Fake news has had it's day in the sun for quite some time now. A phrase that really took off amidst the credibility crises faced by the Trump Administration, it has now entered the broader public lexicon, but how do you combat fake news without the tools? Many of the people who believe lies told by certain radical politicians believe them because they simply have no other outlet to receive news from. Any "reliable" news source now has a pay wall and the "free" media is inflammatory and heavily biased. It's no wonder that it's those who might not be well off that are being swayed by the lies being told, they can't access any other news. I think that instead of being hasty to punish and judge them, we need to be looking at the root of the problem. Reliable, unbiased news is no longer readily available to the public. What is available, however, is personalized echo chambers where they can quickly, and without cost, peruse their propaganda and potentially inflammatory rhetoric to their hearts content. While researching for this post I found a quote by an Estonian politician named Toomas Hendrik Ilves, he says, "Fake news is cheap to produce. Genuine journalism is expensive." And it's true. Propaganda outlets can churn out lie after lie with no stopping, while actual news sites have to fact check and verify. For the 63% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck (according to CNBC) there's simply no way to maintain a level of awareness equal to someone who can consume any media, regardless of the cost.
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