Fake News Is An Oxymoron

Ever since fountainhe of fake news moved into White House two years ago, news for lesser mortals including media houses has taken a serious beating. Through various hats I wear which includes writing opinion pieces for media sites as well as speeches and briefing documents for CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies in Europe and India, I have been observing this grotesque phemen from various angles in three langus – Hindi, English and French. good news is that producers of fake news are lazy and rarely bor to counter criticism. b news is re are far too many of m on social media making it difficult for reers to sift wheat from chaff.

Let me say this upfront. I do t trust websites whose only job is to call out fake news. y are as much in business of lying than lies y claim to call out. In ir method of work, sensationalism prevails over compliance and verification as helines and s secure company’s bottom line. In a tangential way, ir business model replicates that of NGOs – high on moralising and virtue signalling and low on meaningful work. Many civil society organisations begin on premise that since y are doing good work for society, ir credentials cant be questioned. To do so would t be a liberal act!

As I write comes news that much-feted COO of Facebook Cheryl Sandberg actively pushed wrongful business practices, turned a blind eye to Facebook interfering in elections, inciting ethnic violence and gecide and even monished an honest officer for doing his job. A report in New Republic says that that while Facebook’s COO “…Cheryl Sandberg was building her global brand she was using aggressive and underhand tactics at Facebook. As company faced increasing criticism and pressure over its handling of fake news, election interference, data abuse, and incitement of ethnic violence and gecide, she embraced a strategy to suppress information about Facebook’s problems, discredit its critics and deflect blame onto its competitors. She berated her security chief for being honest about extent of Russian campaign on site. And she employed multiple crisis PR firms that spre fake news as a defence tactic, in one instance tying critics to liberal billionaire George Soros, a frequent subject of anti-Semitic abuse online.” I used this long quote verbatim – it is too precious to paraphrase. What does this mean for Indian companies collaborating with Facebook as fact checkers? That bit about election interference or “inciting ethnic violence and gecide” is particularly relevant as India goes full blast into election mode. 

I shared my views on fake news recently with journalists and ors at Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF). I’m t sure penny dropped. Shorn of packaging and glitter, fake news is a clumsy and heavy-handed embellishment of lies masquering as facts via platforms that are accountable to ne. To buttress this monstrosity re is an entire industry of fake news busters whose only job is to run down ors who do t speak ir langu literally and in every manner possible. sooner we call out this burgeoning business which is getting an octopus-like grip in newsrooms, saner we will all be and we can return to job of good journalism.

It is my considered view, that fake news is a contriction in itself. I believe re is good journalism and b journalism and fake news brings up rear in latter. trdy is to see experienced journalists falling for fake moustache or pink wig with such ease that you wonder if y are just lazy, biased or plain stupid. Bias is fine as long as it is stated. What does t work is biased reporting pretending to be neutral to which commentary and opinions are ded. Recently a reporter told me she h covered all sides as “…I’ve got both angles…he said, she said.” re’s thing wrong in what reporter said. She was doing her best in a system that expects journalists to spit out a certain number of stories a day to stay ahe of competition.

Lazy journalism in my view is worst of all worlds. A bit of fact, a lot of fiction, overdose of jectives, dollops of ego and blaring helines. impact of this kind of shoddy work on our metier can be and is devastating. d to this social media, which has me everyone a journalist. You can see this when re’s a newsbreak. re’s virtual diarrhoea on twitter with every angle explained even before story is complete.

Europe has its regular dose of lies typically around refugees drowning (one was even std), credit cards being distributed in refugee camps and billionaire philanthropist George Soros under-writing all of it. While body believes se absurdities, what happens when a child actually drowns in Mediterranean Sea? How must a newsroom react to reports of atrocities on people based on ir religion or nationality? re is one answer except to ensure that rigour and discipline on facts is such a daily activity that thing can shake that foundation. t Internet, r trolls and certainly t politicians.

RE: Make In India For Indians

This brings me to an important point. Experienced journalists will tell you that every newsroom has a tone, a voice, a system of verification and news flow that is set by Editor – in – Chief and senior editorial manment. desk should, in principle, be firewall that separates flow of copy coming in to what finally gets uploed or printed. Unbelievable as it may sound, t many reporters I’ve spoken to re-re ir copy. This is fertile ground for lazy and wicked to push ir piece.

If voice in news setting is a lie i.e. based on spinning every piece of information beyond recognition that is b journalism, t fake news. If tone of portal/news network/newspaper is vindictive, you kw re’s an nda. I say vindictive, t varied for a reason. It is important for healthy journalism to eng with all views and argued in a mature manner. Is that possible today? re is so much appetite for voyeurism and slander that if one platform does t publish a defamatory piece, re are ors. And re are yet ors who will make a business out of calling out fake moustache.

Most journalists want to do good work, push boundaries, develop domain expertise, cultivate credible sources and produce copy that is at once excellent and thought-provoking. If we make a mistake, we apologise and move on. If someone counters a piece, re it without pride or prejudice. Let us keep fake news at bay and work towards securing our as journalists. Journalism is a public good and when we put pen to paper, it must be done with a sense of responsibility and humility.

I used Facebook story at beginning of this piece. I’d like to sign off thus. I am a huge fan of Microsoft CEO Satya Nella t only for his business acumen, but also for his humanity and empathy with people. He has often been quoted as saying Microsoft does t use customers’ personal data for profit (re Google and Facebook). company has data. LinkedIn, which it owns has over 550 million users and Bing figures as number third search engine worldwide. Nella has called data privacy “a human right…” as has Apple’s Tim Cook who said earlier this year that detailed online profiles of users would eventually be used for nefarious practices.

Journalism is a public good. When we put pen to paper, let us never forget responsibility we must bring to every word we write. less you show your power, more sources you will attract. less you talk about yourself, more your credibility will be.