America is the land of the free, the brave, and the gullible. Our sudden outbreak of fake news has captured the imaginations of our uneducated citizens, harmless in theory, until, someone grabs a gun and decides to take action. A North Carolina man entered a D.C. pizza shop, fired his AR-15, and terrified customers all over an internet hoax. Edgar Welch had been convinced, via the Internet, that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant. Some may argue this was one stand-alone act by a deranged individual, but our plague of fiction is running rampant, and delivering incentives for people to crack. If government agencies, news organizations, and our leaders take more responsibility in the reliability of the content that is spread, America would become more educated and less likely to fall for fake news stories.
"Pizzagate, as the aforementioned event has been dubbed, began on Facebook, as most rumors do. There is no denying Facebook is a breeding culture for unreliable sources that feed on the the unsuspecting prey of gullible readers. There must be something done to filter the false news they have been digesting. One solution would be to create a collaborative effort between media sites and government agencies in the hope of creating an option to fact-check sources to even view other sources with bipartisan discussion of the event. Along with this, I propose a government hotline is created to allow citizens to fact check their sources from a bipartisan, reliable figure. Allowing both of these agencies to work together and create a useful tool would greatly impact the way citizens absorb news. Instead of merely believing all they have been exposed to, they would have the option to quickly investigate the credibility of a Facebook post.
The basic purpose for a news channel is to broadcast the facts, in a bipartisan manner, to the public. By this definition, a news station is the best possible platform to fact check popular stories for citizens. In 2014, Louisiana residents reported seeing a toxic cloud coming from their local chemical plant. Shortly after, news spread calming that Isis had taken responsibility. This claim is a dangerous accusation that surely disturbed those within our nation. Rand Paul described the fake news launch as a "Russian weapons test". In a more physical situation, say if Russia was in the midst of a missile launch, the news would hop on the story and ride it out. Fake news can be just as dangerous, for it can infiltrate our own perceptions, letting our ignorance become our downfall. If news channels began to regularly update citizens on trending news that is false, millions of viewers would become more cautious of unreliable sources.
In truth, our own leaders rarely present factual evidence, as seen in the most recent election. Many argue that just like regular citizens, politicians have the opportunity to swing trends in their favor by just a twist of their words. I argue that our leaders, as the representatives of our country, hold a greater responsibility to uphold truth and dignity. Our president elect has allowed fact-free discourse to spread recklessly like wildfire. He continuously spews false information towards anyone who dares to oppose him. His accusation that Scalia may have been murdered and his claim that Obama was not born in the U.S. have influenced many of his voters to feel as if he is a reliable expert. This is dangerously close to propaganda. If our leaders take responsibility and admit to the truth without bending it, then we will see a difference in the impact of informed voters.
Our nation has been infiltrated by fake news, but we have many options available to detain it. If these suggestions are put in place, America would have easy access to the facts, which would create a more informed nation. If we simply swallow what we are told, we will be run by the corrupt. Instead, we must digest our information, take time to understand it and the implications it may have. This project to inform America could give uneducated citizens the opportunity to expand their knowledge of the world. Fake news can be generated. by the click of a button, and disappear just as easily, but facts and history-- those are indispensable to our future.
