A fundamental principle of good governance is fact-based policy. The enemies of democracy know this and have undermined governance in western democracies through misinformation campaigns to erode the public’s confidence in government. Those misinformation campaigns, led by Russia and embraced by too many Americans is rightly called “Fake News”, though that moniker has been appropriated by those same “Fake News” sources to undermine confidence in legitimate news sources conveying actual facts.
This week, in light of yet another mass school shooting, “fake news” purveyors again took to Twitter and Facebook to spread divisiveness and disinformation, with claims that school shooting survivors are “crisis actors” and calls for students and teachers to carry concealed weapons in schools. Continue reading