After Donald Trump was announced as the president-elect, a lot of people began to ask the question: “How did this happen?” And the answers are broad. But one of the explanations has to do with the growing oblivion to fake news. Articles meant to be satire or a parody have spread across the internet like wildfire—they are written for that purpose, with their outlandish titles and information—and have been believed by the masses. Soon enough, there are undisputed false ‘facts’ that become the core of reason for peoples’ opinions.
Take a look at Paul Horner, for example. Horner is a 38-year-old man who has changed the game of news hoaxes. His stories have gone viral through Facebook, being pushed by thousands of users without a clue of the fabrication. An interview with The Intersect gains perspective behind Horner’s motives. When asked why his fake stories are so popular, Horner makes a clear point:
“Nobody fact-checks anything anymore — I mean, that’s how Trump got elected. He just said whatever he wanted, and people believed everything, and when the things he said turned out not to be true, people didn’t care because they’d already accepted it.”
Then it gets scarier:
“My sites were picked up by Trump supporters all the time. I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything. His campaign manager [Corey Lewandowski] posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist.”
Now, before you grab a pitchfork and blame Horner for the election of Donald Trump, know that he is not a supporter. That is why he wrote such articles against the then-candidate, to reveal how some of the Trump supporters believed anything. Horner expected readers to fact-check his articles and realize the false claims, then spread the word. Instead, the internet chowed down on the staged information and digested it as true facts. Horner just contributed to the ugly truth: Nobody fact-checks what they read on the internet anymore.
Maybe it’s laziness or a new gullible attitude toward any site that looks professional enough to pass as credible. Either way, news sources should always be fact-checked. No article can be reliable until you take the time to compare it to other sources. Even videos can be satire, especially political speeches. All it takes is some cuts and the entire speech perspective can be changed.
Who knows! If you don’t fact-check enough, it could elect the next president of the United States.
