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“Fake News” Is the New “Bregret”
The American Interest ^ | 11/18/2016 | Jason Willick

Posted on 11/20/2016 8:02:16 AM PST by RightGeek

After a majority of British voters stunned the political establishment on both sides of the Atlantic by voting to leave the European Union, the media quickly alighted on a narrative to reassure “Remain” partisans of their moral superiority: “Leave” voters, ignorant of the actual implications of their vote, were already regretting their decision en masse. In August, we addressed the dangers of this kind of blind self-congratulation (which was never really supported by the data): “By trying to delegitimize votes for the likes of Trump, Le Pen, Wilders, and Grillo, or for causes such as Brexit or the Dutch referendum on Ukraine’s association agreement with the EU, as being the products either of external manipulation or of some other form of false consciousness, our elites are refusing to even countenance the underlying causes fueling these sentiments.”

Now that elites worldwide are reeling from Donald Trump’s presidential victory—”Brexit plus plus plus,” the candidate called it—a variation of this narrative is once again taking hold in liberal circles. This time, it’s centered on “fake news”—the idea that Trump’s victory can be chalked up to phony right-wing news websites, which allegedly had an outsize presence on social media networks in the run-up to the election. As with “Bregret,” the obvious implication is that the election of Donald Trump is not a real rejection of the cosmopolitan establishment, because if voters actually understood their options, they would not have elected him.

President Obama appears to be sold on a version of this theory. In a recent New Yorker profile, the outgoing president tells David Remnick that he believes the rise of fact-free right-wing outlets have created scorched-earth resistance to his common-sense agenda by manipulating cocooned conservative voters:

[SNIP]

(Excerpt) Read more at the-american-interest.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: fakenews

1 posted on 11/20/2016 8:02:16 AM PST by RightGeek
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To: RightGeek
We have been living with fake news since the beginning of journalism. It is just becoming more obvious because of the spread of the internet.

The next step for using the power we have as free thinking citizens is to come up with a label for the scum in journalism that will stick and demean them even more than Rush's term of "drive by".

2 posted on 11/20/2016 8:07:28 AM PST by Baynative ( Someone's going to have to pay for these carbon emissions, so it might as well be you.)
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To: RightGeek
the rise of fact-free right-wing outlets have created scorched-earth resistance to his common-sense agenda by manipulating cocooned conservative voters

There's a old saying that "you can't stuff 10 pounds of crap into a 5-pound box." But the idiot paraphrased here manages to cram a neutron star's worth of horsepucky into one sentence.

If any news platforms can be accused of being "fact-free," it would be the bootlicker media who have been proven to be nothing more than liberal lackeys. How accurate were their polls? How many nailed the election result? How many have reported hoaxes as hard news and then been forced to retract their bs when the truth finally outs?

As for "coccooned," I didn't see conservatives rushing to their Play-dough-enhanced safe spaces after Barack Obamanation was elected.

Scorched earth? Take a look at Portland and tell me who's scorching what.

Common sense agenda? You mean the one that enables Iran to develop nuclear weapons? That insists men can use womens' toilets? That empowers black thugs to kill white policemen? That treats our military as a laboratory for gender experimentation? THAT "common sense?"

If you need fertilizer for your garden, you know where to look.

3 posted on 11/20/2016 8:18:21 AM PST by IronJack
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To: Baynative

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3496154/posts?page=10#10


4 posted on 11/20/2016 8:22:01 AM PST by nathanbedford (attack, repeat, attack! Bull Halsey)
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To: RightGeek

They want to control the information to the pitiful serfs. The fight will never end.


5 posted on 11/20/2016 8:27:34 AM PST by GregoTX
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To: Baynative

We here, at FReeRepublic have been calling them the Brown Shirt Media, BSM for short, for some time.


6 posted on 11/20/2016 8:30:19 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: RightGeek

..... Yup ... This push to get rid of “Fake News” is just another term for enforcing Censorship of opposing views. They will go about this with the same vigor they used against Tea Party Groups by the IRS. It will be totally one sided with 99% conservative sites targeted coupled with a microscopically few minor left leaning sites thrown in to make it appear fair and balanced.


7 posted on 11/20/2016 8:31:19 AM PST by R_Kangel ( "A Nation of Sheep ..... Will Beget ..... a Nation Ruled by Wolves.")
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To: RightGeek

SNL carried the left’s water as usual having fun with the whole “fake news” thing. Funny thing is, they did it as part of their usual fake news skit. The irony wasn’t even acknowledged.


