(TRUTHDIG)
By Sonali Kolhatkar
The term “fake news” entered into popular usage soon after the 2016 general election, when Donald Trump beat most poll predictions and won just enough Electoral College votes in swing states to tilt the results in his favor. Many shocked Americans looked for explanations for how the unthinkable had happened.
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One idea that jumped out was that some voters, particularly those who favored Trump, had been duped by fabricated reports sporting sensationalist headlines, specifically designed to be click-bait. Thus the idea of “fake news,” as an insidious and deeply out-of-control phenomenon with the power to sway elections, took hold.
No sooner had this theory been established than Trump and his surrogates deployed the idea themselves as an offensive tactic. In a recent tweet, Trump explained to Americans how he makes presidential decisions, saying, “I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!” He has also dismissed surveys demonstrating the unpopularity of some of his policies in this tweet: “Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election.”
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It is a brilliant move, designed to keep the purveyors of fact-checked stories off balance and under suspicion.
Facts are the enemy of charlatans and con artists, hence Trump’s adviser and campaign chair Kellyanne Conway’s offer of “alternative facts” in the face of real ones on the size of Inauguration Day crowds in Washington, D.C.
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In Trump’s milieu, bona fide news reports are considered “fake news,” while Conway’s lies (and those of the president) are simply “alternative facts.” In effect, Trump has skillfully turned the notion of fake news on its head and weaponized it against the media. All he has to do is dismiss any inconvenient media claim, no matter how well-documented and verifiable, as fake news and stand his ground. Most frightening—and dangerous—is the possibility that many of his supporters will believe him over The New York Times or The Washington Post.
