Media

You Can Tell Real News From Propaganda

Please, don’t be gullible!

This is a screenshot of a Facebook post where a lively debate about fake news took place.

Several people from my high school — located in a very conservative area — were up in arms on social media about a “news” story they’d read about a sex education bill Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed.

As a veteran journalist, I knew at one glance that I was looking at a very shitty little pretend newspaper. It was a badly done piece of propaganda.

But the comments on the post were enlightening: I was dismayed at how many everyday people were completely taken in by the fake news.

Many were fooled.

To many people, if it’s printed on newsprint and it says it’s a newspaper, it’s a newspaper. They don’t necessarily notice things like shaky grammar, and they don’t know that legit newspapers do not push an agenda in a news story. Indeed, people who generally get their news from cable TV are used to — and expect — slanted coverage.

When I tried to explain that the piece was propaganda and may have even been written by a conservative public relations firm, a man argued with me.

I do give the man credit for trying. He had done a Google search and found the name of the “newspaper” and posted a picture of it. At first glance, it really did look…