LETTER

Reply to Mr Russell on fake news

 

Mr Russell’s true colours are clear – I’ve followed his complaints about your editorials for some time.  “Right-wing extremism” is Mr Russell’s take. With last week’s letter on “fake news”, he proves Mr Ryan’s point. He claims victoriously that the Democrats never denied all of the accusations against Clinton, and so they must be true.  
 
That’s the very point of fake news: volumes of postings, so many that they couldn’t possibly all be checked and then denied – and it would leave the Clinton campaign running behind Trump and his crowd’s constant attacks. Fake news is literally unverifiable in real terms, and the challenge is to all of us, because fake news has been a constant here, too, just not so much. Remember Robo-calls?

I doubt Mr Russell ever uses traditional media for his news – media that is verified before it’s released. His distain for accuracy is evident—he calls it “gate keeping”, as if verification is a way of distorting facts, not testing them. Given his views that anything from the racist and militia movements is acceptable because it a) supports his own views, b) was published somewhere, and c) was not denied, I question if Mr Russell even knows what factual news is. I guess society needs all types, but I can’t remember why.

I read in an earlier edition that the Bulletin has a policy of not printing false assertions, even in letters.  Good policy, you have the means to check, but why not apply it to this foolishness from the local Neanderthals?    

Andy Black
Aylmer north/ Pontiac