Trust in the Post Truth Era

In the present day America we seem to be living in surreal times. We are inundated with information coming us at a mind boggling speed and the hard part is that we don’t know any more what is fact and what is fiction! Since the beginning of 2016, an open war is declared between the traditional media and media owned, operated and served by yellow journalists. Not that the two did not exist side by side but generally the veracity of news and stories appearing in traditional media was taken for granted because journalists were trained to check and double check the sources and the details and went through a stringent editorial oversight.

Usually, the headlines and contents in Newspaper, Television and Radio were trusted and taken as reliable sources for making sense of the day-to-day events. Now we have gone even beyond the yellow journalism, which had at least the sensationalized half-truths. These days, Fake News, i.e. fabricated propaganda without any truth has sprung up to rival the contents catered by traditional media. The irony is that the perpetrators of fake news turn around and accuse the legitimate press of putting out fake news stories.

These days, however, our heads are spinning because for every news covered in traditional media, there is a counter-claim that it is “Fake News”. And the battle is not between journalists only, now it is between politicians at the highest level, in the senate and congress at the Federal, State and local levels.

What is Fake News anyway? It can be an opinion piece by a revolution-minded member of a faction, spinning a conspiracy theory just to baffle the minds of some people who can be persuaded to their cause, usually against the Government. Or it could be a loud-mouth individual wielding power with mic to spread untruth about the reality that he or she does not like. News stories could even be a fabrication by foreign agents with ulterior motives trying to disrupt our way of living to surreptitiously advocate their political philosophy to influence us. So how do we navigate through this muck-raking?

To Trust or not Trust is the Question

The big question is whom to trust? Trust, after all, is the foundation on which civilization is built, societies are formed and thrive. A handshake and a compact based on trust in one’s integrity allows any transaction or interaction to move forward. If your word is not your bond, why would anyone want to do anything with you? In its absence, skepticism replaces trust, making life more difficult and less efficient because bureaucracies and protocols have to be set up to ferret out facts to ensure the spirit of the relationships and interactions.

We have grown up on with the idea that truth and honesty are necessary and integral to a decent and well-functioning society. Simply put, truth is based on facts and honesty is based on the interpretation of the truth. However, truthfulness and honesty are not interchangeable. Honesty means not telling lies, and being truthful is telling facts as you know it.

Of late, after Americans were betrayed by the big financial debacle of 2008 due to unbridled greed of the Wall Street’s investment banks, cynicism has replaced even skepticism, not just among political parties but at the grass root level. Since that Wall Street debacle took everyone by surprise, the faith in the Government has been lost, because the government and the establishments, the Federal Reserve and the SEC failed to protect us by not enforcing the rules laid out by the Security and Exchange Commission. It resulted in people’s personal assets like home, pension funds and retirement losing value suddenly due to a stock market crash that ushered a deep recession that has lasted very long. We are barely recovering after nearly a decade!

Other incidents in the recent memory was Iraq war, started in George Bush Jr.’s time, was based on fabrication to the extent that even General Colin Powell, a much respected and decorated hero participated in the propaganda to convince the United Nation and Americans that Iraq was stockpiling weapons of Mass destruction. That turned out not to be a reality. The intelligence was not based on evidence. Media reported on the war and went along with the official story about the reasons for war, which has added immeasurably to the National debt, not to mention huge loss of American lives. It is no surprise that people no longer trust Media fully, although the coverage is more factual than in the alternate media owned and operated by politically leaning owners, who also want to pursue the advertising dollars and viewership based on partisanship.

It’s not surprising that alternate media like Breitbart and the radio and television talk shows like Glen Beck, O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Hannity and Alex Jones seized upon and filled the trust gap by conspiracy stories to spread the propaganda of the hard line conservatives. The traditional media and alternate media have existed side by side without any love lost between them but since the beginning of 2016 primaries and through the election, each has declared war on the other, blaming each other of fabricating fake news. The net impact is that average American has a hard time telling fact from fiction in the news. So how to separate the facts from fabrication?

These days, Fake News, i.e. fabricated propaganda without any truth has sprung up to rival the contents catered by traditional media. The irony is that the perpetrators of fake news turn around and accuse the legitimate press of putting out fake news stories.

Navigating through Murky Waters

We no longer have a common definition of truth or norms, which allowed us to conduct our daily lives and fulfill the need for reliable information. How do we navigate our lives and our need for the right information in the face of bald-faced lies and manipulative techniques of distraction, outright denials, flip-flopping by top leaders, lobbyists and factions?

We do not feel that we are on solid ground of facts. Facts matter a lot if we want to preserve our Democracy, basic rights and institutions that have been built on the idea of truth that can be trusted. Right now, we are experiencing Seismic shift. We, as a nation are falling apart in disparate rubbles of racism, partisanship, gender discrimination, human rights and fundamental religion vs. science, individualism vs. tribalism. At this juncture of History, we Americans have become readily divisible, more parochial, more intensely Randian. Perhaps even more invested in Individualism than she was. We are disintegrating as a society. The price for this type of mistrust is too high!

So, how do we navigate the truth from fake news? How do we navigate through these muddied times? Right now, it feels like Mowgli being confronted by Kaa (the snake of Jungle Book story) hypnotizing us to trust Kaa even as he is tightening the choke hold grip. Some ways to discern the fake vs. real news are:

1. Consider the source. The traditional media, the print, the television networks and the Networks affiliated cable television, have practiced due diligence as a matter of practice. As a policy they like to avoid lawsuits for libel, plagiarism and defamation. As such, hold every journalist’s (whose story is published) feet to the fire for checking and double checking facts that can be supported or are well documented. Usually their sources are journalists themselves or the stories are fed through well-established Newswires with global reach, like AP Newswire, Reuters and PRNewswire. Veteran News Anchor Dan Rather lost his job for not verifying a false story that he read over the public airwaves!
   • Exception to the rule is the recent networks that have political party agenda, like Fox who promote news with a spin that favors their viewpoint. And tabloid newspaper where the focus is on gossips and rumors.
2. Use common sense and critical thinking. If your gut feeling is that somethings just do not add up, verify by going to fact-check sites like Snopes.com, FactCheck.org and About.com. These organization do the due diligence and can expose a hoax or falsehood or fantasy news with correct information.
3. The Fake News industry has spawned many online outlets like YourNewswire.com, Info Wars, NewsPunch.com, People’s voice and even some with names sounding as if they are affiliated with a legitimate news network but in reality, they are not, such as, ABCNews.com.co, or Bloomberg.ma.(now defunct) or DrudgeReport.com.co. For a comprehensive list of fake news site you can go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites
4. Opinions are not news. The radio talk show hosts, who have partisan agenda, are well compensated to use their platform to spew their opinions and comments related to political parties. Their points of views are spins designed to distract from facts.
5. Be wary of Online Newsfeeds. Fake news are not just limited to politics and Governance, there are also unsubstantiated news being spawned about health and well-being, about science, religion and environment or anything that can be taken as cause related activisms. Often, gleaning for the sponsorship who funds such research-based news, can clue in as to how much is real, or exaggeration that benefits the sponsor and disadvantages the adversary.
6. If you come across research or poll numbers, scratch the surface. Who is the sponsor? How was the sample selected? Are the numbers based on consolidation of questions that may obfuscate the truth? Our world has become so highly competitive and ratings and measurement-based that people are forfeiting their own or communities’ values. Lying and denials are okay.