Monday, August 07, 2017

Opinion: The fakers' little lies are eating our brains...

The warning in a Cold War Swedish pamphlet is stark: "Be on your guard against fake radio broadcasts. Remember that even well known voices on the air can be imitated. Listen critically!" But today, at another moment of great international instability, it's a message that risks being lost on both journalists and the public.

As I woke up on the last day of my holiday, I started getting messages from journalists at Al Jazeera and the BBC, asking me to confirm a report on The Local. According to them, we'd run an interview with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, who had said Saudi Arabia and six other Middle Eastern countries were demanding Qatar be stripped of the World Cup.

 The story was piffle. And despite appearances, it was not on The Local. Someone had cloned The Local, using a similar web address, and had published the story. Reuters and other international media had picked it up and re-reported it, citing The Local. The story didn't sound outlandish and its apparent appearance in mainstream media gave it credibility. Full story...

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  3. Fox News removes tweet after Trudeau complaint...
  4. CNN caught reporting fake news on Russian hack....
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  6. Donald Trump warns journalists, calls them 'most dishonest human...
  7. Fake News: The fake-stream media devours itself...
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