President Trump’s 14 months in the White House have been marked by his repeated complaints about “fake news” reports that have dogged his presidency, but also by Democratic charges that “fake news” is propping him up.
But everyone can’t be right about fake news, can they?
It turns out, they can, since there are at least five different definitions of fake news currently in circulation. That kind of flexibility has allowed just about everyone to wag their finger at fake news, and at least be partially in the right.
Here are the five flavors of fake news:
1) News that hurt Hillary Clinton
While Trump has made the term a staple of his White House term, Hillary Clinton actually used it first about a month after she lost to Trump. She wasn’t specific, but clearly what was on her mind was that fake news stories propped up her opponent and delivered him a shocking victory.
“Let me just mention, briefly, one threat in particular that should concern all Americans,” Clinton said. “The epidemic of malicious, fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year, it’s now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences.”
Clinton was a pioneer who put fake news on the political map, but she was about to watch Trump steal it away, and redefine it.
2) News that hurts President Trump
A day after Clinton used the term, Trump co-opted it and turned it into a term to describe any news that went against Republicans, and specifically, Trump himself.
“Reports by @CNN that I will be working on The Apprentice during my Presidency, even part time, are ridiculous & untrue — FAKE NEWS!” he tweeted.
For many, this has become the most accurate definition of fake news, in part because Trump talks about fake news so much. On Tuesday, for example, when Trump complained about fake news during a White House press conference, CNN’s Chris Cillizza warned that his comments were an attack on America, a clear sign that Cillizza sees the term as one that only Trump and other Republicans wield.
“Don’t laugh when Trump says ‘fake news,'” Cillizza tweeted Tuesday. “It’s absolutely a direct threat to our democracy.”
Don’t laugh when Trump says “fake news.”
It’s absolutely a direct threat to our democracy.
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) April 3, 2018
3) News that is simply incorrect in some way
Others don’t agree that fake news can only imply a Republican or Democratic complaint, and instead use the term literally to point out news reports that are wrong.
Sinclair Broadcasting Group tried to make that point this week, when it defended its campaign to fight “false news” as an attempt to report the news accurately. For Sinclair, fake news is a two-way street that might be used to help or hurt either political party.
“For the record, the stories we are referencing in this campaign are the unsubstantiated ones (i.e. fake/false) like ‘Pope Endorses Trump’ which move quickly across social media and result in an ill-informed public,” said Sinclair Senior Vice President of News Scott Livingston.
But the strong perception that fake news is a term that’s only used by Trump and his supporters had some in the press charging that Sinclair’s message was thinly veiled pro-Trump propaganda. Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather took Sinclair’s effort as a sneak attack to help the president.
“News anchors looking into camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, words meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn’t journalism,” he wrote Monday. “It’s propaganda. It’s Orwellian. A slippery slope to how despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses.”
News anchors looking into camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, words meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn’t journalism. It’s propaganda. It’s Orwellian. A slippery slope to how despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses.
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) April 2, 2018
So while some say fake news can mean any incorrect story, others who see the term politically don’t believe them.
4) News that’s true but purposefully tells an incomplete story
A poll released this week from Monmouth University showed that a majority of people in the country have an even different and more subtle definition of fake news. To them, fake news means stories that stray from the truth due to slanted editorial decisions about how to cover events, which could include lying by omission or focusing only on parts of the story that make one side or the other look good.
“When you use the term fake news, does it only apply to stories where the facts are wrong or does it also apply to how news outlets make editorial decisions about what they choose to report?” Monmouth asked.
A surprising 65 percent of respondents said the term also applies to how news outlets make editorial decisions, and only 25 percent said the term means only stories that get the facts wrong.
That poll result seems to indicate a more sophisticated view of how news organizations operate, and an understanding that left-leaning groups might omit news that makes liberals look bad, while right-leaning groups similarly prop up conservatives using the same methods.
According to the poll, a majority of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents agree that fake news exists.
5) News written by any U.S. news outlet
Finally, President Trump on Tuesday seemed to be on the verge of developing a fifth definition of fake news.
At a White House press conference with leaders from Baltic countries, Trump asked for questions only from reporters from non-U.S. reporters, and implied that U.S. reporters are all purveyors of fake news.
“Pick a reporter please,” Trump said. “You can pick a reporter, a Baltic reporter ideally. Real news, not fake news.”
Several U.S. reporters bristled at the accusation, but most ignored Trump’s move of finally identifying a rare source of something that’s in short supply in the U.S.: real news.
