ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR PANEL 5
Technology, Truth, and the First Amendment
By Taylor Wisneski*
May 2, 2017
The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to identify a range of works
relevant to discussion of fake news, it First Amendment implications and the extent
to which it may pose a threat to the functioning of democracy. The bibliography is
divided into these sections: I. Fake News and the Presidency; II. Examples of Fake
News Stories; III. History of Fake News; IV. Fake News, Hoaxes, Misinformation and
Satire; V. The Kinds of Harm that may be Attributable to Fake News; VI. Fake News and
the Potential for Liability; VII. Fake News and the First Amendment; VIII. Fighting
against Proliferation of Fake News, and IX. Perspectives on Fake News.
I. Fake News and the Presidency
Mark Hensch, Spicer cites CNN poll on Trump Speech despite ‘fake news’ feud
(The Hill, News Mar. 1, 2017), http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/321753spicer-touts-cnn-poll-amid-trump-feud
President Trump characterized CNN as a purveyor of fake news. However,
following the president’s speech to Congress on February 28, 2017, his press secretary,
Sean Spicer, tweeted a CNN poll saying that “78% of POTUS #JointAddress watchers
say positive, 69% say policies will move country in right direction, 69% more
optimistic.” CNN Washington correspondent Jack Tapper’s tweeted response: “Just a
small example of how dishonest the ‘fake news’ charge from the WH is.”
Eric Levitz, All the Terrifying Things That Donald Trump Did Lately (New York
Magazine, Daily Intelligencer (Feb. 28, 2017),
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/every-terrifying-thing-that-donald-trumphas-done.html
The author chronicles controversial steps by President Trump during his first
weeks in office, including his tweeted declaration on February 17, 2017, that members of
the mainstream media are “the enemy of the American People!”
Linda Qiu, Fact Check: Trump Blasts ‘Fake News’ and Repeats Inaccurate
Claims at CPAC, The New York Times (February 24, 2017),
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/fact-check-trump-blasts-fake-news-andrepeats-inaccurate-claims-at-cpac.html
A has been reported, President Trump tweeted on Feb. 17, 2017, “The FAKE
NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my
enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
Later, he asserted that the news media’s coverage of the February 17 the tweet
was distorted. He said, “‘They did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of
the people. They dropped off the word fake.’”
However, in this New York Times report, the president’s assertion is rated as
false, saying, “All of the news organizations Mr. Trump named actually quoted the tweet
in its entirety or specified the outlets he called ‘fake.’”
Aaron Blake, Donald Trump’s fake case against the ‘fake news media’, The
Washington Post (Feb. 24, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/thefix/wp/2017/02/24/donald-trumps-fake-case-against-the-fake-newsmedia/?utm_term=.59163240712f
During a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference, President
Trump repeated his mantra that the “fake news media” is “the enemy of the people, and
they (still) are.” He then explained that if American people differed from this view, that
they were saying that the media was above criticism “because of the First Amendment.”
The author wrote, “There is nobody in the mainstream media who is saying they are
above criticism; the counterargument to Trump's ‘enemy of the American people’
argument is that he is trying to undermine the free press, period….”
All False statements involving Donald Trump, POLITIFACT (as of April 24,
2017), http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/ )
Here, POLITIFACT provides a regularly updated, running list of false statements
involving Donald Trump.
Mary Ann Georgantopoulous, Here’s A Running List of President Trump’s Lies
And Other Bullshit, BuzzFeed (Jan. 26, 2017, updated Feb. 17, 2017),
https://www.buzzfeed.com/maryanngeorgantopoulos/president-trump-lielist?utm_term=.wnq8g66EM#.en9ybYYdz
In this report, BuzzFeed presents a roundup of Donald Trump’s statements as of
and an analysis of why they are rated as false.
Daniel Payne, 16 Fake News Stories Reporters Have Run since Trump Won, The
Federalist (Feb. 6, 2017), http://thefederalist.com/2017/02/06/16-fake-news-storiesreporters-have-run-since-trump-won/
In the author’s view, “Whenever you turn on a news station, visit a news website,
or check in on a journalist or media personality on Twitter or Facebook, there is an
excellent chance you will be exposed to fake news. It is rapidly becoming an accepted
part of the way the American media are run.” The author then provides “just a small
sampling of fake news that our media and our journalist class have propagated.”
