Fake News Is Not the Real Media Threat We’re Facing

Fake news has been around as long as real news...  Social media has certainly transformed how fake news circulates, speeding up its circulation and extending its reach and impact...  a much more important problem ... is the continuing delegitimization of real news by American conservatives...  This is not “fake news.” It is a blatantly ideological distortion of real news...
faithful followers of Limbaugh, or Fox News, will not only immediately discount any mainstream-media story that reflects badly on politicians or policies they like... consider the story itself yet another reason to support those politicians and policies... as a matter of principle
for the incoming Trump administration ... Even entirely blatant corruption, and blatant violations of the Constitution are likely to be dismissed as “fake news” by the conservative media machine...  denounced as part of a nefarious plot by liberals ... could well intensify Trump’s support...
 the conservative media machine, and a majority of Republican officeholders... a coherent, united ideological apparatus... attempts systematically to discredit and demonize anyone who opposes it... bears striking similarities to fascist and communist parties... the members of it who work in broadcast studios and so-called newsrooms are not journalists. They are the party’s media arm.