One of the most annoying things that I’ve had to deal with in my adult years is… Fake News. This president did this, that congressman did that, this mother smoked this, and so on. Half the time I just throw my hands up in the air and say who cares, because I don’t trust the media anymore. The media has been making up stories for centuries to get what it wants. Saying lies to get people to sway their political or moral beliefs in one way or the other. In the 1800’s the independence leaders made up a story of innocent and peaceful citizens being massacred. The list of ridiculously outrageous stories goes on and on.
The worst part is that it’s not just stories anymore. Publishers and even average people can make a site or Facebook page that is completely fake and produce fake advertisements that steal your money.
I just wish all this nonsense would stop.
There has to be a way to prevent even the most credible sites and publishers from creating these stories. All they want is more viewers, readers, or followers. There has to be a way to keep the people in line, who are making this up. A change in the law or something to bring justice to the people wasting my time with all this ridiculous nonsense. Tom Cruise was so furious and outraged, by a story about him neglecting his daughter and abandoning her, that he sued the magazine for $50 million.
There needs to be more people like Tom Cruise who are willing to take a stand and fight against the media and their lies. I’m not saying that they are always liars. Because the media rights millions and millions of stories every year. I’m just saying that there needs to be some way to keep the media from making up Fake News.
Nonintellectual Meandering 
You’re right in saying that fake news is getting out of hand. I think it really has escalated in the past year or so. People have such strong and extreme opinions that it takes things to a negative and sometimes hostile place. The internet, specifically twitter, is and has been a place for violent attacks with words about who is right and what actually happened.
I think the whole concept of fake news is rather superficial. People post false stories simply to become more popular. They view it is better to be talked about, even under false pretenses than not at all. I don’t think that is a healthy mindset to have. People, especially news companies should be more concerned with getting the facts to the people rather than being the number one news outlet. If your facts are solid and delivered well then the success will come.
Also I didn’t know about the Tom Cruise thing — good for him. Tabloids are insane and should not be able to get away with what they are doing.
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I think this is quite important from various standpoints. Apart from the time wasting, click bait headlines, it’s important to know that news outlets aren’t untouchable, and that freedom of the press does not equate to freedom from consequences (such as the defamation and slander of Tom Cruise). News outlets are supposed to give unbiased facts, and, in an age where we can easily find out if we’re being lied to, there should be consequences if they don’t. Sometimes it’s a matter of lies by omission, such as Time magazine printing a different version for U.S. vs the rest of the world (https://goo.gl/myVBme). I’m not sure if that should be punishable or not, since there are some things that are more pertinent to other countries, but this seemed to make an effort to not show the U.S. in that bad of a light.
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I agree with what you are trying to say about how fake news has gotten out of hand. This occurrence has to have you think though? If you were in the shoes of a fake news author, who makes a lot of money each day for writing bs about a tip or some conspiracy theory he/she received, wouldn’t you want to do it? Also, wouldn’t you want your websites name out there when people are retweeting or reposting? It’s easy to understand why fake news is so popular, but why people get so caught up in the craze is just mind blowing. Definitely with you about trying to end the fake news saga, but I see this saga coming to an end just how vine came to an end. It’s a phase that social media will go threw. What’s the next phase though?
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