I Say Disinfomation, You Say Misinformation

POTUS calls the bile pouring out of the media "Fake News". But what is really happening? Is it all out and out lies? Completely fabricated stories with no basis in reality? Here's something to chew on.

“Television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information - misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information - information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.” ~ Neil Postman

One of Postman's most influential works is Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. In Amusing, Postman argued that by expressing ideas through visual imagery, television reduces politics, news, history, and other serious topics to entertainment. He worried that culture would decline if the people became an audience and their public business a "vaudeville act." Postman also argued that television is destroying the "serious and rational public conversation" that was sustained for centuries by the printing press.

Postman was a progressive, a liberal but in the classic sense and he foresaw the dangers that faced American culture due to manipulation of our news/information providers.

There is no doubt that much of what we see in the MSM is outright manipulation. This is presented through journalism schools as "Advocacy Journalism." Definition:

Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that, unlike propaganda, is fact-based, but supports a specific point of view on an issue.

IMHO advocacy journalism accomplishes the exact same purpose as propaganda. It is more insidious and due to the dumbing down of the population, more effective. Out and out lies can be exposed for what they are, but fact-based manipulation just leads to arguments and division.