The room, packed with teenagers, was alive with the sound of movement and chatter. Suddenly, someone walked in, shouted something, and the entire room erupted into chaos as everyone immediately began to run around, looking for an exit. In the blink of an eye, the place, which had been packed with people and sounds, was now empty and quiet. What had just happened, what did the person say that had caused everyone to run away so quickly? Well, if you have to ask, then you, dear listener, are showing your age. The newest social game sweeping across America is to find a place full of youngsters, shout “Trump is Coming” and then sit back and watch as everyone has to run away. The idea, of course, is that Trump is going to kick out of the country all of the people he doesn’t like, so don’t get caught! Not feeling it? The hashtag, or pound sign, for you older types, #trumpscomingchallenge is currently trending in the top 30 most popular search terms.
As the world is slowly coming to grips with the words “President Trump”, many in the press are asking themselves how it could have happened. How could the mainstream press, almost across the board, be so wrong? And not just wrong, as in, today it will colder than yesterday and it turns out to be not so cold, but wrong as in, there will 100% be a chance of a hurricane tomorrow, and guess what - there was no hurricane!
Of course, there are some that instead of taking an analytical approach are instead being more proactive. In fact, Techcrunch recently ran an article that state — “With the U.S. election, fake news became incredibly popular on social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as news aggregating services, such as Google News and news articles in Google search results. We’re not talking about opinion articles — we’re talking about reports spreading blatantly inaccurate information.” That’s right. In a bid to set the record straight or at least quiet some of the noise, some of the bigger players in tech are beginning to install their own type of censorship, arguably under the auspices of, well, as Techcrunch once again wrote — “…(Google) will try to ban sites that “misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information. Websites who don’t comply with this rule will get banned from using Google AdSense.”
And why would getting banned from AdSense matter? AdSense, for those that live in the real world away from a computer, is an advertising service from Google that provides users with a bit of code, and then a website owner takes this code and puts it on his website. When a person visits that website, an ad, and it can be either text or a little banner, is displayed, which means that if the website owner gets enough visitors, he can get actual spendable money from Google. Pretty neat, right?
So, how could Googles new policy affect companies? Well, further on in that very same Techcrunch article, we can read — “By removing a potential revenue stream, it makes the business of fake news a bit less lucrative. For instance, Buzzfeed discovered that more than 100 fake news sites were created in a tiny city in Macedonia. So it’s clear that …. people are taking advantage of social networks to make money using fake news.” That’s right 100 fake news websites!
One of the bigger players of the fake news websites was recently interviewed in the Washington Post. In that article, he was given credit for made up stories involving the Amish lobby, gay wedding vans, and the banning of America’s national anthem. That’s right. One guy came up with all that. That article noted that-“Paul Horner, the 38-year-old impresario of a Facebook fake-news empire, has made his living off viral news hoaxes for several years. He has twice convinced the Internet that he’s British graffiti artist Banksy; he also published the very viral, very fake news of a Yelp vs. “South Park” lawsuit last year.”
Further on in that Wapo article, he was quoted as saying — “My sites were picked up by Trump supporters all the time. I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything. His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist.” That’s right. The guy admitted to lying and is shocked when people took him at his word.
Should the people have known better? Maybe. Or maybe not, as the real issue here is not that most adults are dumb, but maybe just over whelmed with work and life. Besides, according to Marketplace, there are 14,000 different lobbying groups. That’s right. 14,000, as in a 1 and 4 and 3 zeros. In fact, according to Mother Jones, there is a lobbying group called The Balloon Council that has an aim — "To educate consumers and regulators about the wonders of foil and latex balloons." And the Balloon Council spent $80,000 on lobbying in 2014.” So, with this in mind, it isn’t too hard to imagine that there really is “an Amish lobby”, furthering the “Amish agenda”.
Of course, the even easier answer is just this- for years now, people listening to the mainstream media have been hammered with –“the economy is getting better, unemployment is down, and the stock market is up!” and then looking out the window and seeing something completely different, but still somehow believing the mainstream media’s message, because they wouldn’t lie to us, right? Heck, just go back a few weeks and see what the papers were saying about Clinton and Trump – she had up to an 89% of winning in some of the bigger rags — right up until the votes were counted.
As the world adjusts the outcome of the latest election, many people are asking questions as to what the future will bring. Will Mitt Romney be the new Secretary of State? Will Trump be able to have a successful first meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? But more importantly, will Trump be able to live up to at least some of his campaign promises? And will the deep state let him?
So, what do you think, dear listeners — Did fake news elect Donald Trump?
We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com
