A new study found that people given accurate statistics on a controversial issue tended to misremember those numbers to fit commonly held beliefs.
For example, when people are shown that the number of Mexican immigrants in the United States declined recently—which is true but goes against many people's beliefs—they tend to remember the opposite.
And when people pass along this misinformation they created, the numbers can get further and further from the truth.
"People can self-generate their own misinformation. It doesn't all come from external sources," said Jason Coronel, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University.
"They may not be doing it purposely, but their own biases can lead them astray. And the problem becomes larger when they share their self-generated misinformation with others."
I supposed the Russians will go down in history, or perhaps the Guinness World Records, as the first to manipulate the outcome of an American election through fake news reports and fake social media advertising. Reportedly, it only cost the Russians $100,000 in Facebook advertising to help put Mr. Trump into office.
If so, they join a throng of election fraudsters goin’ way, way back.
In the 1890s, Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal were at the top of the list. Back then, sensationalizing the news to drive up circulation, Yellow Journalism as was labeled, was the technique of choice. The fake news stories helped create the climate that led to the Spanish-American War, plus the terrible atrocities committed by the U.S. Army to put down the Cuban Revolution and what became known as the Philippine–American War.
Today, Fox News and, of course, the supermarket tabloids, including the National Enquirer, the Globe and the National Examiner, dependably rank high among publications proffering fakery about nearly every topic imaginable.
Our Mainstream Media are obviously not exempt from their own brand of fake news, either.
If you are not old enough to be among the aging Baby Boomers you may not know of Carl Bernstein’s famous article, The CIA and The Media.
Equal to, if not more important, than his work with Bob Woodward uncovering the Watergate scandal, the article was first published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977.
Bernstein was the first to reveal how the CIA used, manipulated and paid American journalists during the 50s and 60s. His work eventually led to the outing of Operation Mockingbird, the CIA’s program for manipulating the press to publish fake news about anything the CIA determined was to its advantage.
If I were to bet, I’d put my money on the CIA as still ranking among the leaders putting their version of fake into our "news" today.*
* If there is one organization which maintains journalistic standards and integrity it’s ProPublica.
"How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up"
"After leaving The Washington Post in 1977, Carl Bernstein spent six months looking at the relationship of the CIA and the press during the Cold War years. His 25,000-word cover story, published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977, is reprinted below."
"In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America’s leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA."
"Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past twenty‑five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. Some of these journalists’ relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were explicit. There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap. Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services—from simple intelligence gathering to serving as go‑betweens with spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters who considered themselves ambassadors without‑portfolio for their country. Most were less exalted: foreign correspondents who found that their association with the Agency helped their work; stringers and freelancers who were as interested in the derring‑do of the spy business as in filing articles; and, the smallest category, full‑time CIA employees masquerading as journalists abroad. In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America’s leading news organizations."
Recently, "fake" news has been discovered hiding among our social media posts.
The problem has become so apparent that even members of the mainline media are writing about how terrible it is that we all have become victims of "fake" social media postings. Editors are working day and night to come up with a solution for determining "real" from "fake" news.
Not to diminish the problem, we actually have a tradition of deception or "fake" news which has been around since humans were invented. Only the medium has changed today.
From our earliest days mankind has used deception to misdirect truth. Instead of acknowledging responsibility we often claim innocence, ignorance or accuse another of being guilty.
Among the most historical examples of deception is the Biblical story of Cain and Able (Genesis 4:9-4:16). Cain killed his brother Able when he grew jealous of him.
“Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?’”
As the story goes, for the murder of his brother and his attempted deception, God ended Cain’s way of making a living as a “tiller of the ground”, gave him the “mark”, so that no other man would kill him and then banished him to eternal wandering, “east of Eden”. Things didn’t work out so well for Cain.
Sadly, since Cain’s time and right up until now, mankind has most often chosen deception rather than truth when confronted with facing responsibility for a heinous crime, a harmful act against another human, taking unfair advantage of another person or even telling a lie in order to gain some advantage over others.
Further, when you think about it, we often hear, the “Am I my brother’s keeper?” deception offered, especially when the perpetrator has already committed an act against his brother.
It may not be an outright act of murder, but you will hear the same defense, or some derivative of it, offered as an excuse for taking advantage of less fortunate people (fill in the blank here with anyone “different”, i.e. different religion, race, ethnicity, political belief, being poor, level of education, etc.).
Or, as a defense for providing terrible service; selling inferior products; ending “safety net” programs for the helpless; foreclosing on homes for nonpayment of taxes or late mortgage payments; turning the water off for nonpayment — all the while exempting favored people (usually wealthy) from paying taxes or high interest rates and/or providing a multitude of avenues to avoid shut off of public services or foreclosure for default.
To this very day the "deception list" grows, trailing off to infinity.
After all this time, one thing is certain. If you hear the question asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” You know deception is close at hand.
But, no matter, the answer is still, YES.
Please go here for "The Biggest Deception". Is Lying Bad for Us? “Perhaps the most powerful moral argument for honesty has to do with what the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called ‘bad faith.’ Liars deceive others, but in a sense, liars also deceive themselves. When we lie we tend to distort our own view of reality, and the more often we lie, the more habitual this distortion becomes. Over time, the habit of lying divorces us further and further from reality, so we see less and less clearly the choices before us and what is at stake in them. Eventually, we may find ourselves unable to see what we are really doing and how it is affecting others and ourselves. We end up leading inauthentic and irresponsible lives.” Is Lying Bad for Us?, The Atlantic, Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD, Feb 2013.
