'Fake news' is not new, but Catholic media needs to avoid it

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/fake-news-not-new-catholic-media-needs-avoid-it MGB:
Fake News is in the eye of the beholder. Generally, it is any news that challenges cultural biases or politics. Despots believe that only what they say is news and what others say is false or sinful. That applies to many bishops. Egalitarians believe that the establishment is lying to protect itself. Libertarians believe you make up your own mind and that lying is permissible. Hierarchists rely on the party line.

On the other scale, Reactionaries truly believe that we are better off in the past, which is almost always a lie (although some of us yearn for the time of Obama). For the Catholic Press, this means everything since Vatican II, with the exception of their favorite counter-revolutionary, St. John Paul, who was a dissident at the Council.  Reactionaries believe that stretching the truth is fine if it helps the cause. So do radicals. Conservatives believe that things are fine now and if they are reactionary, hide it by speaking the language of change (see St. John Paul again). Indeed, discordant information cannot be true, so anything bad in the papacy of JP had to be related to Francis.  Moderates are either no one or both the conservative and liberal sides.

Reality has a liberal bias because some change is always required, albeit they draw the line at radicalism. Radicals will shade the truth by demonizing the reactionaries and those who oppose them. Some radicals are more radical than others. True revolutionaries speak out against religion. Others simply avoid it unless it opposes them. It is not mentioned in the far left journal Jacobin, or at least I have not seen it. Regardless, MSW ignores them back, although it might spice up his analysis to read them occasionally.

The tragedy of Donald Trump is that he tries to control the narrative, but he also believes in it. This presents a quandary for Fox News, since they want to advise the President and possibly inform him, although real information would ruin their brand identity. The most inconvenient ideologue is one who believes his own propaganda, which fits Trump to a tee. It also fits many bishops and their staffs.