Journalism, the fourth estate, has been part of the fabric of free societies since Gutenberg printed those letters to the editor claiming Black Death was just a a hoax made up in the basement of a pizza parlor in Dusseldorf. Framers of the Constitution saw fit to address free speech in the first amendment. There’ve always been anomalies with someone’s fringe version and spin on events, but they were usually rare and short lived. Journalism relied on maintaining credibility with a majority of people who consumed it. The equal time rule and fairness doctrine also helped make sure news stayed fair and balanced in the U.S. Then in 1987, Ronald Reagan dumped the fairness doctrine, which opened the door to the Rush Limbaughs, Fox and their wannabes who peddle advertising by making up their own news. And, ironically, the term “fake news” is now used as state sponsored propaganda against traditional journalism by those same admitted fakers and anyone who stands to gain by destroying the credibility of the true news institutions that tend to hold oligarchs accountable, which they hate. (Gaslighting is typically where the accusation is actually the confession.)

There is certainly room for both conservative and liberal leaning perspectives on people, events and facts, but shouldn’t the line still be drawn at truth? Regurgitating “alternative facts” that people want to believe attracts a big biased audience and makes great money, but it really screws with democracy, as we’re seeing unfold every day. Problem is, as somebody smart (who wasn’t Mark Twain, by the way) once said, “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Getting better at spotting BS when you see it is a healthy skillset.

Those “fake news” attacks have succeeded; many people have now been persuaded to believe that any traditional media just can’t be trusted. The uber-conservative outlet NewsMax recently went public and, as of this writing, is valued at more than the New York Times. Global news revenues are a third of what they were 25 years ago – more than two traditional newspapers close every week in the U.S. And interestingly, it looks like online individual content creators will be filling much of that news desert. Research suggests that the future of news and information will look very different.