The worst example of fake news

There is a concern with #fakenews these days. It's news that is written to be deliberately misleading, biased, or circulated knowingly with purposes to outrage or confuse. This isn't new. The old Soviet Union Communists of the 1950s were great at propaganda, which is what fake news used to be called. They were masters at spreading disinformation.

The Yellow Journalism age of the US in the late 1800s was another era of patently fake news, sensationalized simply to sell more papers, protect reputations, or to build reputations. ("Puff Graham")

Fake news has been with us a long time. I can point to a very early example. Certainly the worst:

While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, "Tell people, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. (Matthew 28:11-15).

Fake news has been with us since forever. It has certainly been useful to the lost, greedy, and craven. Isn't it wonderful to know that there is one source to which you can go that will always be reporting the truth?





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