Jon Sharman, Donald Trump: All the false claims 45th President has made since
his inauguration, Independent (Jan. 23, 2017),
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-us-president-falseclaims-inauguration-white-house-sean-spicer-kellyanen-conway-press-a7541171.html) \
President Trump’s administration coined the phrase “alternative facts,” using it to
counter negative media reports about him. The author lists five factual assertions by the
President about the inauguration that are rated as false.
Eddie Scarry, CNN defends itself from Donald Trump’s ‘fake news’ attack,
(Washington Examiner (Jan. 11, 2017), http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cnndefends-itself-from-donald-trumps-fake-news-attack/article/2611543
President Trump denounced as “fake news” a CNN report that the Russian
government has compromising financial and personal information related to him; CNN
suggested that the President was conflating its decision to report information it could
corroborate with Buzzfeed’s decision to publish—without corroboration—all allegedly
compromising information, including many lewd and salacious details.
Rory Carroll, How Breitbart and the conservative right opened a new front in the
war over fake news, The Guardian (Dec. 15, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/2016/dec/15/breitbart-fake-news-right-trump
In this piece, the Guardian explains its reporting about immigration trend. The
explanation was aimed at countering a claim by Breitbart News the Guardian’s original
report was fake news.
Elliot Hannon, What Made Trump So Sure Obama “Wiretapped” Him? A Fox
News Segment the Night Before, He Says, Slate (Mar. 15, 2017),
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/15/trump_talks_to_fox_news_tucker_car
lson_about_obama_wiretap_claim.html
Tucker Carlson of Fox News interviewed President Trump after the President
accused his predecessor, Barrack Obama, of wiretapping Trump Tower. The author
points out that no evidence accompanied the wiretapping claim and explains his view that
the President “made it up.”
Samantha Schmidt and Lindsey Bever, Kelleyanne Conway cites ‘Bowling Green
massacre’ that never happened to defend travel ban, The Washington Post (Feb. 3,
2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/03/kellyanneconway-cites-bowling-green-massacre-that-never-happened-to-defend-travelban/?utm_term=.2d0f2e4b5aef
During an interview with Chris Matthews of MSNBC, Kellyanne Conway, an
adviser to President Trump, defended the President’s immigration travel ban. She
referred to two Iraqi refugees as masterminds behind the “Bowling Green Massacre.”
She then said “most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.” But the
Bowling Green massacre didn’t get covered because it didn’t happen. It could have been
that she was referring to two Iraqi citizens living in Bowling Green who were arrested in
2011 and sentenced to federal prison for attempting to send weapons and money to alQaeda. Conway tweeted out that she meant “Bowling Green terrorists.” Bowling Green
city officials and police both issued statements and tweets saying this event never
happened and cited the 2011 arrests.
Matthew Rosenberg, Emmarie Huetteman, and Michael Schmidt, Comey
Confirms F.B.I Inquiry on Russia; Sees No Evidence of Wiretapping, The New York
Times (Mar. 20, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/us/politics/intelligencecommittee-russia-donald-trump.html
F.B.I director, James Comey, publically confirmed an investigation into Russian
interference in presidential election. He also said that the F.B.I had no information to
support President Trump’s allegation that former President Obama wiretapped him.
Cody Derespina, Trump hits MSNBC for ‘FAKE NEWS’ after tax return report,
Fox News (Mar. 15, 2017), http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/15/trump-hitsmsnbc-for-fake-news-after-tax-return-report.html
Hours after MSNBC disclosed a portion of President Trump’s 2005 tax returns,
he fired back with a tweet condemning as fake news MSNBC’s explanation of how it
received the tax information. The explanation given was that it had been delivered
anonymously to a New York Times reporter, who then gave it to MSNBC. The Times
reporter speculated that the tax information might have come from President Trump
himself, because the information was favorable to the President. It showed he had paid a
substantial amount of federal tax, contrary to suspicions among his critics. The
President’s tweet in response to MSNBC’s report about his tax return said, “Does
anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, “went to his mailbox”
and found my tax returns? @NBCNews[KM1] FAKE NEWS!”
