FAKE NEWS - Does it Really Harm Us???

BREAKING NEWS – U.S. Department of Defense Makes Multi-Trillion Dollar Commitment to Scrap all its Current Military Vehicles, Aircraft, and Ships.

…OR…

Apple Decides to Cease Production and Sales of All Phones, Tablets, and Computers due, to Lagging Interest and Sales.

OK – You get the point – these two “Breaking News” stories are obviously not true…but…what about the not so obvious and more subtle attempts of our media, our politicians, and even ourselves to spread misinformation or what has become the buzz word; Fake News?

As much as this buzz word is relatively new, the “practice” of spreading false information has been around as long as man has walked the earth. As a young man growing up in central Indiana, this practice was called lying. But we, in today’s society, have become far more sensitive and reserve to use such a bold, yet honest, term. So, today we call lying: false information, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, untruthful, deceptive, mendacious, perfidious, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, dissimulating, dissembling, double-dealing, two-faced, Janus-faced, guileful, underhand, disingenuous, crooked, bent, sneaky, tricky, hollow-hearted, and duplicitous…My, aren’t we so much more civilized today than before, now that we have so many words for dishonesty ☹.

In fact, when I grew up, Newspapers, Radio, and Television, advertisements went out of their way to make sure they had truthful and unimpeachable ads. It was a means of respect and trust to gain the publics’ confidence in their products or services, and their businesses could be ruined and disgraced if anything within their advertisements was found to be less than 100% truthful. Today, it seems the better we can lie, or deflect, or misrepresent, the better we do in business – I know this is only the minority of companies but even well-established respected firms find very creative ways of bending, or sometimes hiding, the truth.

As I hinted before, this is not an issue just prevalent since my youth of the 1950’s and 60’s, but, as it is with many of life’s challenges, this concern can be traced back to the origin of Man. It’s in Genesis 2 and 3: where we see the origin of the very first lie, and it should not surprise anyone to know who was the liar. We learn in this verse that God had said to Adam and Eve, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die". However, the very first liar, and I believe the promoter of all lies, the serpent, added one little word to change the whole meaning of what God had said, and it deceived Eve. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. “But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

We have been living with the consequences of this lie ever since.

Why do I believe, as I said, that Satan is the “promoter of all lies?” It was stated by Jesus himself in John 8:44, where John writes this quote from Jesus who is referring to all of us who walk the earth: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Jesus was trying to convey to us that there is no truth in following the worlds ways, but only in following him. He was explaining to us that we say we follow God but we live as if we follow Satan and he was trying to make us understand the Gods ways are not the worlds, or Satan’s ways. As he said in the previous verses of John 42-43: “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.”

So, we know it started at the very beginning, but what are some more recent examples of critical Fake News that is hurting or has hurt us all in some way, none quite so hurtful as the serpent-Satan’s original lie:

Jack-the-Ripper

I go back to the 1800’s for my first two examples: in 1888, a series of brutal slayings in the Whitechapel district of East London were widely reported. Accounts of the eleven murders, typically involving prostitutes, were described in graphic detail in the newspapers of the time. Many tried to profit from the high-profile case by spreading fake news.

Two young men, full of drink, were arrested and charged with spreading fake news. The pair were in Wright’s Lane in Kensington with their bundles of newspapers, and were heard to shout “Arrest of Jack the Ripper Tonight” at the top of their voices. William Macdonald and George Write, news vendors, were taken before the court but later discharged.

James Kendrick, another news vendor, was also charged with crying out false news about Jack the Ripper. After slow Sunday sales, he began calling that there was a “Horrible Discovery of a Missing Woman at Charing Cross”. Later, he cried out that four women were discovered slashed at Charing Cross. One customer, who bought one of his papers, found no such article inside and took the matter to the police. The news vendor was sentenced to 14 days in jail, with hard labor.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmons) Dead at 61

On June 1, 1897, reports out of New York were that Mark Twain was ‘dying in poverty in London’. The next day, an article headlined Mark Twain Amused, appeared in the New York Journal under the byline of Frank Marshall White.

When reached for comment, Mark Twain told the reporter that he did not know whether to be amused or annoyed. He assured him that he was living with his wife and children in a very nice house in Chelsea and was hardly living in poverty, nor was he ill. It was Twain’s belief that the story came about because a cousin of his, James Ross Clemens of St Louis, was ill in London two or three weeks previously, although he had since recovered.

Twain went on to state: “The report of my death was an exaggeration. The report of my poverty is harder to deal with.”

