Fake news in America

Abstract

The 2016 election for president of the United States was marred by a flood of deliberate misinformation, hacking by foreign troublemakers – predominantly Russian –and other abuses of electronic communications and platforms. The campaign for president and other high officials was also marred by vicious political attacks on the credibility and integrity of the news media and on professional journalists.The earliest American newspapers during colonial times required a printing license from London, and those licenses were issued only to publishers who ‘favored the ruling elite’. Those newspapers served as official or unofficial voices of the royal government – what we might call propaganda. Even that long ago there were conflicts and arguments about the publication of verifiable facts, opinions and misinformation.