II. Examples of Fake News Stories
Bob Chiarito, Morrissey is NOT Playing At Vienna Beef (And Other Fake
Facebook Events, Wicker Park & Bucktown, DNAinfo (May 13, 2016),
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160513/bucktown/morrissey-is-not-playing-atvienna-beef-other-fake-facebook-events
Two Chicago institutions fell victim to fake events on Facebook. Vienna Beef
was involved in a hoax when a fake announcement said that a vegetarian singer would be
playing at the company’s headquarters location to celebrate its 122nd anniversary. The
Lincoln Park Zoo was also fooled by a fake event in which rock band Linkin Park,
sponsored by LinkedIn, was to play at the zoo. Both events had fake Facebook pages
where thousands of people said they were interested in hearing the vegetarian singer and
the band.
Julie Hilden, Texas Supreme Court’s libel-by-fiction case (CNN, FindLAw, Dec.
12, 2003), http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/12/findlaw.analysis.hilden.libel/)
In New Times v. Isaacks, after a newspaper published a parody, a judge and a
prosecutor claimed it had portrayed them in a defamatory way. They sued under the
theory of “libel by fiction.” Although the plaintiffs prevailed at the district and appellate
court levels, the Texas Supreme Court held in 2004 that the plaintiffs failed to show that
the newspaper acted with actual malice, and reaffirmed the principle that satire is a form
of protected speech. See New Times, Inc. v. Isaacks, 146 S.W.3d 144 (Tex. 2004).
Jeremy Bowman, $1 Burritos Was Just A Hoax, But Chipotle Grill, Inc. Might
Want to Take the Hint, The Motley Fool (Jan. 17, 2017),
https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/17/1-burritos-was-just-a-hoax-butchipotle-mexican-gr.aspx)
A satirical Web site posted an article saying Chipotle Mexico Grill was selling $1
burritos to “regain public trust.” Chipotle soon responded with a tweet saying that it was
not conducting the promotion. However, the author suggested that the company could
have benefitted by actually engaging in a promotion like the fake one and really offer $1
burritos.
Hunter v. Powell, Clark Co. Nevada District Court Case No. A-17-751409C (Feb.
21, 2017), http://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Ms-World1.pdf
Defendant “fake news” organization allegedly misappropriated the plaintiff’s
identity to falsely proclaim that she was the spokeswoman for a conservative political
agenda. According to the lawsuit, the “fake news” organization created a fake Facebook
page without the plaintiff’s permission and attributed to her ideological political beliefs
that she did not hold. Hunter demanded monetary compensation as well as an injunctive
relief preventing the defendants from using her name, photos, or likeness in this manner.
See also Cleve R. Wootson Jr., This beauty queen was the face of a fake news website.
She says she had no idea., The Washington Post (March 2, 2017),
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/03/02/this-beauty-queenwas-the-face-of-a-fake-news-website-she-says-she-had-noidea/?utm_term=.945c7f201d4f.
III. History of Fake News
James Carson, What is fake news? Its origins and how it grew under Donald
Trump, The Telegraph (Feb. 24, 2017), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/fakenews-origins-grew-2016/
Fake news has been around since Roman times to sway elections. Fake news in
American politics has been recorded as early as 1828 when Andrew Jackson spread
rumors about John Quincy Adams. As mass communications have grown, so has “fake
news”. The Internet has made spreading fake news cheaper and faster, as well as using it
to builds larger audiences. There are five types of fake news: intentionally deceptive,
jokes take at face value, large-scale hoaxes, slanted reporting of real facts, and stories
where the “truth” is contentious.
Eugene Volokh, Fake news and the law, from 1789 to now, The Washington Post
(Dec. 9, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokhconspiracy/wp/2016/12/09/fake-news-and-the-law-from-1798-tonow/?utm_term=.9999f0029826
Congress’s first brush with fake news problem occurred with the Sedition Act in
1798, which punished people for purporting malicious falsehoods about the government.
