“Fake news” is nothing new. Attempts to mislead people on a large scale have been around as long as human civilisation itself. A branch of this axis of disinformation — advertising — has become a legitimate billion dollar industry. Indeed, smoking, for example, was made cool on the back of this industry for decades before the scientific truth about smoking caught up.
When the truth about the fatal health effects of smoking emerged, the tobacco industry paid dearly. But, guess what: the advertising industry got away scott free without even a slap on the wrist.
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There is a reason the 21st Century notion of “fake news” became the trendy “activist” outrage fad that it is today — because social media’s spurned lover, corporate mainstream media, put it up as the modern day “Satan” against which today’s righteousness flock are obliged to rail against.
What has happened is that Big Corporate Media’s travesties have since been buried under a mountain of “fake news” hysteria. The fact is, the falsehoods propagated by so-called “journalists” have caused far more damage to society than “fake news” ever will. Whereas the arbitrary lot who are presumed to fall within the blanket “fake news” accusations of these “activists” of “press freedom” compete for dominance as free agents in the free market of ideas, the chi chi oligarchs who own today’s Big Corporate Media organisations are in a desperate frenzy pulling authority, citing rank and credentials, and deferring to their “institutional” place in society to prop up the remaining semblance of relevance they enjoy within their little cliques.
We can see today how every other item on the social media feeds of politically-attuned Netizens involve some form of gripe over the “proliferation” of “fake news” coming from a who’s-who of “thought leaders”. What is missing, however, is a wherewithal to compete. Rather than step up to the battlefield with bigger and better guns, Mainstream Media have opted for the Victim Card and be the pathetic crybabies that they are today.
Indeed, it is evident today that the beleaguered traditional news media industry are banding together into victim support groups. Look no further beyond the way TIME Magazine have gathered together a band of these victim cardholders to lionise on their quaint “Persons of the Year” pedestal. All of them “journalists”. All of them are either employed or partnered with or otherwise colluding in some way with industry captains.
Only healthy and competitive discourse on social media (the way, ironically, many early social media “experts” trumpeted it as) or any other platform where anyone can get up upon and speak her mind, will prevail as the most efficient and non-biased means to tease out the truth. It’s messy, yes. Noisy, yes. But the alternative is a landscape dominated by self-described “fact checkers” who owe allegiance not to the spirit of free inquiry but to oligarchs who know nothing beyond furthering their personal and clan agendas to the extent of branding these as the straight and “righteous” paths.
It’s time real people take back the discourse and speak their minds — speak their minds as competitors in a free market and not as the pitiful crybabies traditional “activists” have become.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Fake News will always be with us. We have 30 years of Fake News from the mainstream media in cahoot with the Aquino Conjuangco political axis. They dumbed down to us, the sainthood of Cory Aquino and the heroism of Ninoy Aquino, Jr.
To back up these propagandas of the Fake News mainstream media. They put their nasty and smirking faces on our currency. They have holidays, to celebrate their sainthood and heroism. Their tales of sainthood and heroism are in our elementary textbooks. International Airports and memorial stadium are named after them. They have the EDSA Shrine, to make us remember their heroism and sainthood.
The die is cast, and the new Filipinos are molded as YellowTards…to their disappointment: this did not happen !
When the social media came in…they tried to control it thru the: Jover Laurio’s “Pinoy Ako Blog”, and Maria Reesa’s Rappler.com; and thru other YellowTard websites…In addition, they send computer hackers and internet trolls to harass the anti Aquino bloggers. Not only did they harass us, but put computer viruses in our computers.
Now , that they are not succeeding, they become , ‘CRY BABIES’ !
The only problem of the country is that we only have a “bad” leader, so the solution is next time we should vote a “good” leader. In order to have a “good” leader we make sure that the present leader will look “bad”. In other words, Pilipino’s minds are just confined within only the thought of “good” and “bad” leader stuff, because we are all a victim of this ancient “fake news”, the idea of hero-martyr-saint.
the number 1 cry babies of today’s are no other than the bishops. the truth is the culture of violence in the philippines is a produce of the yellow cult. crimes, corruptions, and drugs is what they did to the philippines. pilipinos are waiting for their punishments.
Leave safety behind. Put your body on the line. Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind even if your voice shakes. When you least expect it, someone may actually listen to what you have to say. Well-aimed slingshots can topple giants.