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# How the alt-right media machine stole the "Fake News" tag
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2017/02/fake-fake-news/
- Published: 2017-02-07T13:52:39.000Z
- Updated: 2017-02-07T13:52:39.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: fake news, online journalism, political journalism, Politics, propaganda

This really is a mark of just how efficient and [savvy the media machine around Trump is](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/its-time-to-retire-the-tainted-term-fake-news/2017/01/06/a5a7516c-d375-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5%5Fstory.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com):

> But though the term \[Fake News\] hasn’t been around long, its meaning already is lost. Faster than you could say “Pizzagate,” the label has been co-opted to mean any number of completely different things: Liberal claptrap. Or opinion from left-of-center. Or simply anything in the realm of news that the observer doesn’t like to hear.
> 
> “The speed with which the term became polarized and in fact a rhetorical weapon illustrates how efficient the conservative media machine has become,” said George Washington University professor Nikki Usher.

And Trump himself has grabbed onto it gleefully:

> I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!
> 
> — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) [February 6, 2017](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/828575949268606977?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

The main thrust of the article is correct, and I can’t help worrying that the current efforts to counter “fake news” by appealing to government and the social networks will prove counter-productive.

> Gosh, I can't see any way that handing over that power to government and corporate interests will backfire on us. None at all.
> 
> — Adam Tinworth (@adders) [February 7, 2017](https://twitter.com/adders/status/828921065430720513?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

If that simpler solution is too dangerous – perhaps we just have to buckle down and do the hard work of building audiences, getting better at using social media and debunking lies compellingly.