Then, in 1920, Congress banned willfully conveying false reports and statements with
intent to promote the success of the enemies of the U.S. Recently the FCC does not
license or permit any broadcast station to broadcast false information concerning a crime
or a catastrophe if: the licensee knows this information is false; it is foreseeable that the
broadcast information will cause substantial public harm, and broadcast of the
information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm.
Jacob Soll, The Long and Brutal History of Fake News, POLITICO (Dec. 18,
2016), http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/fake-news-history-long-violent214535
Fake news is a centuries-old phenomenon that has served evil purposes. In 1475
in Italy, a fake news report said that a toddler went missing during Easter and a preacher
gave sermons blaming the Jewish community. The Nazis also used fake news as
propaganda to turn people against the Jewish community pre-World War II. With the
development of printing presses, fake news was easier to spread, and now with the
development of the Internet is even easier. The article cites many different examples of
religious fake news stories that caused serious harm. Sensationalism always sold and
continues to sell well.
David Uberti, The real history of fake news, Columbia Journalism Review (Dec.
15, 2016) (available at http://www.cjr.org/special_report/fake_news_history.php
In 1807, Thomas Jefferson was quoted as condemning fake news. In 1835, after
the advent of the penny press and wide distribution of the printed word began, The New
York Sun published a six part series detailing life on the moon as a hoax story.
Circulation of the paper skyrocketed because readers were enticed to read the out-of-thisworld story. Other newspapers were skeptical of the Sun’s story. Standards for
journalism hadn’t really been defined at this point. In 1874, the New York Herald
published an account of how animals had broken out of the Central Park Zoo and killed
dozens of people, but this never happened. At the bottom of the story, tucked away, a
disclaimer said not one word of it is true. But people didn’t notice and spread the story as
if it were true. These examples and others lead the author to call for “fake news” to be
called what it is: misinformation, deception, or lies.
IV. Fake News, Hoaxes, Misinformation and Satire
Dan Kennedy, Fake News Versus False News: Why They’re Different, And Why It
Matters, WGBH News, Nov. 21, 2016), http://news.wgbh.org/2016/11/21/news/fakenews-versus-false-news-why-theyre-different-and-why-it-matters
Not all fake news is created equally. Some is created solely for money and some
is produced by ideologically motivated activists. The author defines fake news as content
produced by sites whose sole purpose is to game Facebook and Google’s algorithms for
profit. False news is then defined as political speech and is related to the concept of the
“marketplace of ideas,” where the hope is that truth will win out. The author believes
that cracking down on fake news, as he defines it, is good, but cracking down on false
news would lead to disputes over whose media source is right.
Katie Rogers and Jonah Engel Bromwich, The Hoaxes, Fake News, and
Misinformation We Saw on Election Day, The New York Times (Nov. 8, 2016)
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/politics/debunk-fake-news-electionday.html?_r=0
Hoaxes often originate on social media where users share fake stories mixed with
satire. Fake Web sites have gone into “overdrive” because of this sort fake news sharing.
Other examples of hoaxes include fake fliers that have been distributed to trick college
students. Another example trickery by mayor in Georgia. The mayor posted false
election days for different political parties. Misinformation is then defined as other
falsehoods that are spread by well-meaning entities and misinformed individuals.
Nsikan Akpan, The very real consequences of fake news stories and why your
brain can’t ignore them, PBS (Dec. 5, 2016), http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/realconsequences-fake-news-stories-brain-cant-ignore/
This article details recent Internet-based hoaxes and their real-world
consequences. For example, an armed man carrying an assault rifle fire shots in a
Washington, D.C. ping-pong bar and pizzeria because of fake news that suggested
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton led a child-trafficking ring based there.
Fake news has historically been generated for political gain and the article cites hoax
stories about Ebola scares that were meant as political satire. A BuzzFeed analysis
reinforced concern about fake news. According to the analysis, “fake election news
outperformed total engagement on Facebook when compared to the most popular election
stories from 19 major news outlet combined.”
