Fake News

THE EXPORT OF FAKE COMMUNITY 

I happen to believe that one of the greatest careers one can choose is journalism, which I pursued in my early career immediately after graduating from Boston University. I have taught journalism and have a deep respect for the classic role of the journalist, which is to interpret the social sphere. And, as I define it, “illumine what others cannot see.”

Fast-forward to our current cultural fixation on the new term that defines the illegitimate child of classic journalism: fake news. Popularized to the point of absurdity in the last election, the very idea of fake news has played a key role in the alarmingly growing percentage of Americans who do not trust the media to present factual observations and interpretations of the news. 

Journalism used to be all about observation and interpretation. Today, it seems to be fraught with titillation and misinformation, playing to a growing addiction to voyeurism, for which the Internet has been quite responsible in this unseemly metamorphosis. It has become the preferred sandbox for anyone who chooses to make statements about anything or anyone without any shred of evidence or corroborating testimony of first-person accounts. 

The journalist’s responsibility has always been to state nothing more than the truth and nothing less than the truth. Anything other than that is not the truth. It’s an agenda—a mentality that spawned the “fake news” syndrome. 

And it seems as if everyone has an agenda today. This online “community” of unrestricted inhibition has allowed people to assume the role of self-appointed online spokespeople for whatever agenda they want to propose. No one needs to be right; they just need a platform. Many have created their own “communities” to allow for this deception. 

So, what can be done to combat this fake news phenomenon? 

To begin with, fake news cannot exist in an environment that believes in the search for truth. One of the greatest examples of fake news in history occurred when religious leaders brought Jesus to Pilate with less-than-accurate accusations and trumped-up charges. Pilate confronted Jesus, the person who claimed to be “the truth” (John 14:6), asking, “What is truth?” (18:38)—the same question we ask today. 

Fake news is not new. It’s always been around and will always be around when people do not want to face that which is obvious and uncomfortable. It’s always more expedient to give life to a lie than to put your ego to death. 

If we are to find freedom today in the midst of fake news, we cannot hide behind the firewall of impersonality found on the Internet. Fake environments must come up with fake news to legitimize their fake community. When we put our faith in that which is not real, the end result is usually not very real either. 

The challenge for each of us is to loosen the grip these “online communities” have on us for more consumption of that which is not real. The antidote to all this is to establish true community—with relationships that will demand integrity and challenge inauthenticity, and with people who will demand more of themselves than others demand of them and strive for that which is true because Jesus was the truth. 

If you are desperately looking to be free from the lies and deceit found online, then you should consider someone to believe in: Jesus. His community is from everlasting to everlasting.