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Fake News Has Real Consequences

posted by on Tuesday December 06 2016, @12:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-believe-everything-you-read dept.

DeathMonkey writes:

The guardian reports on a sobering event in Washington DC.

US police have arrested a man wielding an assault rifle who entered a pizza restaurant that was the target of fake news reports it was operating a child abuse ring led by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her top campaign aide.

[...] The suspect entered the restaurant and pointed a gun at a restaurant employee, who fled and notified authorities, police said. The man then discharged the weapon inside the restaurant. There were no injuries.

[...] [Police] said the suspect during an interview with investigators revealed that he came to the establishment to "self-investigate" Pizzagate, the police statement said. Pizzagate is a baseless conspiracy, which falsely claims Clinton and her campaign chief John Podesta were running a child sex ring from the restaurant's backrooms.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by wisnoskij on Tuesday December 06 2016, @01:49PM

    by wisnoskij (5149) <reversethis-{moc ... ksonsiwnohtanoj}> on Tuesday December 06 2016, @01:49PM (#437670)

    A conspiracy theory is not fake news. Most notably because a conspiracy theory is a made up of bucket loads do verifiable facts, and controversial opinion they draw from these facts is clearly marked as an opinion.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:01PM (#437686)

    Most notably because a conspiracy theory is a made up of bucket loads do verifiable facts, and controversial opinion they draw from these facts is clearly marked as an opinion.

    Well, an awful lot of what fox news reports is 'just' opinion. Should they be renamed to "fox controversial opinion" then?

    I'm serious. Fox news does have a more than decent news reporting arm, but they love to mix their opinion in to the reporting in such a way that an uncritical viewer would have a hard time distinguishing fact from opinion.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:36PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:36PM (#437926)

      Well, an awful lot of what fox news reports is 'just' opinion. Should they be renamed to "fox controversial opinion" then?

      I just call them Faux News as I think it more accurately reflects what they are. Or, you could just call them the propaganda arm of the GOP; that works too.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:36PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:36PM (#437971)

        Or you could call the GOP the political wing of Fox news.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:27PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:27PM (#437754) Journal

    opinion they draw from these facts is clearly marked as an opinion.
     
    No, it isn't. That's a huge part of the problem.