Posted on by Californiacontrarian

“Fake News” and No (Apparent) News

A new term in the day-to-day lexicon of our country and in the vocabulary of almost all of us is, “fake news,” which refers to the way the media tells a news story. Either the info in the story is false or misconstrued or probably more commonly the reporting of a story is sprinkled with bits of editorial commentary that slants the factual telling of the news story. When the story is blatantly false, it is often fairly simple to spot, for example, A.B.C.’s recent map of the fires in Australia, superimposed on a map of the U.S. I tend to think the mistakes like this, while “fake,” are probably due to the ignorance of the flunky who was tasked with  the job of making this superimposed map. Unfortunately for ABC mistakes happen. 

However, the more blatant “fake news” often comes from a T.V. news network that purposefully reports a news story with factual inaccuracies. CNN and MSNBC are most often the culprits here, and it seems obvious that these inaccuracies are deliberate in order to slant the story in favor of their political agenda. Just yesterday MSNBC was reporting that 30 U.S. service members had been killed in Iran’s ballistic missile attack, despite the Department of Defense saying otherwise. Incompetent or malicious? As best I can tell these “news networks” do not apologize nor do they retract the “fake news.” 

Similarly, newspapers also have been known to print similar inaccuracies (again “fake news”), however often they will subsequently print a retraction, hidden somewhere in the following editions. A “mea culpa” . . . but a soft whispered one.

In other news this week CNN settled a defamation lawsuit that was the consequence of its reporting in the case of Covington Catholic High School’s student, Nick Sandmann, in January, 2019 in Washington, D.C. Although not confirmed, the settlement is reportedly $25 million.

Now my question is: “Is there a name for not reporting a newsworthy event?” It is not “fake news” as nothing false was actually reported. I would realistically not expect CNN to report that it had doled out $25 million because of how it reported a certain news-story. I also would not expect the Washington Post to report on this story as WaPo is one of the next in line to be sued for its reporting of that same story. But what about my local newspaper? I do not think that it is on the chopping-block to be sued by Nick Sandmann or his family. I scanned every page in the front section of today’s local paper, but nada! Nothing on the CNN settlement! Is it not news? Why is there nothing on this story? (Like most of you, I can make an educated guess!)

But again back to the original question: “What do you call it when a newspaper deliberately does not report on a story?” Could it be that silence is the default tact when a story goes against its political agenda?

I have some potential descriptive names for No Apparent News (N.A.N.), but would be interested in any other ideas.

138 Replies to ““Fake News” and No (Apparent) News”

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