Why I’m Tired of Fake News (And Why You Should Be Too)
Look, I’ve been in this game for 20+ years. I’ve seen it all. Or so I thought. Then 2016 happened. And 2020. And now, frankly, I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted because we’re still talking about fake news. We’re still arguing about what’s real and what’s not. And honestly? It’s completley ridiculous.
I remember sitting in a conference in Austin, Texas, back in 2018. A colleague named Dave leaned over during a particularly dull panel and said, “You know, Sarah, I think we’re losing the war on misinformation.” I laughed him off then. But now? Now I’m not so sure he was wrong.
Last Tuesday, I was having coffee with an old friend, let’s call him Marcus. He’s not in the industry, just a regular guy who gets his news from Facebook. I asked him about the last big story he read. He told me about some political scandal, but the details were all wrong. It was a story from a site that looked legit, but wasn’t. And he had no idea.
So, What’s the Problem?
It’s not just the obvious stuff. The satire sites, the outright lies. It’s the stuff that’s kinda true, but not completley. It’s the stuff that’s taken out of context. It’s the stuff that’s just… misleading. And it’s everywhere. It’s in our Facebook feeds, our Twitter timelines, our email inboxes. It’s in the comments section of every news article. It’s in the memes we share with our friends.
And it’s not just political. It’s about health, it’s about science, it’s about everything. I read a story last week about how pineapple cures cancer. Pineapple! I mean, come on. But people believed it. They shared it. They commented on it. It was all over the place. And it was completley, utterly, 100% false.
I talked to a friend who works at a major news organization about this. She told me, “We’re trying, but it’s like playing whack-a-mole. We debunk one thing, and ten more pop up.” Which… yeah. Fair enough.
The Role of Verification (And Why It’s Not Enough)
Look, verification is important. It’s crucial. It’s… okay, fine, I’ll say it. It’s comprehensive. (Happy now?) But here’s the thing: verification takes time. And in the age of social media, time is a luxury we don’t have. By the time we’ve verified a story, it’s already been shared a thousand times. It’s already been believed, debated, argued about. It’s already done its damage.
And let’s talk about the verification process itself. It’s not perfect. It’s not some magical thing that makes everything better. It’s a process. It’s a committment to accuracy. But it’s also a process that can be manipulated. It can be gamed. It can be used to spread misinformation just as easily as it can be used to stop it.
I’m not saying we should give up on verification. I’m saying we need to be smarter about it. We need to be faster. We need to be better. And we need to find new ways to do it. Like, for example, an automated sms verification platform. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. But hear me out…
About three months ago, I was talking to a tech guy at a bar. He was telling me about this service that verifies phone numbers via SMS. I said, “That’s cool and all, but how does that help with news verification?” He looked at me like I was an idiot. “You send a code to the source’s phone number. If they can’t verify it, they’re not who they say they are.” Which… okay, fair point.
A Digression: The Time I Got Duped
Speaking of verification, let me tell you about the time I got duped. It was 2017, and I was working on a story about a whistleblower. We’ll call him John. John claimed to have insider information about a major corporation. He had documents, he had emails, he had everything. So we ran with it.
Turns out, John was a fraud. He was a college kid in his dorm room. He had no insider information. He had no documents, no emails, nothing. He just made it all up. And I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker. It was humiliating. It was a low point in my career. And it taught me a valuable lesson: always verify, no matter what.
So, What Do We Do?
I don’t have all the answers. I wish I did. But I do have some ideas. First, we need to educate people. We need to teach them how to spot fake news. We need to teach them how to verify information for themselves. We need to teach them to think critically, to question everything, to not just believe what they read.
Second, we need to hold platforms accountable. Facebook, Twitter, Google, they all have a responsibility here. They can’t just wash their hands of it and say, “We’re just a platform.” No. They’re publishers. They’re editors. They’re part of the problem. And they need to be part of the solution.
Third, we need to find new ways to verify information. We need to be innovative. We need to be creative. We need to be bold. And sometimes, that means looking at things like an automated sms verification platform. (Yes, I’m mentioning it again. Deal with it.)
And finally, we need to remember why we do this. We do this because the truth matters. We do this because democracy matters. We do this because people’s lives are affected by the information they consume. We do this because it’s our job. And because someone has to.
So, yeah. That’s where I’m at. I’m tired. I’m frustrated. I’m worried. But I’m also hopeful. Because I believe in this. I believe in the power of truth. I believe in the power of journalism. And I believe that, together, we can fix this mess.
Or at least make it a little less messy.
About the Author: Sarah Mitchell has been a journalist for over 20 years. She’s worked at major publications, small publications, and everything in between. She’s won awards, she’s made mistakes, and she’s learned a lot along the way. She’s currently the senior editor at a major news organization, where she spends her days fighting the good fight against fake news. She lives in New York with her cat, her plants, and her ever-growing collection of vinyl records.
