Journalists' Main Goal for 2017 is to Produce Fake News

So it seems, at least at some media orgs.

The problem is that many journalists use their filter bubble on Media Twitter to share bogus stories, produced by allegedly acceptable media orgs. The Media Twitter echo chamber is part of the fake news problem because journalists don't hesitate to wonder if the story is true. It's easier to read a headline and share it because the assumption is that it must be true because source. This is lazy and irresponsible behavior for all journalists involved.

The only journalist that I like to read regularly is Glenn Greenwald who writes at TheIntercept.com. While at The Guardian, Greenwald published the Snowden documents about the NSA's surveillance.

The Intercept is my favorite website to read for news and stories that are not locally-focused on Toledo. For local news and info, I rely on the Toledo Blade's local news RSS feed. For techy stuff, I peruse Hacker News. Then I access personal websites of people I enjoy reading, and these publishers cover a wide variety of interests that appeal to me, such as farming, programming, design, food, nature, and crocheting.

Over the past two months, the media/journalists have done a lot of whining about Facebook's fake news problem and fake news in general. But the allegedly acceptable media has its own fake news issues. The media should focus on its own houses first.

• Nov 20, 2016 - ijf weekly roundup at Medium.com - Fake news is not unique to Facebook: you can find it in mainstream media too
• Dec 6, 2016 - Current Affairs - The Necessity of Credibility - Ridding ourselves of fake news requires having media outlets that are actually worth listening to

Now in 2017, it seems that if media orgs cannot beat the fake news producers for page views and shares, then maybe it's time to join them.

But first, shockingly, ironically, and hilariously, the Washington Post is telling people to stop using the phrase "fake news". Since the election, WaPo has become one of the biggest peddlers in fake news among the allegedly acceptable media orgs. WaPo is on my personal list of untrustworthy news sources.

This is an excellent article by Greenwald where Glenn criticizes WaPo for creating fake news, and he criticizes other media orgs for their complicit behavior in spreading fake news.

• Jan 4, 2017 - The Intercept - WashPost Is Richly Rewarded for False News About Russia Threat While Public Is Deceived

Rarely, if ever, do journalists and people who teach media criticize WaPo for its irresponsible actions.

And now BuzzFeed has been added to my list of untrustworthy news sources.

• Jan 10, 2017 - BuzzFeed - These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia

That BuzzFeed story has been at top of Mediagazer for a day or so.

• Jan 10, 2017 - Mediagazer thread about the BuzzFeed story with the human-created title - BuzzFeed publishes unverified documents alleging ties between Trump aides and Russian operatives and that Russia has “compromising information” about Trump

According to the Mediagazer thread, a lot of people have responded on Twitter, and other media orgs have written their own stories, either about the documents' contents or about the irresponsible behavior of BuzzFeed, regarding journalistic ethics. The latter is good to see. At least some journalists have not crossed over completely.

Unverified? This BuzzFeed hack leads to more distrust of all media.

It appears that BuzzFeed is working from emotion only. It must have a massive disdain for Trump, and this has clouded its thinking. It appears that BuzzFeed's emotion has blocked its ability to remember ethics in journalism.

Journalists need to be less emotional and more logical. Less Dr. McCoy and more Mr. Spock.

Journalists worry that Trump will somehow remove the freedom of the press part of the First Amendment. First, that's fear-mongering, hyperbole, and sensationalism by the media.

But if we should worry about Trump deleting the First Amendment, then we should also worry about the reckless media.

Some of the criticism against BuzzFeed's lack of ethics:

• Jan 10, 2017 - Poynter.org - BuzzFeed drops a Trump bombshell, irresponsibly
• Jan 11, 2017 - pressgazette.co.uk - The 'golden rule' of journalistic ethics and why Buzzfeed was wrong to publish Trump dossier

created on Jan 11, 2017