War of the Worlds

The fake news of an alien attack on America is a classic one. On Sunday, 30 October 1938, the Columbia Broadcasting network aired an adaptation of the 1898 novel War of the Worlds by HG Wells. During the broadcast, the first two thirds of the story were aired over the radio as a series of breaking news alerts and the effect was so realistic that many listeners panicked, believing that there truly was an alien invasion taking place.

The show began as an interruption to regular programming announcing that a professor had observed a series of gas explosions on Mars. Later, a bulletin stated that a meteor had fallen in New Jersey, killing 15,000 people. Another news flash contradicted the first, saying that the meteor was actually a cylindrical object containing strange creatures from Mars armed with death ray guns.

War of the Worlds Hoax is Headline News in Australia

Even before the end of the broadcast, doctors, nurses, soldiers and sailors reported for duty, ready to fight the Martians. Police stations across the country responded to thousands of calls. Newspaper reporters, hearing of the invasion, rushed to prepare special editions. Producers of the show were quite unprepared for this response, never thinking that anyone would believe that the broadcast was real.

U.S. Soldiers Intentionally Abuse - Disrespect the Qur’an (Koran)

April – June 2005: It became an international news story that led to riots and deaths due to anger and destruction throughout the world, mostly the middle east. The story was that U.S. Soldiers were intentionally abusing and disrespecting the Koran, in full view of prisoners at Guantanamo Base (aka Gitmo), in an effort to hurt, shame, and anger, the inmates. This story made headlines in nearly every paper and newscast throughout the globe. An independent investigation was ordered. Because I am, or should I say was, a news junkie, I was actually watching CSPAN when the investigation results were announced. Here are the facts:

· 1600 copies of the Koran were provided by the U.S. Military to the prisoners

· 102 occurrences of abuse were found (6.4% of the books distributed)

· 97 of the found occurrences were perpetuated by the prisoners themselves (6.0% of the books distributed)

· 5 U.S. servicemen were guilty of abuse or disrespect (0.3% of the books distributed or 4.93% of the total abuses)

· 2 of the 5 U.S. servicemen were found to have perpetuated the abuse or disrespect intentionally, the other 3 occurring accidently. (0.1% of the books distributed or 1.9% of the total abuses)

As I heard and reflected on the story, I thought to myself that as long as mankind is involved, there will always be some who don’t follow the rules. It is always a shame when people attempt to demean other people. But I was actually satisfied to hear the numbers, because less than 2% of the U.S. Soldiers were actually found to have intentionally done what was claimed. However, this story took a far more negative turn the next day when world-wide news institutions reported:

· US admits Koran abuse at Cuba base

· Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantánamo Bay

· U.S. confirms Gitmo soldier kicked Quran

· Local Muslims protest Quran abuse

· Quran Desecration: Far Worse than Abu Ghraib

Just like the serpent, these media outlets turned half-truth statements into fear and anger, by implying this was not only a U.S. Military strategy, but these actions were a reflection of our government and of all Americans.

Trump Promises Covid-19 Relief by Easter

March 23, 2020: According to several media outlets, President Trump promises the “lock-down,” due to the pandemic, will end by Easter. This was not what the President stated. Call me shallow or state that I don’t have a life, but I was listening to the news conference live. What the President said was that he “hoped” the nation’s dramatic response to the coronavirus pandemic will be scaled back within weeks to revive the economy and pack churches by Easter Sunday. “I would love to have the country opened up and raring to go,” Trump stated. “Our people are full of vim and vigor and energy. They don’t want to be locked into a house or an apartment or some space,” Trump said. “It’s not for our country, and we are not built that way. “I think that would be a great thing for our country,” Trump said. “We’re all working very hard to make that a reality. Easter is a very special day for a lot of reasons. What a great timeline that would be.”

Obviously in hindsight this didn’t occur but there are two issues here – it was reported as an affirmative statement and promise, which obviously it was not. Secondly, it does not seem to me to be a negative that the President hoped, as most of us did, for the trends at that time to continue to benefit all us by a very special day.

Anti-Vaccine Posts Use Deceptively Edited Video Clip

December 18, 2020: Social media pages that share anti-vaccine messages have used a selectively edited news clip that suggests the COVID-19 vaccine is unsafe. The clip shows a nurse fainting after she gets the vaccine, but it doesn’t show her quick recovery. Afterward, the nurse explained that she is prone to fainting when triggered by even a slight pain, yet her explanation didn’t make the news clip.

Protestors Storm the Capital vs. Black Lives Matters (BLM) gatherings.