V. The Kinds of Harm that may be Attributable to Fake News
Alex Berenson, On Hair-Trigger Wall Street, A Stock Plunges on Fake News,
The New York Times (Aug. 26, 2000), http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/26/business/onhair-trigger-wall-street-a-stock-plunges-on-fake-news.html)
Emulex, a fiber optic communications equipment company, learned from
Bloomberg News that the company’s chief executive resigned, and Emulex planned to
restate its earnings for the last two years. Investors then rushed to sell their shares causing
stock to go from $103 a share to $45 in 15 minutes. However, the story about the chief
executive was not true. By the end of the day, the news was corrected and stocks
returned to normal prices. This incident shows how fake news could affect the stock
market in such a dangerous way.
Mark Berman, FBI investigating shooting of two Indian men in Kansas as a hate
crime, The Washington Post (Feb. 28, 2017),
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/28/fbi-investigatingshooting-of-two-indian-men-in-kansas-as-a-hate-crime/?utm_term=.4f06b58e327d
A gunman reportedly told two Indian men to “get out of my country” before
opening fire on them in a bar in Olathe, Kansas. One man died of his wounds in the
hospital and the other man was released the day after the attack. Police arrested and
charged Adam Purinton for the shooting. Purinton said he thought the two men he shot
were Iranian. Observers wondered whether the shooting might have been prompted by
anti-immigrant rhetoric of President Trump. The father of the man killed told the
Hindustan Times in Indian, that “the situation seems to be pretty bad after Trump took
over as the U.S. president” and then warned others not to send their kids to the U.S. under
these circumstances. The article says, “The White House has pushed back against any
suggestion that links Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants to the shooting….”
Marina Fang, Barack Obama: Fake News On Facebook Hurts Democracy, The
Huffington Post (Nov. 17, 2016), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-facebookfake-news_us_582deba6e4b099512f815e4a
During a joint press conference, then-President Obama warned that the ease with
which people can promulgate fraudulent news stories threatens basic democratic
principles. He warned “if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and
propaganda, then we have problems,” later saying that democracy could break down if
Americans don’t learn to compromise and engage in the democratic process by not
demonizing our opponents.
How does Fake News affect corporate reputation?, alva (Jan. 9, 2017),
http://www.alva-group.com/us/fake-news-affect-corporate-reputation/
Concern about fake news “has focused on its political influence, but this has
begun to seep over into the corporate world. In the lead-up to the US Presidential
election, Trump supporters called for a boycott on Pepsi products over a quote its CEO
never actually made.” The comment falsely was attributed to the CEO was that Trump
fans should “take their business elsewhere.” This blog features charts that show the
negative effects of the incident on Pepsi. The blog reports that:
In the weeks leading up to the fake news incident, Pepsi’s stock
price averaged around $106.58. Pepsi’s stock price took a significant
hit on 10th November, the day the fake quotes initially started
circulating. In the weekend that followed, the quotes were widely
shared on social media, resulting in a further decline in share price
when the markets re-opened on the 14th November.
In the weeks following the circulation of the fake quotes, there
is a clear difference between Pepsi’s sentiment trend and its stock
price. Sentiment towards Pepsi recovered well within five days, and
its subsequent average reputation score has been higher than the
months leading up to the fake news story.
However, Pepsi’s stock price continued to decline for almost
three weeks, before it began its recovery at the start of December.
Even a month after the quotes were recognized as false, Pepsi’s
stock price still trails its previous average.
Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability to Tell Fake News from Real, Study Finds,
NPR (Nov. 23, 2016), http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2016/11/23/503129818/study-finds-students-have-dismaying-inability-to-tell-fakenews-from-real
Stanford researchers published a study concluding that students’ ability to assess
information sources was dismaying, bleak, and a threat to democracy. A large number of
students, 7,800, from middle school to college level in 12 states were surveyed. Students
continuously failed to distinguish credibility of sources for items such as articles,
photographs, and the source’s origin.
Kenneth Rapoza, Can ‘Fake News’ Impact The Stock Market?, Forbes (Feb. 26,
2017), https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/02/26/can-fake-news-impact-thestock-market/#5dcce7722fac
The author quotes a co-founder of a Houston company as saying that fake news in
the financial market has been a problem for a long time, it just wasn’t called fake news.
Rather, the market is driven by opinions. The article cites a 2013 scenario where $130
billion in stock value were wiped out within minutes following a tweet about an
“explosion” that injured Barack Obama that never actually happened.
