Ep. 112 - Has News Always Been ‘Fake’?

The 2016 presidential election brought “fake news” to the center of national debates over media bias, election interference, free speech, and content moderation. But the phenomenon isn’t exactly new.

Misleading stories, sensationalism, and outright lies, explains Andie Tucher, have been part of American journalism from the very beginning. 

A professor at Columbia Journalism School, Tucher is also the author of Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History.

On this episode, Tucher joins Commonweal features editor Alex Stern to discuss how lessons from the history of journalism in America can help reform the profession in the age of the internet, social media, and AI.

For further reading: 

• The editors condemn Fox’s factual malice
• Paul Baumann on the history of Time magazine
• Paul Moses on the legacy of Fr. Charles Coughlin