The Ghost of the Ghost of Kyiv.

A convenient vector to spread fake news is the human brain's inclination towards stories, found as far back as the first myth told by (or perhaps revealed to) the first cave man. Specifically, the human brain's inclination towards emotionally satisfying, morally sound stories of right and wrong and the triumph of a hero over a larger force of evil.

The best example recent memory provides of this is the story of the Ghost of Kyiv in the Russian-Ukraine war, an alleged Luke Skywalker-esque Ukrainian pilot who bravely downed 40 Russian warplanes in his severely underequipped 30-year-old fighter jet before heroically sacrificing himself for his righteous cause. A true underdog story of martial prowess and courage reported on as fact by The New York Times and other outlets.

"Just one problem. The Ghost of Kyiv legend isn’t true. Even the Ukrainian air force, which once sort of embraced the tale, admitted so after The Times’ baseless story on the Ghost’s demise went viral on Saturday."

The legend was baseless, easily falsifable, yet reported as truth for months nonetheless. Not only does this kind of fake news impeach the credibility of journalists, it also serves to reduce the American public’s understanding of a very messy, complex reality into a fiction that is easier to digest and tastier to consume. [1 image, 1 link, 1 quotation, 217 words] https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/04/30/the-ghost-of-kyiv-who-was-never-real-just-got-killed-in-the-press/