The Stewart/Colbert Effect, Essays on the Real Impacts of Fake News, edited by
Amarnath Amarasingam, McFarland (2011) (Table of Contents, Foreword by Robert W.
McChesney, Preface and Introduction),
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9Yj2xromWW4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq
=%22fake+news%22&ots=7xVGuma3Dp&sig=FD5sq2aselEDit5zPAkdzpm4G8c#v=on
epage&q=%22fake%20news%22&f=false
This work comprises essays discussing what impacts fake news has on society.
The essays range from research on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, to
theoretical considerations relating to the media, young people, and the court system.
VI. Fake News and the Potential for Liability
Lizzie Dearden, Syrian refugee fake news lawsuit, Independent (March 7, 2017),
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/syrian-refugee-facebook-fake-newscourt-case-lawsuit-terrorist-germany-anas-modamani-verdict-merkel-a7615981.html
A German court rejected a Syrian refugee’s attempt to sue Facebook for spreading
fake news accusing him of terrorism and attempted murder. According to the ecommerce directive of the EU, a host provider is not obliged to proactively search of for
content that could potentially be objectionable. The judge in the case would not provide
an interim injunction blocking the content as there was not sufficient evidence that the
offending posts could be accessed by an average Facebook user in Germany.
VII. Fake News and the First Amendment
Paige Lavender, Donald Trump: The First Amendment Gives Me The Right To
Criticize ‘Fake News’, The Huffington Post (Feb. 24, 2017),
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-cpac2017_us_58b04a86e4b0780bac288743
Donald Trump called “fake news” the “enemy of the people,” and identified the
The New York Times, CNN, NBC, and other mainstream media as promulgators of “fake
news.” He also argued that news outlets should not be allowed to use anonymous sources,
and claimed that the war with the media was “going to get worse”.
VIII. Fighting against Proliferation of Fake News
Monique Judge, How Do We Fight Back Against Trump and His Fake News, Fake
Media Propaganda?, The Root (Feb. 28, 2017), http://www.theroot.com/how-do-wefight-back-against-trump-and-his-fake-news-f-1792831682
During a recent CNN segment with Don Lemon, Karine Jean-Pierre, and Paris
Dennard, Pierre argued that President Trump is hypocritical because he is continuing to
profit from his business while in office, despite having criticized former President Obama
for taking vacations on taxpayer dollars. At that point, conservative commentator
Dennard interjected that Pierre’s statement was “fake news.” In response, Lemon cut
Dennard off, explaining that just because one doesn’t agree with something being
reported doesn’t mean it’s “fake news.”
George Thomas Jr., Why The Law is Powerless When it Comes to Fake News,
Business 2 Community (Jan. 21, 2017),
http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/avvo/law-powerless-comes-fakenews-01761399#1K6YhFaP5WF8Dfui.97
The author posits that wide exposure of “fake news” sways the “weak-of-mind”
on social media. Now that social media are becoming an ever more popular place to
become informed, fake news is more easily shard and believed. Unfortunately, there is
no legal obligation to tell the truth. Americans are free to lie to each other and proclaim
falsehoods because the First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression, including
sharing false news stories on social media. However, Facebook and Google are now
trying to deter the spread of fake news by using internal fact checkers to review news
stories that are posted.
What Legal Recourse Do Victims Of Fake News Stories Have?, National Public
Radio (Dec. 7, 2016), http://www.npr.org/2016/12/07/504723649/what-legal-recoursedo-victims-of-fake-news-stories-have)
A panel discussed whether victims of fake news stories can bring a lawsuit for
defamation if the story has damaged someone’s reputation. Defendants who would be
held accountable for defamatory statements would be the originator of the statements and
some who repeat it. However, simply sharing defamatory statements on social media
probably isn’t actionable because the First Amendment allows the marketplace of ideas to
flourish, whether those ideas are true or false.
Whoopi Goldberg plans to sue over fake news article, Hollywood.com,
http://www.hollywood.com/general/whoopi-goldberg-plans-to-sue-over-fake-newsarticle-60680095/
Whoopi Goldberg vowed to sue a blogger who falsely accused her of criticizing
President Trump’s praise of a Navy SEAL’s widow. The blog post was picked up by
various conservative news organizations, helping spread the false report. Goldberg said
she subsequently received threats of violence from Trump supporters, and that she wants
legislation to prevent the promulgation of fake news.
