built on such people, not on liars, cheats nor robbers.
·
People
are strongly influenced by those they respect, including the news on T.V. and
the newspapers, but such sources can occasionally give us stories that are
unchecked and from unnamed sources – even false news.
·
Normal
people are easily misled by believable, plausible stories – false news. This
innocence can be used by unscrupulous people; politicians, journalists,
activists, or by anyone with a grudge, to set in motion hostile forces, unleash
the power of the press in a war against something or someone, as follows:
Fake news
has recently risen to become a major matter of concern in the west,” and to a
lesser extent, all around the world.
The
election in 2016 of Donald Trump, a rich businessman, as President of the
United States of America, has caused U.S politicians, bureaucrats and media to
all take part in a tremendous campaign of lies against him, firstly, to prevent
him winning the presidential election and then, to get him impeached (out of
office), when finally elected President.
This vast
campaign was headed by politicians, (helped by the FBI and DOJ) who launched a
barrage of lies and false information in the press, on TV. and by using the
internet, for the purpose of taking down the President – an immoral and illegal
coup attempt! The use of the media and internet for spreading Fake, harmful
news was a great help to them.
The
Nature of the Media and the Internet
The arrival
on the Internet of social platforms like Facebook, Buzzfeed and Twitter
have opened the way for massive false information campaigns, e.g., scare
stories about the Mayan calendar and the end of the world, the arrival of
planet Nibiru, never ending global warming, etc., gloom and doom spreading
through vast numbers of people around the world. Great fortunes have been
amassed but on the other hand, lives ruined or even lost. In general, fake news
is destructive and not good.
Consequently,
the general population has become misguided, misinformed or not informed at
all. Our understanding is corrupted by this FAKE, false news.
Also importantly, our trust in
the news and TV – especially the western media, has taken a nose dive and
journalism as a whole has become mistrusted as a result.
Because
of all this, there has been great activity to understand this phenomenon better
and establish why it has become so widespread. It can be divided into:
1.
Mis-information: false information
disseminated without harmful intent.
- Dis-information:
created and shared by people with harmful intent.
- Mal-information: the sharing of
“genuine” information with the intent to cause harm.[33]
Claire
Wardle of First Draft News identifies
seven types of fake news:[26]
- satire or parody (“no intention
to cause harm but has potential to fool”)
- false connection (“when
headlines, visuals or captions don’t support the content”)
- misleading content (“misleading
use of information to frame an issue
or an individual”)
- false context (“when genuine
content is shared with false contextual information”)
- impostor content (“when genuine
sources are impersonated” with false, made-up sources)
- manipulated content (“when
genuine information or imagery is manipulated to deceive”, as with a
“doctored” photo)
- fabricated content (“new content
is 100% false, designed to deceive and do harm”)
Internet
social media has brought social benefits: good connectivity and entertainment,
but it has also enhanced humanity’s ability to create dissention, conflict and
destroy competition and even enemies – and anyone else in the way!
Social
media is a boon, a gift from heaven for politicians, bureaucrats and those with
a grudge. It can be, and IS used to spread Fake news. Chief culprits in this
flood of disinformation can be both powerful politicians and government
bureaucratic officials who want to hold on to their power. These people lust
for more power, independence and lack of scrutiny – haven’t you noticed?
– and those in supporting roles like the newspapers and TV shows,
increasingly take sides in politician’s propaganda wars.
Usually,
political ruling elites like to keep their citizenry in the dark on a matter,
if possible. Having a business controlled news media, sympathetic to their
politics, is very helpful! This gives them a free hand to do as they please,
with no press watch dog to expose their mistakes and even wrong-doing. They are
free to issue untruthful or misleading press statements which their friends
will dutifully publish or use in discussions to keep the public mis-guided and
mis-informed!
They live
in their own world of cocktail and dinner parties, a tight social circle: elite
bureaucrats, remote from the ordinary man. They like to take decisions
themselves, and they resent supervision of their power. Old fashioned
journalism is dead in the West.”
Other,
doubtful, shady people are also writing this Fake News for a living, and the
main TV stations can slip us distortions between true items; inventions and
plain old lies. Not on everything – but on certain sensitive, opinion making
subjects. In the past, crowds have run riot and killed on just a rumor.
We do not
know it is nonsense until (if ever!) we are told the truth of a matter.
When
we find out the truth, we are upset and even angry as we don’t like to be
manipulated; perhaps even fooled into voting the wrong way. But yes,
manipulation, stirring up negative emotions, is what they are doing, as
politics or for profit, to sell a good story.
Advertising
Revenue
In
addition to these propaganda wars in the western corporate media, must be added
the pressure for business revenues – income accrued from having a large number
of followers. The fact is, manipulating public opinion – fooling us with lies,
and/or attractive stories, can also be profitable. It is also helping drive
this problem – the need to maximize financial revenues is also a factor in this
blossoming of Fake news. Such news has become entertainment – comic stories
that we can enjoy!
Researchers
have written books on how people can be manipulated by the power of marketing
and advertising on TV. Governments in power use it to move their
voters! Yes, we can be corrupted – due to our natural biases and/or our
ignorance of the facts!!
