Back in the olden days, fake news was what The Daily Show reported, actually satire, with no expectations that its audience would think otherwise. When the Weekly World News reported “Hillary Clinton Adopts Alien Baby” or the National Enquirer headline screamed “Cheating Blake: 9 Women He’s Hiding From Gwen!” most people smirked.
Now “Fake News” is what used to be called malicious lies. Hatred of people not like us or of the other political party makes it easier to be duped. It’s become a profitable business.
Here’s BuzzFeed’s summary of last year’s most egregious – meaning successful – fake news stories.
And just for fun, sort of, Stephen Colbert addresses the subject.
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