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Comment by krapp | Hacker News Reader

So we're just going to pretend that Donald Trump didn't claim the media was manufacturing negative coverage about him, making up quotes or taking quotes out of context and altering poll numbers throughout his entire campaign?

Or that Fox News doesn't exist because the American right has been convinced that "fake news" has been a thing for years?

Or that fringe sites on both ends of the political spectrum don't actually make up "news" stories as clickbait?

Or that various governments don't employ propaganda and disinformation campaigns through various forms of media, including the planting of false stories and rumors, and have been for decades?

It's all just something the DNC made up just now?

Ok.

Or maybe we can concede that the meme of "fake news" is distinct from the actual phenomenon of "fake news"?

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> Donald Trump didn't claim the media was manufacturing negative coverage about him, making up quotes or taking quotes out of context and altering poll numbers throughout his entire campaign?

He did make those claims, and as it turns out, the media really was doing these things --- not only against Trump, but as it turns out, against anyone not-Clinton in the primaries.

"Fake news" is psychological projection.

>"Fake news" is psychological projection

Yes, in other words, contrary to the premise behind your earlier comment...

   "Fake news" is itself fake news. Look at the timing: 
    immediately after Clinton lost, a consensus emerged 
    among the losers that we have to do something about 
    all the "fake news" floating around the internet. 
    The timing is a huge DNC banner in the sky.

..."fake news" was not concocted whole cloth by the DNC and leftists in order to discredit Trump's campaign. Because Trump himself invoked it, because it's been a reliable Republican hobbyhorse for years, and because it demonstrably exists.

The psychological projection is on the part of Trump supporters, who want people to believe that either fake news doesn't exist, or it does, but it's entirely manufactured by the left.

I mean this past week WAPO had to all but retracted a fake news story about Russia hacking a laptop when it was revealed the laptop was not connected to the electrical grid had Russian malware that anyone can buy and use on the open market. They failed to contact the power company in question to confirm the information and went with anonymous sources. We all know they ran with the story because it fit the DNC talking point that Russia hacked the election and are hacking other systems as well. Too bad it was fake.

This isn't fake news.

"Hands up, don't shoot" <-- false news. When all the dust cleared after the grand trial and all the facts came out multiple witnesses said he didn't raise his hands but was in fact charging at the police officer.

"George Zimmerman used stand your ground laws to defend himself" <--false news. He actually just claimed self defense. However the media became obsessed with Stand Your Ground laws.

"2 years after the san bernardino attacks we still don't know the reason for the attack" <-- false news. The media and FBI may not know but the rest of America knows, it was Islamic Jihad.

It is funny how the media can spread fake/false news like wildfire but all of the sudden they care about 100% truth after the election. I mean the mainstream media is almost always wrong when it covers self defense trials and in general any story involving a gun. The amount of misinformation in regard to the Zimmerman trial was truly staggering and if anyone watched the trial it was obvious the state had no case but prosecuted it anyways to appease the masses. I mean the media even invented a term, "White Hispanic" any order to make the story about race.

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