The heckler was an eighth-grader. I was teaching youngsters about journalism at a middle school in suburban St. Louis this spring, and when I got to the slide labeled “Fake News,” a boy yelled “CNN!”
Most of the class laughed.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked. I wanted him to think about what these words really meant. His heckling gave me a chance to ask a few more questions: Did he believe a news network was making up stories out of thin air and broadcasting them? Did he believe they were presenting facts from a biased perspective? Or did he just not like the stories they reported?
This student struggled to say exactly what “fake news” meant. Nowadays, it’s used as a joke or throwaway phrase when you disagree with someone. A similar exchange about “fake news” played out in every class I taught that day. It opened my eyes to the extent of one of the biggest problems facing parents and educators: How do we raise children in a post-truth world?
Originally, “fake news” referred to deliberately false stories designed to influence public opinion. One analysis found that fake or hoax stories got more reader engagement on Facebook than real news stories during the last three months of the 2016 election. Russian propaganda mills banked on Americans’ inability to separate fact from fiction.
But something far more sinister than naivete has crept into the understanding of “fake news.” President Trump revealed it in his own words, tweeting: “The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy and all things else, 91 percent of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”
The president defines “fake” as “negative” stories about him. For him, a provable, real fact turns “fake” because it makes him look bad or he doesn’t like it.
That’s not how facts work. Information that can be demonstrably proven true does not become untrue because you disagree with it. Let’s say it one more time for those in the back: Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s fake.
For example, here’s a fact that I do not like, but is true nonetheless: I occasionally make errors in my stories. I hate when it happens, but it does, and I’ve had to correct those errors. Here’s another: St. Louis has high levels of gun violence. It’s an unfortunate fact, but one I can’t deny exists. One more: Obamacare increased the number of insured Americans, but also caused problems that need to be fixed. It’s possible to agree with the values of a policy objective and still accept the facts that reveal its shortcomings.
Historically, this is how we have understood facts and truth to work. They stand independently of our feelings.
Initially, when we were concerned about whether young people would be able to tell if information was true or not, we taught them to visit other independent sites to try to verify what they had seen. We can teach them to check Internet rumors on independent fact-checking sites like Snopes.com, Politifact.com or FactCheck.org.
But now we have to back up in this conversation. Let’s start with why truth matters. And let’s ask ourselves: How do you feel when your children lie to you? How would you react if your spouse lied to you? What about your boss or your doctor?
We would all be legitimately upset if our children, spouses, bosses or doctors lied to us. How can we make decisions about our lives if we can’t trust people to tell us the truth? Our basic autonomy depends on being able to tell what is real and what is not.
Cognitively, people are wired to believe what they want to believe. A significant percentage are willing to discount facts if they challenge what they “feel” to be true. Feelings can be swayed easily, as our emotions can be separated from logic and reasoning. The spread of social media and agenda-driven opinion shows allow people to stay in a bubble of what feels true as opposed to what is true.
So we have to be super clear about what words literally mean.
“Fake” means false or untrue. “Negative” means unfavorable or disagreeable. These words mean entirely different things. Something can be negative and also 100 percent true.
When our children can no longer tell the difference between fake and negative, when they don’t understand what “fake news” is and how it can be used as a political tool, when they are willing to disbelieve their own eyes and ears, that’s when they’ve lost their freedom.
In my discussion with the skeptical eighth-grader, I pointed out that if he only wanted news to exist that supported his preferred political party or candidate, we would end up with media a lot like North Korea’s.
No one found that scenario very funny.