Richard Gray, Lies, propaganda and fake news: A challenge for our age, BBC
(Mar. 1, 2017), http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170301-lies-propaganda-and-fakenews-a-grand-challenge-of-our-age
Democracy relies on an informed electorate, but different search engines bring up
different results when queried about the first U.S. president. Truth is no longer dictated
by authorities, but is networked by peers. For every fact there is now a counterfact.
Information can now be shared around the world in seconds, and correcting false
information is harder than spreading false rumors. Social media is not just peer-to-peer
interactions anymore, but a powerful advertising tool.
Noah Feldman, Closing the Safe Harbor for Libelous Fake News, Bloomberg
(Dec. 16, 2016), https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-12-16/free-speech-libeland-the-truth-after-pizzagate
The author laments that Comet Ping Pong, the Washington restaurant that was
falsely smeared as the sex trafficking hub in the “Pizzagate” hoax, has no meaningful
legal remedy available under American law. However, the European Union recognizes
the “right to be forgotten” on the Internet which means certain items may be removed
from or blocked by search engines. The author doubts such a shift is possible in the
United States in light of the lengths to which the Supreme Court has gone to protect false
statements under the First Amendment.
Nick Robins-Early, How To Recognize A Fake News Story, The Huffington Post
(Nov. 27, 2016), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-news-guidefacebook_us_5831c6aae4b058ce7aaba169
Nine tips are offered to stop yourself from sharing fake news: read past the
headline, check what news outlet published it, check the publish date and time, note who
is the author, look at what links and sources are used, look also for questionable quotes
and photos, beware of confirmation bias, search whether other news outlets are reporting
it, and think before you share.
Michael Nunez, Senate GOP Launches Inquiry Into Facebook’s News Curation,
Gizmodo, May, 10, 2016), http://gizmodo.com/senate-gop-launches-inquiry-intofacebook-s-news-curati-1775767018
The Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over a number of issues
related to media, consumer protection issues, and Internet communications, sent a letter
to Mark Zuckerberg requesting answers to questions about Facebook’s Trending Topics
section. Some of the issues raised included how Facebook’s Trending Topics feature was
organized, and the steps for determining included topics; who is responsible for
approving the content; whether content is manipulated; what steps Facebook takes to
investigate claims of politically motivated manipulation of news stories; what steps does
Facebook take to hold individuals accountable for said manipulation; what guidelines for
review does Facebook have, how long have any such guidelines been in place, and many
more.
Ben Knight, EU expands anti-fake-news task force, Deutsche Welle, (Jan. 25,
2017), http://www.dw.com/en/eu-expands-anti-fake-news-task-force/a-37265159
The article documents that the EU agency established to counter Kremlin
disinformation campaigns will receive extra resources as Europe faces two major
elections. Since its formation, the taskforce has debunked several fake Kremlin stories.
Its objective is to “disprove” fake news stories and publish statements on them. As of
now, the group only has 10 people, but the extra resources earmarked for the agency
should result in an increase in staffing.
IX. Perspectives on Fake News
Derek Lawrence, Sean Spicer jokes about Melissa McCarthy SNL impression at
press briefing, Entertainment Weekly (March 10, 2017),
http://ew.com/tv/2017/03/10/sean-spicer-briefing-snl-melissa-mccarthy-impression/
Political parody can be easy to distinguish from fake news. Sean Spicer called
Melissa McCarthy’s impersonation of him “a bit silly” and then joked, “I mean, don’t
make me make the podium move.”
Nicole Levy, Beatles Tribute/Trump Parody Band Decries ‘Fake News’ on the
Subway (VIDEO) This is New York, DNAinfo (Feb. 27, 2017),
https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170227/williamsburg/trump-beatles-parody-songdonald-trump-music-l-train-subway
A Beatles cover band/Trump parody group, sings a ‘Hey Jude’ cover with
changed lyrics to deal with fake news. The group has other songs dealing with other
comments by Donald Trump.
