On A Clear Day, You Can See Fake News Forever

Michael Hedges May 30, 2017 - Follow on Twitter

Fake news peddlers have had a long and prosperous run. Popping out all over the web like adolescent acne and spread unhindered by social media they have appropriated digital magic for disruption or more nefarious purposes. Leaders in the enlightened world, including real news publishers, have hesitated, mostly, bringing them to heel, press and speech freedoms still important. Then came a few rather significant elections.

At a press conference just two weeks after election, French President Emmanuel Macron minced no words. “When press organs spread infamous untruths, they are no longer journalists, they are influential organs,” he said, standing next to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, quoted by France24 (May 29). "During the campaign, Russia Today and Sputnik were agents of influence which on several occasions spread fake news about me personally and my campaign and I considered that they had no place. "They behaved like agents of influence, of propaganda and of lying propaganda,"” It was the first time a head of state has directly called out the notorious propaganda outlets. (See more about fake news here)

Russia Today, commonly referred to now as RT, and Sputnik are agencies of the Russian Federation, separate officially, with common editorial supervision. RT is an international satellite TV network. Sputnik is part news agency, part radio network, a combination of news agency RAI Novosti and Voice of Russia, known as Radio Moscow during Cold War years. Both have expanded considerably in recent years, including in France, and promote conspiracy theories extensively on social media.

Days before the May 7th second round of French presidential election, pitting M. Macron and far-right candidate Marine LePen, a trove of emails and documents allegedly from the Macron campaign found its way to the internet, the contents promoted widely by RT and Sputnik and re-posted by various far-right websites. Interspersed within the quite innocuous communication among campaign officials were clearly altered documents. French intelligence experts traced the document hacking to Russian intelligence service GRU. Much of this was completely ignored by real news outlets in France as the deadline for news silence before voting approached.

The Macron campaign did respond to the hack by banning RT and Sputnik employees for “disseminating propaganda and misleading information.” At the May 29 press gaggle with President Macron and President Putin RT “reporter” Xenia Fedorova asked about that decision. "I have always had an exemplary relationship with foreign journalists, but they have to be real journalists," M. Macron explained. "All foreign journalists, including Russian journalists, had access to my campaign. It was a serious matter that foreign press organs, under whatever influence, interfered by spreading serious untruths in a democratic campaign. I will not give an inch on this.”

President Putin did not acknowledge the interjection. Later Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and RT and Sputnik chief editor Margarita Simonyan moaned about “damage to freedom of expression.” On the US election of Donald Trump a jubilant Ms Simonyan set to Twitter (November 9): “Today I want to ride around Moscow with an American flag in the window, if I can find a flag.”

See also in ftm Knowledge

Fake News, Hate Speech and Propaganda

The institutional threat of fake news, hate speech and propaganda is testing the mettle of those who toil in news media. Those three related evils are not new, by any means, but taken together have put the truth and those reporting it on the back foot. Words matter. This ftm Knowledge file explores that light. 48 pages, PDF (March 2017)

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The Campaign Is On - Elections and Media

Elections campaigns are big media events. Candidates and issues are presented, analyzed and criticized in broadcast and print. Media is now more of a participant in elections than ever. This ftm Knowledge file reports on news coverage, advertising, endorsements and their effect on democracy at work. 63 pages. PDF (December 2012)

Order here