The impact of "fake news"

Here is an interview between the former US Ambassador to the Netherlands and a Dutch reporter:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/22/politics/us-ambassador-to-netherlands-denies-own-comments/index.html

He denies his previous statement. He then denies his statement from 2 minutes ago that he called it "fake news".

At first I thought he was trolling, but he seems to think that this is a legitimate get out of jail free card. The "fake news" movement has really eroded the publics trust in reporting. Do you guys think there should be some sort of penalty for this kind of blatant disregard for the truth? What impact do you think fake news has had and will have?

This was reported on a national Dutch network. Imagine viewing this from the perspective of someone outside of the U.S. I believe there will be long term damage in relations for a few years to come. Thoughts?

No I don't think there should be a penalty for it. It sounds nice, and in an ideal world it would consistently applied, but we both know it wouldn't be consistently applied.

And we would then need to truly define "fake news" if we did that. For example, CNN has specifically edited a clip of something to make it look like a person was calling for peace during a riot, but they were just calling for the riot to be moved elsewhere(to the suburbs and to whites, away from blacks). Should there be a penalty for shit like that?

If there were penalties for "Fake News" every leftist news source would have been shut down by now.

Originally posted by Flyattractor
[b]If there were penalties for "Fake News" every leftist news source would have been shut down by now. [/B]

Nah, they'd try to skirt around it. Like the example for CNN I just gave, they'd argue it's not fake news, rather just misleading news. So no penalty should be given.

Fake news has always been with us, it was once called propaganda and spin. All the internet and the Rumsfeld inspired power of nightmares have done is bring it into everyone's pocket. Social media, particularly facebook and twitter have created a virtual world where "the truth" is always distorted for someone's agenda and you can't get away from it. Outlets like Breitbart have weaponised fake news, in a way that was not possible before the internet. Now troll armies spread and defend this fake news for money.

Originally posted by Steve Zodiac
Fake news has always been with us, it was once called propaganda and spin. All the internet and the Rumsfeld inspired power of nightmares have done is bring it into everyone's pocket. Social media, particularly facebook and twitter have created a virtual world where "the truth" is always distorted for someone's agenda and you can't get away from it. Outlets like Breitbart have weaponised fake news, in a way that was not possible before the internet. Now troll armies spread and defend this fake news for money.

Bingo. There is a great documentary on netflix right now called "The Propaganda Game".

Now its a Left Wing Course you get BrainWashed with at College.

Originally posted by Surtur
Bingo. There is a great documentary on netflix right now called "The Propaganda Game".