8 posted on 11/20/2016 8:47:39 AM PST by Ouchthatonehurt ("When you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: wastoute; nathanbedford
Lying and creating fake news went into hyper drive with the creation of 60 Minutes. Had the internet been active, that hour of propaganda may have died within a season or two. Yet, the power of the media to sustain itself and protect its soldiers is strong.

Think of Dan Rather's comment after being caught faking a news story about George Bush's military service. His reply that although false, the story was accurate. Although he was finally removed from his desk at CBS, the media rallied around him and led by Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings a special awards dinner was created to give him a life time achievement award for excellence in journalism.

I am hoping for a more universal tool to expose these people and their efforts. A few are working at it, like Media Matters, but they mainly just preach to the choir on FOX.

9 posted on 11/20/2016 8:57:50 AM PST by Baynative ( Someone's going to have to pay for these carbon emissions, so it might as well be you.)
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To: RightGeek

The biggest “fake news” story of the last year is that Trump is a racist, repeated incessantly in the MSM.


10 posted on 11/20/2016 9:30:24 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: RightGeek

Remember how just before the 2000 election, the media touted the fake “RATS” story, according to which a Bush TV ad had a subliminal message buried in it?


11 posted on 11/20/2016 9:32:49 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: RightGeek

According to several reports, Trump won because a lot of fence-sitters broke late for Trump. By definition, “fence sitters” are cautious and unlikely to be moved by dubious stories buried in obscure conspiratorial sites.


12 posted on 11/20/2016 9:36:02 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: RightGeek
Difference between fake news and false news. Fake news easily finds it way to FR--just op-ed about what can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, and must happen.

It's easy to spot. Fake news is never about what happened.

13 posted on 11/20/2016 9:37:34 AM PST by aspasia
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To: RightGeek

Hmmm, fake polls on the left, fake news on the right, and both with the same goal — to discourage the other side. Difference is, the right easily recognized fake polls (and frankly, fake news), because the right is capable of rational thought rather than feelings.


14 posted on 11/20/2016 9:59:35 AM PST by Chaguito
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To: GregoTX

Obama publicly stated as much when he bemoaned the fact that in the past Americans received their news from a couple of networks that all fed the same “news”. They don’t have a problem with “fake news”; they have a problem with not determining what is “the news”.

Regardless of how this election was decided, Trump singlehandedly returned an issue (illegal immigrants) to the front page that our overlords had determined was a settled matter (not in our favor). That was the beginning of overthrowing the media monopoly on news; now they are irrelevant because now we know they can be beaten.


15 posted on 11/20/2016 10:05:59 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: RightGeek
"the election of Donald Trump is not a real rejection of the cosmopolitan establishment, because if voters actually understood their options, they would not have elected him."

Voters actually did understand their options. That's why they elected Trump.

Denial and self-deception are dangerous things.

Someone whose mind is darkened by delusion and denial is dangerous. This is the fundamental rejection of the deluded, corrupt Establishment that the 2016 Presidential Election proclaimed.

16 posted on 11/20/2016 10:20:28 AM PST by Savage Beast (Trump is the Resistance! Vive la résistance!)
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To: R_Kangel

Speaking of “fair and balanced” everyone of us should be turning off the LSM permanently now. They do not deserve our money and we certainly don’t need to further waste our time being propagandized to.


17 posted on 11/20/2016 11:04:27 AM PST by uncitizen (will never get tired of winning)
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To: uncitizen
Fake news ban may finally end our 24/7 immersion in the Global Warming hysteria!

I become ill with each animal documentary that harps to this or that threatened by global warming.

Santa Claus, Easter bunny, Tooth Fairy, good looking democrat woman in politics, and global warming, all are nonexistent.

18 posted on 11/20/2016 11:55:26 AM PST by urbanpovertylawcenter (the law and poverty collide in an urban setting and sparks fly)
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To: RightGeek

Fake News? Like what CNNMSNBCABCNBCCBS etc.. have been delivering for decades?


19 posted on 11/20/2016 12:01:10 PM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: urbanpovertylawcenter
Fake news ban may finally end our 24/7 immersion in the Global Warming hysteria!

Your sarc tag is missing.

20 posted on 11/20/2016 4:49:36 PM PST by uncitizen (will never get tired of winning)
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