The TV
news networks are busy advertising consumer products but they do not give us
the accurate or useful news we really want and need. We all know about famous
manufactured products advertised on TV – just business! But Earthquakes and
Volcano events are increasing around the world! What was the cause of the Great
Flood? Scientists are figuring out the truth!
Result
Independent
journalists, who search out and publicize, accurate, well checked stories, or
anyone else with a good story, cannot easily get into print. Journalists
critical of the Fake news lose their jobs – Out! Dismissed! Journalism and the
mainstream media outlets are a closed shop and are failing the public hard when
they print false information, untruthful journalism, or by not telling us
useful information as it arises.
The
established media in the west” are being discredited and readership is
declining. Good quality journalism is suffering, and wounded. People want
truthful news, balanced reporting, and anything less is a waste of time and
money.
Remedy
The
Internet can also help here. Now, there are some new, alternative news outlets
on You Tube, which give wider, more reliable news coverage. But, as startups
they have less power to investigate a story.
Alternative
news outlets, for example the hugely successful RT Cross Talk, who discuss an
issue with a small panel of experts, The Duran, Breitbart news and ‘Democracy
Now,’ a report on the daily news, not to forget Al Jazeera.
Some
Explanation of this Modern Phenomena
Educated
people, cultured people talk about ideas, causes and effects. But simple,
uneducated people talk about… er… other people!
The media
and politicians exploit the weaknesses of simple people to the full – they feed
their prejudices about something or somebody, often, politically, as in the
case of President Donald Trump, but educated, thinking people are troubled, and
want the whole truth!
It
results in ignoring the real evidence and falsely, taking sides on a matter, by
having a campaign on, or against soemthing or someone. This attracts
advertising revenues from businessmen who agree with and support the same
political parties or issues.
Some
leading newspapers, made famous for their quality reporting of the news and facts
in the past, such as The Times of London, The New York Times, or The Washington
Post, and TV stations, like CNN, (all members of the Corporate Media) have now
become willing mouthpieces for a particular narrative – a particular bias
in reporting on a story! But this has cost them dear in terms of
credibility. Fake news journalists will never publish something to the
opposition’s advantage.
This
divide between fair reporting and bias can be purely political: socialism
versus capitalism, but now, more likely, it is the ruling classes, the ruling
elite – overblown in terms of power and regulations, versus the citizenry as a
whole, along with all the many other issues that divide public debate.
Sanjana
Hattotuwa, writing in the Sunday Island of April 14th 2019, exposes
false information and manipulation. He writes: ”The lie is revealed. No summons
served” end quote. (on Gotabaya for certain allegations.) He writes:
news that GR was being sued in the US is false and incorrect.”
Hiding
News and Information
Some
important information is ignored entirely by the press as they pursue their own
agendas of Fake news. (E.g., Russia is developing hypersonic weapons; China is
developing Electro-Magnetic Pulse bombs to blackout our cities; food
shortages.) There is much information to know about. But: We don’t know what
we don’t know but should know,” – we are in the dark on so many things!
There are
some important news to be had. There is an awesome responsibility to convey it.
The North and South poles of our planet may soon exchange positions! Scientists
are watching with great interest! The sun may stand still for a day! The oceans
may surge forward as they have done many times before… but this important news
is absent! And it has consequences. We should prepare!
The
Buddha said :
Ignorance is the longest night.”
Venerable
Piyadassi, in his book Buddhist Meditation” said:
Ignorance is the highest corruption.”
Fake news has arisen, mainly in
the ”west,” even before the arrival of President Trump on the scene, but it has
ballooned and got a lot more vicious since he took power. And it has reached
here in some newspaper centre-page articles. These are journalists who have
swallowed the bait of a ‘good’ fake news story, hook line and sinker!
The Discipline
of Good Journalism
Many
journalists, just sit in their offices at computers to write their stories, but
the best journalists go out searching for truth. They wear out their shoes
searching for truth by visiting places and checking with those people involved
for information on what really happened. They quote real sources for their
stories, not claim it was from unnamed sources. They do not use the misguiding
stories put out by those in authority. Good journalism!
Also,
everything we read and learn about, has to be written or spoken by someone; a
journalist or someone in government. People write from ideas arising due to
their personal thoughts, memory and emotional style about a topic. It results
in news stories or information having a level of descriptive language matching
the writer’s own feelings and powers of self-expression. It is quite difficult
to write without personal bias or extra colour, but the best journalists
are trained to do it.
However,
it is always tempting to follow a political position, or make a story more
interesting or shocking, in order to have more impact on the reader or listener
– a form of creative writing. Unhappily for those in search of truth, such
undisciplined writers are praised and well-paid for attractive stories!
Fake News
– mostly in the West”
Throughout
the ages, people have distorted and made up stories to hurt someone else. But
now, with the power of the big media and social media companies, it has become
a crisis. However, by going to the Internet, people can search and find
alternative media websites and documents for more accurate news about what they
should know about this world, past, present and future.
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