Nominees Announced for Second Annual Fakies - Fake News Awards

by Jack O'Lanterni, President of Fake News International

The Fakies - Fake News Awards

2017 was another tremendous year for fake news. Never before has so much fake news affected so many people in so many ways with such great consequences. Fake News International is pleased to announce the preliminary list of nominees for the Second Annual Fakies Awards.

The Fakies Awards are presented annually on April 1^st in Macedonia to honor the best of fake news throughout the previous year. This year’s extravaganza will be held at the fabulous Taj Majal Resort in the heart of Macedonia City. P.T. Barnum, III, will be the Master of Ceremonies.

Fake News and Trustworthy Sources: Who’s in Your Newsfeed?

Brian Ross of ABC news

Pundits, politicians, and professors are all wringing their hands over the proliferation of fake news. They’re all very concerned about the masses who now believe fake news. One thing that most fail to acknowledge is that many people prefer fake news over real news. Many viewers, readers, and listeners simply prefer news that confirms the things they believe in. It makes life easier. They like fake news and they’re not going to stop consuming it or sharing it simply because someone says it’s bad.

Intelligence and Fake News

In the first week of March, 2017, President Trump authored a tweet asserting that the Obama team had “wiretapped” Trump Tower. No proof was provided at that time. Two weeks later, Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News reported that British intelligence had been employed by the Obama team to do the deed.

“Sources have told Fox News that the British foreign surveillance service, the Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, most likely provided Obama with transcripts of Trump's calls. The NSA has given GCHQ full 24/7 access to its computers, so GCHQ -- a foreign intelligence agency that, like the NSA, operates outside our constitutional norms -- has the digital versions of all electronic communications made in America in 2016, including Trump's. So by bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints.” From Judge Napolitano’s blog post of March 16, 2017.

This “news” found its way to Press Secretary Seam Spicer, and it was credible enough to him to refer to it during a press conference. President Trump also referred to it. Then a spokesperson from British intelligence denied the assertion.

A Potential Tale of Two Possiblities.

A lot of fake news can be detected by listening for two little words.

In days of yore, publishers and editors didn’t put stories on the air or into print until they had enough of the facts to support the storyline. Sometimes in the race to break a story ahead of the competition, they got a little ahead of themselves. When they did, they sometimes printed or aired material that was not accurate and had to be retracted or corrected. Since reputations are important to news organizations, they avoided making mistakes as much as possible.

Now, to stay ahead of other outlets, some news organizations go with material that hasn’t yet been fleshed out. Understanding a few code words can help consumers to recognize when a story might, possibly, potentially be fake news. For example, James Rosen of Fox News wrote a story on March 23^rd with the following provocative title.

Potential 'smoking gun' showing Obama administration spied on Trump team, source says.

Comrade Paul Manafort and the Kremlin Connection

First, Rachel Maddow recently revealed two pages of Trump’s 2006 tax returns which showed that Trump paid 38 million dollars in taxes that year. That was a whopping twenty-four percent! Trump followers were shocked. How could anyone who was supposed to be good at business be so bad at tax evasion? It’s hard to respect a business person who pays that much in taxes.

President Trump is standing his ground about wiretapping allegations. Oh, yeah! His tweets about the Obama team bugging Trump Tower continue to be a top news story. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial said, “… the President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle.”  When will he let it go?