Column: ‘Fake news’ difficult for journalist to come to terms with

Define news. Go ahead, define it.

It sounds like an easy thing to do. But it really isn’t. I promise you that — and I have been in the business of covering it since August 1983.

Dictionary.com defines it this way: a report of a recent event; intelligence; information. I have a little different definition: news is usually something that somebody else does not want known.

Politicians make news. Business people make news. Criminals make news. Athletes make news. Anybody can make news. You crash your car on the way home from the movie theater, you just made news. You propose to your girlfriend, you made news.

News was once a pretty simple business. That is not the case anymore because everybody is a publisher and can report their version of the news. Your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account is your publication. Your phone is your camera.

You can post video of anything. You can go live on Facebook from anywhere. And that is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing.

We are inundated with news, from the time we wake up until the time we go to bed. It’s on our television and our phone. As we consume that news, we have to decide what news is real and the flipside of the coin, what news is fake.

Those are not easy decisions, even for people who know news well. I find myself clicking on a story and getting a couple paragraphs into it before realizing it isn’t credible.

And if you don’t like what the people like me report, you just take to your Facebook account and counter it. The president of the United States doesn’t like what the New York Times reports, he takes on the most venerable of publications 140 characters at a time using his Twitter account and its 23.6 million followers.

“After being forced to apologize for its bad and inaccurate coverage of me after winning the election, the FAKE NEWS @nytimes is still lost!” President Trump tweeted Saturday morning.

In case you missed the memo, the news game has changed and that one tweet illustrates it.

Perhaps the biggest change is the term “fake news.” It is used time and again, these days. “Fake news” is real. There are outlets that intentionally publish items that are incorrect, but appear to be news.

My problem with the term is it has been co-opted to counter anything you disagree with. This week, Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, took exception to an online story published by ledger-enquirer.com in which it was pointed out he missed a couple of photo opportunities with a delegation of local business and political leaders at the Capitol for Columbus Day. It was not Earth-shattering news, but it was worth documenting considering the senator’s ongoing feud with leadership of the state’s Republican party.

Sen. McKoon took exception, and he more than has a right to do that. He created a Facebook live video during which he called it “fake news.” OK, I get it. No problem. I even shared the video on my Facebook page out of fairness. Sen. McKoon and I have had a couple of productive conversations since that video.

All I ask, when you label something “fake news,” think about it for a second. I know journalism is under attack, and some of it is well deserved. But the term “fake news” is a misdirection play. It is what you say when you are appealing to a base.

It is intended to deflect.

And that is what makes it so frustrating when you know the difference between real news and fake news and you have spent a career trying to make sure your reporting reflects that difference.

This story was originally published February 4, 2017 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Column: ‘Fake news’ difficult for journalist to come to terms with."