Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) portrait was unveiled yesterday
on Capitol Hill, with former 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and now
two-time presidential loser, delivering some remarks at the ceremony. Clinton
said that we must be on guard for malicious fake news.
“It’s now clear that so-called fake news can have real
world consequences. This isn’t about politics or partisanship—lives are at
risk,” she said. “It’s a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly
she added.
Okay—first, it’s not so-called fake news; it’s just fake
news. Have they had real world consequences? Yes.
That insane story about Comet
Ping Pong in D.C., which was believed to be a hub for a child sex-slave ring
run by Clinton confidante John Podesta, the epitome of a fake news story, led
one man to enter the establishment with a rifle. The situation ended with no
one getting seriously hurt or killed.
This is an isolated incident, though it
hasn’t stopped some on the Left from postulating that President-elect Donald
Trump is going to get someone killed (that’s literally the headline for this
op-ed), despite Trump never being at the forefront for peddling this insane and
false story:
Donald
Trump presents real dangers of the abuse of official power, given his contempt
for democratic norms, his vindictiveness, and his evident taste for violent
retribution. But we should also be very concerned about his eager encouragement
of hatred and violence that bubbles up from below. With a president who will be
regularly propagating crazed conspiracy theories and singling out individual
citizens as targets of his displeasure, it’s only a matter of time before
another of his well-armed supporters decides to take matters into their own
hands, and this time finishes the job.
Of course, this is a stretch. The president of the United
States is not responsible for the loony antics of an unhinged American. There
are over 315 million of us living here; we’re bound to have a few people with
more than a few screws loose.
Moreover, the fake news epidemic is overblown.
Facebook, which has been the main platform from which these nutjob stories are
posted, admitted that these stories didn’t sway the 2016 election, an
insinuation that was tossed into the hyper emotional post-2016 mix (via
RealClearPolitics):
SAVANNAH
GUTHRIE, TODAY SHOW: After the election, Facebook itself found itself in the
news, because there was a criticism that Facebook played a role in
disseminating some of this false information. Or "fake news" that was
out there. In retrospect, looking back on it, do you feel like that is a thing
that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have come to realize is more of a problem
that Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg originally thought?
SHERYL
SANDBERG, FACEBOOK: We've been working on this for a long time and we have
taken important steps, but there is a lot more we can do. We know that people
don't want to see hoaxes on Facebook and we don't want to see hoaxes on
Facebook.
And
so we're working on it because misinformation is something we take seriously. And
something we're going to continue to iterate on the service.
GUTHRIE:
Did it play a bigger role that you thought it would, in retrospect?
SANDBERG:
Well, there have been claims that it swayed the election, and we don't think it
swayed the election, but we take those claims seriously. We take this
responsibility really seriously, and we're looking at things like working with
third parties, helping to label false news, doing the things we can do to make
it clearer what is a hoax on Facebook...
Also, even mainstream outlets have been caught peddling
crap on the airwaves.
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle reported that Fox News had their
Christmas Party at Trump’s D.C. hotel. They haven’t.
Mediaite noted that the network hasn’t even had their
party yet.
Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald said that Trump supporters in
Iowa booed the late John Glenn, who passed away yesterday at age 95. That was
also false.
Even disgraced NBC anchor Brian Williams reiterated the
claim that fake news played a role in the 2016 election and seemed to be
concerned about its reach, which is the seat of irony since Williams was caught
spreading fake stories which led to him being suspended for six months without
pay.
The Washington Free Beacon clipped CNN’s greatest flops
this election season. Are they peddling fake news?
Don’t get me wrong; everyone, even President-elect Trump,
should be minding what he or she puts out there on social media.
Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s incoming national security
adviser, has tweeted very controversial articles and statements; no one has
been killed.
At the end of the day, this isn’t a fire in a crowded
room situation. This isn’t inciting a riot. This is more about weeding out nonsensical
drivel.
It’s also another instance in which the Left needs to
take responsibility and admit that it wasn’t fake news, or hacking, that cost
Clinton the election.
It was because she was one of the most flawed candidates
to run for the presidency.
Her endless stream of mistakes, like ignoring white
working class voters, calling Trump voters deplorable, and not grasping the
seriousness of her unauthorized and unsecure email server—with the added bonus
of her not being Obama—all contributed to the Democratic base not being excited
about her candidacy that led to her defeat.
Should we be on the lookout for fake news and neutralize
it? Yes.
It is really that big of a deal? No.
It’s really more of an annoyance at this point.
It’s not the zombie plague.
