Lying about Lying: Why We Must Revisit the Definition of ‘Fake News’

The US-western-centric idea of fake news, waged by Republicans against Democrats and vice-versa, betrays a much larger, more ominous threat.

Ramzy Baroud
By Ramzy Baroud
Fake News Feature photo

The phrase 'fake news' continues to be deployed routinely in US politics. In a polarized political atmosphere, both Republicans and Democrats distrust media organizations affiliated with opposing parties. This means that most of what is uttered or written by CNN is 'fake news' for Republicans, and much of what appears in Republicans-affiliated

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Liberals Are Adopting an Old Soviet Tactic: Painting Opponents as Mentally Ill

The pathologization of dissent is not going away. It will intensify as neoliberalism faces crisis after crisis and social polarization grows. Those who claim to be liberals defending democracy will soon be only too ready to snuff it out.

Jonathan Cook
By Jonathan Cook
Propagandists Feature photo

Back in the dark days of the Soviet Union, dissidents risked being locked up – but not, officially at least, on the grounds that they had committed a political crime. In the Soviet regime’s imagination, treason and mental illness were often two sides of the same coin. Here’s a brief description from Wikipedia of the phenomenon: The KGB [the

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How Saudi State Media Feeds Fake News to Israeli, Western Audiences

Unsubstantiated Saudi state media claims are very specifically designed to inflame tensions and to make the supporters of Hamas, Iran and Syria doubt their leaders and what may be going on behind the scenes.

Robert Inlakesh
By Robert Inlakesh
Saudi Media Feature photo

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA -- Saudi state media outlets have been found to repeatedly report information, lacking sources or supporting evidence, in order to attack their political opposition in the Middle East. This can range from stories about deserters from Hamas to the utterly absurd fictions regarding alleged assassinations of high-ranking Iranian

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Lee Camp: The Four Layers of Reality — and Why We’re Only Allowed to Talk About One

There are at least four different aspects of our daily American lives that affect everything from how we think to where we live — not that anyone in corporate media would tell you so.

Lee Camp
By Lee Camp
Protester holding Adbuster's Corporate American Flag at Bush's 2nd inauguration, Washington DC.

Scheerpost — No matter which mainstream media segment you’re currently watching, I can promise you it’s not getting to the heart of any issue. By definition they only participate in surface level analysis. For example, there are three or four levels of reality we should be discussing when we talk about any United States election. And by

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Our Broken Media and What To Do About It

Higdon, Huff and MacLeod talk about censorship, fake news, disinformation and the prevalence of conspiracy theories in this free-flowing discussion.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod

 Virtually nobody trusts what they read any more. The United States ranks dead last among 46 nations surveyed in confidence in the press. Only 29% of Americans say they broadly believe what they read, see or hear in mainstream media. And more than three quarters of the public think that big outlets knowingly publish fake news. The term “fake

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Big Tech Firms are Using Automation to Censor News About the Coronavirus

Social media is awash with people angry that their posts have been removed for no legitimate reason. MintPress was no exception, with a story about Cuba’s response to the coronavirus flagged and blocked.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
Coronavirus tech firms feature photo

Big tech is again attempting to define the range of acceptable political discussion on its platforms; this week YouTube announced a number of changes in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, chief among those being that automated systems, rather than humans, will predominantly be authorizing or removing content in the foreseeable future. “As

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