Fake/Hoax News Sites / Satire Websites / Clickbait Websites, Fake News Watch
(last updated Jan. 18, 2017), http://fakenewswatch.com
This site contains an extensive list of fake/hoax news, satire, and click bait Web
sites. More than 90 sites are identified.
The Bowling Green Massacre Victim Fund,
https://www.bowlinggreenmassacrefund.com)
This Web site is satirically dedicated to collecting “donations” for those who
suffered in the “Bowling Green Massacre.” Its target is anyone who believed presidential
adviser Kellyanne Conway’s reference to the massacre that she said wasn’t covered by
the news media—but which never happened.
George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, Horizon. – G.B. London
(April 1946), http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit/
George Orwell assesses the decline of the English language especially written
English. He cites five quotes he finds exceptionally terrible, from communist pamphlets,
professors and letters to the editor, and then lists why the language is in decline. The
reasons are: dying metaphors, operators or verbal false limbs (basically unnecessary
phrases that could be broken down into a single word), pretentious diction, and
meaningless words. Orwell says that political writing is plainly bad writing and that
political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible (he uses the
example of the British continuing to rule India). He says that language can corrupt
thought and thought can corrupt language and such bad usage can spread among people
who don’t know have to distinguish god from bad writing. Orwell has a list of rules for
improving bad writing: never use metaphors, similes, or other figure of speech, never use
a long word where a short one will do, cut words out wherever possible, never use
passive voice when you can use active, never use foreign phrases, scientific words, or
jargon if there’s an English equivalent, and finally, to break any of these rules sooner
than say anything outright barbarous.
HCC Libraries Online, Fake News, Misleading News, Biased News: Evaluating
Sources, http://libguides.hccfl.edu/fakenews/evaluatingsources
This resource is a list of sites that help evaluate news sources.
Mark Memmott, 75 Years Ago, ‘War Of The Worlds’ Started A Panic. Or Did It?,
NPR (Oct. 30, 2013), http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2013/10/30/241797346/75-years-ago-war-of-the-worlds-started-a-panic-or-did-it
The author reviews the radio broadcast of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds.”
Twelve million people were listening and about one in every 12 thought the story was
true. Slate stated its opinion that the number of people who actually listened to the
program and freaked out was much fewer than that. A phone survey of 5,000 people
back in 1938 was conducted and only about 2 percent of the respondents said they were
listening to the Welles story. Slate says newspapers actually “caused” the panic by
sensationalizing how many people freaked out.
David Oxenford, Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds 75 Years Later-What Would
the FCC Do Now?, Broadcast Law Blog (Oct. 31, 2013),
http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2013/10/articles/orson-welles-war-of-the-worlds-75years-later-what-would-the-fcc-do-now/
The author looks at Federal Communications Commission regulations and how
they hypothetically could apply to Orson Welles’ radio production of “War of the
Worlds,” which scared listeners into thinking the country was under attack by Martians.
People fled their homes and called emergency services in fear of the Martians. The FCC
has adopted a rule against hoaxes since the broadcast. This rule makes it so that
broadcasters are forbidden from airing programs that are false where it is foreseeable that
the broadcast will tie up the resources of first responders or that the broadcast will
otherwise cause harm to people or damage property, and where such harm is in fact
caused.
Tom Regan, Technology is Changing Journalism, NiemanReports (Dec. 15,
2000), http://niemanreports.org/articles/technology-is-changing-journalism/
This is a 17-year-old article that has accurately captured how journalism
developed with the Internet and more mobile access devices. The author discussed how
easy it was in 2000 to share information with people via instant messaging. With all this
advancing technology, he foresaw that reporters would have to acquire new tools to
become better journalists. He believed that, within a few years, it would be impossible
for authorities in a totalitarian or communist country to prevent their citizens from having
firsthand knowledge of news. Technological advances in journalism are inevitable, but
the elements of a good journalist will never change.
* Mr. Taylor, a first-year student at the University of Kansas School of Law, prepared
this annotated bibliography in his capacity as a research assistant in the School’s Media,
Law and Technology program. The bibliography is a work in progress, subject to review
and further development after the 30th annual Media and the Law Seminar in Kanas City
(https://law.ku.edu/media-law-seminar).