This is simply a general statement that I imagine everyone has noticed. The coverage, the enforcement, the penalties (although still occurring in the Capitol issue), and certainly the pundits and/or public outrage has not even been close to fair and honest. The true protestors marching against election reform and corruption and supporting the BLM movement are mostly good people just wanting to make a statement about fairness and equality. It is the 5-10%, of the radicals, who caused the issues and created the destruction, looting, and chaos, and the vast majority did not participate nor support, these radicals. Just like the Gitmo story on the Koran, a very small percentage truly want to do wrong and be divisive and destructive. However, the reporting and proposed penalties don’t seem to be equal or fair, for very very similar activities and results.

"Winning isn’t everything; it's the only thing"

This is a well-known quotation in sports. It is commonly referred to as a saying from Vince Lombardi, successful NFL coach and world champion. However, it is more correctly attributed to the originator; Vanderbilt football coach Henry Russell ("Red") Sanders. It is believed he first used this motivational phrase in the late 1930’s.

However, throughout all of sports, this phrase has nearly always been attributed to Lombardi. While it is true that Lombardi did indeed make the statement, on occasion, throughout his career, it’s also true that he often gets misquoted and usually did not utter this exact phrase. On one interview with the legendary coach, Lombardi stated: “I wish to hell I’d never said the damned thing,” Lombardi once told a reporter. “I meant the effort… I meant having a goal… I sure as hell didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.” Quoting me as making that exact statement is a little out of context." What I said "is that “Winning is not everything – but making the effort to win is. Winning is not a SOME-time thing…it is an ALL-time thing. You don’t win once in a while …you don’t do the right thing once in a while.”

So, the most quoted Lombardi line, was never what he original said, although he did utter it a few times later in life, and it was most certainly not what he meant. Lombardi felt that people in 1960s America had too much apathy. He felt too many people had lost their competitive spirit and he wanted them to once again strive for excellence. He later stated: “Our society, at the present time, seems to have sympathy for the misfit, the ne’er-do-well, the maladjusted, the criminal, the loser. It is time to stand up for the doer, the achiever, the one who sets out to do something and does it. The one who recognizes the problems and opportunities at hand, and deals with them, and is successful, and is not worrying about the failings of others. The one who is constantly looking for more to do. The one who carries the work of the world on his shoulders. The leader. We will never create a good society, much less a great one, until individual excellence is respected and encouraged.”

Some of these stories are truly fake news, some of them are people embellishing or exaggerating, and some of them are simply misquoting or reporting – but all of it is not truthful nor factual. One must be very careful and guarded to truly know the differences. I believe you have to actually hear the quote to know the truth. Unfortunately, our technology to edit has gotten so good, hence the doctored video reference, that even then you may not see and hear the whole context of a statement. One has to put forth some level of trust, based on the people who are speaking and their known history of trustworthiness. But again, you need to form this opinion yourself based on your own knowledge and experiences. If you listen to certain segments of the media, both professional and social, you will hear varying degrees of the truth, or untruth, being spouted quite professionally by many many people and unfortunately much of it is not based on fact, no matter how factual some of the information seems to be.

Remember the old joke – how do you know if a politician (pick any occupation) is lying??? Their mouth is moving – or in the case of social media – their fingers are typing!!! While I don’t mean to be so critical to say that everything you read is a lie, however I do feel that there is no longer any accountability, other than what we ourselves choose to have, with various companies, news media, leaders, etc. Even some of “Fact-Checker” businesses reveal a significant amount of bias and slant to what they say. We must choose to only support the trustworthy and reputable, a task that is becoming increasingly more difficult. Our Country’s founding documents state: We Hold these TRUTHS to be self-evident…The founding fathers clearly wanted the whole world to know the words in these documents were facts – truths, which could not be discounted nor ignored. By putting this word first and foremost in these documents, it was imperative that truth was vastly important and critical to our founding fathers.

More importantly, we need to seek God and spend time in his word, getting to know the truths of what he wants and demands for all of us. Because with God we are all the same, equal and loved, and no one person is more important nor has more value, than another.

There are many references to Gods truth and love in the Bible: “love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” 1 Corinthians 13:6.

Jesus said, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32.

The truth of Jesus is not some bondage to keep you from the life you want to live. The truth of Jesus sets you free. It’s liberating! Likewise, Paul told Timothy about the freedom that can be experienced in Jesus, He gave His life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. — 1 Timothy 2:6 NLT

When the Disciples were troubled, Jesus comforted them when he said in John 14: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Trust in Jesus and trust in yourself. We control our judgements, decisions, choices and most importantly what we say…and…how we interpret what we hear. Be informed and very cautious of social, and the news, media. Do your research, build your network of trust, and seek out God’s word. Doing these things will give you a chance to know what’s real, and more times than not, steer you away from the Fake News, as just these few examples prove, fake news can clearly be harmful.

I leave you with two great quotes on the truth:

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”

― Winston S. Churchill

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”

― Mahatma Gandhi