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iscussions on fake news have become something of a running story because the problem is getting worse for everybody; editors and reporters more so. We are all potential victims of the originators and peddlers of fake news. I am revisiting it this week to show that our reporters and editors must be prepared to pay the price for vigilance otherwise our titles might occasionally have rotten eggs on their faces.
I have dealt with fake news in this column before. But this was before the wind of change began to blow our country towards its new date with destiny in the February 16 and March 2 elections that some, out of desperation, see as do-or-die struggles. As in war so it is in politics. The first casualty is truth. Or, in the tradition of the news media, facts. Editors and reporters face new problems arising from competitions for comparative advantages among the news makers. No editor need be told that the media are reactive institutions. No matter how highly placed an editor might be, he cannot make news for his medium. He must rely on others to do so and then faithfully report them. And that, unfortunately, includes his accepting planted information passed off as hard news. Its name, of course, is fake news.
Fake news was false news planted in the news media to misinform and mislead. This was a relatively easy problem to deal with for editors who are professionally sceptical and can distinguish between what is true and what is fake by their smell. But fake news has now become more complicated than that. I was alerted to this by what happened to a friend of mine this week. His friend called him to chide him over his criticism of Obasanjo’s latest statement on the alleged failures of the Buhari administration posted on the social media. My friend was shocked. He had written nothing like that. He later read the piece and told me that the writer certainly knows him and his views on certain issues and personalities in the country. He was dragged into something he knew nothing about but if it was libellous, how would he escape? He did not do it and he did not know who did it. Worse, he has no way of finding out from the social media in question who did it.
When I told some of my friends about this, I was shocked to know that this was not an isolated case. It has been going on in the social media for quite some time now. You can see that fake news manufacturers are intelligent people. Those who write in other people’s names tutor themselves on the language and style of their potential victims. What they produce is, on the face of it, a perfect copy that their victims find some difficulty with disowning.
There is only one don’t here. Don’t trust everything you read in the online media. Do not trust any piece of information you cannot verify independently. One area to watch for are interviews. These too can be, and have been, faked. Most of the online media are totally unreliable. I see them as successors to the junk newspapers and magazines we had in the eighties. Remember Razor? Its protégés are still with us.
Actually, the real problem is that governments are among the greatest purveyors of fake news. In its virulent reach, fake news can be an official propaganda. The Russians do so well with spreading fake news because the old Soviet Union was propped up with propaganda. The Russian are employing the tactics of the old war with the current cold peace. Old habits die hard.
You should watch out for fake news from official circles. In the current climate of electioneering campaigns, the political leaders and their supporters have no qualms resorting to fake news if it will serve their political interests much better than facts. Remember that politicians are in the business of damaging one another’s names and dragging one another’s reputation into the deep ends of the gutter. Do not allow them to drag you into their unholy struggle for comparative advantages.
Although fake news is usually sensational it is not so in all cases. Those who originate and peddle it employ different methods to make them look reliable to achieve their purpose. An innocent looking piece of information could actually be fake news. It is easy to fall for such pieces because they do not arouse our suspicion. Remember that fake news could begin its life as gossip. By the time a piece of gossip has been repeated by two or more people, it begins to acquire the status of truth or fact. Recall Amebo of the Village Headmaster fame. Your guards must be up if a politician offers to whisper something into your ears. We are all suckers for the exclusive. You cannot be too careful.
Let us hope that none of our editors would be caught giving a local habitation to fake news in the coverage of the electioneering campaigns. Once a newspaper, through carelessness, damages its reputation, it faces an up hill task rebuilding it. Enjoy the electioneering campaigns but do not allow yourself to be carried away.
