Page 7 - Sharing Posts: The Spread of Fake News

Barack Obama had commissioned a sculptor to create a stat-
ue of himself—and ordered that the statue be displayed in the
White House even after he left the presidency. “Obama Orders
Life-Sized Bronze Statue of Himself to Be Permanently Installed
in White House,” read the headline on one website that pub-
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lished this bit of fake news. However, the story was entirely fake.
Obama did not commission any such statue. Even if he had, he
lacked the authority to keep it on display in the White House fol-
lowing the end of his term. The purpose of the news item was to
mock Obama and to make him out to be arrogant, pushy, and
egotistical.
On the other side of the political aisle, Donald Trump’s repu-
tation has been negatively affected by fake news items as well.
Early in Trump’s primary campaign, for example, a fake news site
issued an article about Trump’s supposed new campaign logo—a
variation of the swastika used as a symbol of Nazi Germany. “De-
claring it the ‘best, most luxurious, and most expensive logo that
any campaign could have,’” read one version of the article, “Don-
ald Trump proudly unveiled his new campaign logo today.” Like
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the story about Obama and the statue, though, the article about
Trump and the swastika was a fabrication designed to suggest
something negative about Trump: either that he was ignorant of
history or that he was willing and eager to link his campaign to the
horrors of Nazi rule.
Nor are politicians the only public fi gures whose reputations have
been damaged by fake news. In 2015, for example, a fake news site
reported that singer Miley Cyrus had been found dead in the bathtub
of her home in Hollywood, California. The
report implied that the cause of death was
an overdose of prescription pain medica- “These military widows
tion. But the news was false; as fact-fi nding love their 15 minutes
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website Snopes explained, “Miley is alive in the spotlight.”
and well.” Another celebrity, movie star — Fabricated quote attributed to
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and television personality Whoopi Gold- comedian Whoopi Goldberg by a
berg, was dogged in early 2017 by rumors fake news site
that she had insulted the widow of a US
Navy man killed during a raid on the Middle East. Goldberg suppos-
edly said that the widow was “just looking for attention. These mili-
tary widows love their 15 minutes in the spotlight.” In fact, Goldberg
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