When did, people start even using fake news to influence people’s
opinions? This is a question that I thought of during a recent lecture about
what our next blog post should be about. We are supposed to be writing about
global fake news and go overseas but I had something different in mind. History
has been something I have always enjoyed so I thought to myself, asking when
were people using fake news…
One quite important event that happened in U.S. history is
the Presidential election between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson in a
course text book Cengage Advantage Books: Making America: A History of theUnited States. These two men held one intense election. Adams called Jackson a
murderer and went as far as creating posters of Jackson standing by the six
graves of the men he “murdered.” It would seem that Adams got a little
information about Jackson and changed it so sway the public, what actually
happened was the men were executed for desertion during the War of 1812.
Another event that was of great significant was The
Lincoln-Douglas Debate of 1858, there is a great documentary from History about his very debate. The debate wasn’t even for president but it was for
senator. Fredric Douglas called Abraham Lincoln a nigger lover in order to sway
the crowds. This was a huge blow to Lincoln and is an example of how “Fake
News” has effected someone greatly and before some comments, bashing what I
just said, I do know that after that was said Lincoln corrected Douglas winning
the crowd but his isn’t a history lesson just examples of the past using “Fake
News.”
What brought this to my attention though was this most
recent election between President Trump and Hilary. They both fought greatly
and made some strong accusations about the other. No doubt they both had their
faults but neither has come right out to face any of them. This brings forth
the point of a misleading government and makes one question even more, whether
the information they are reseaving is correct
Now that that this has been said a question for the reader,
have we changed and learned from the past or has it gotten worse?
In paragraph two you have some very interesting information on U.S. history. What's your source? And is political mudslinging fake news? I think you're on to something--it is, especially when it comes from what we would usually consider a "trustworthy source." A way to expand this post is to compare these older events to similar modern ones and show how with the advent of technology--the news spreads almost instantaneously.
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