Liar, Liar, Truth On Fire

By MICHAEL J. MANGANO

Fake news keeps on growing higher.

According to the Pew Research Center, 51% of Americans say “fake news” is a very big problem. (The term can include a combination of fabricated facts, made-up quotes, even faked photos and videos.) The burning question seems to be, how can one tell what’s real and what’s not? While it’s by no means easy, there are certain clues.

For openers, if you read a headline that states, for example, “Trump gives clear, concise, forty-five minute State of the Union address,” that would obviously be an example of fake news (or, at the very least, highly exaggerated news…actually, ridiculously exaggerated news). This one’s a real no-brainer. So crystal clear, it shouldn’t require even a cursory fact-check.

Other obvious examples would be misleading statements like: “Kristi Noem spotted with friend adopting puppy at local rescue center” (obviously it was her friend adopting the puppy…Kristi was conceivably along, with her pistol in her bag, just in case); “Pam Bondi claims there’s no political motivation for indicting Trump’s adversaries” (nooo, of course not…it’s not motivated by politics…just revenge); “Mike Johnson has been overheard “humbly” disagreeing with Hakeem Jeffries” (disagreeing, certainly; but humbly? Ha!). As Benjamin Franklin said, “Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Fake news photos and videos are also notoriously on the rise, and it’s not so simple to tell what’s real and what’s not. Some, however, would be quite apparently doctored: Like a picture of Stephen Miller smiling. Or Zohran Mamdani not smiling. Or Marco Rubio looking totally pleased with Trump’s ramblings, while standing alongside the President (as opposed to his usual expression that says, “What the fuck is he talking about?” or “What the fuck is going on?” or simply “What the fuck?”)

There are photos, though, that could be a bit tricky. Like any pic (or video) of Trump and Melania holding hands (if she’s grimacing or wearing gloves, it’s probably real; if she’s smiling, it’s highly doubtful). Or Jim Jordan wearing a suit jacket (since the congressman says he only wears one around people he respects, there’s only about a 1% chance that the photo would be real…and who knows who would fit into that 1%).

Keep in mind, however, that there is lots of truthful, 100% accurate reporting said to be fake news by those individuals wanting to discredit negative information about themselves. (In fact, Donald Trump himself popularized the term “fake news” to describe journalism about him that he doesn’t like, however accurate it might be.)

So, obviously, when someone says that something is fake news, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is. Quite the contrary, in fact. Because usually, when someone in Washington claims that something negative reported about them is fake news – especially when that someone is Donald J. Trump – you can count on that news being as true as the sun rising on the east wing.