This is not about the triple option or triple threat in American football.  Instead, this is my third post on the subject of fake news.  In addition to those past posts,  I have written elsewhere about the unreliability of traditional news sources and the malevolent effects of inaccurate reporting in social media.  It’s a sad commentary on the times in which we live.

Recently, Pope Francis also expressed his distress about fake news.  I quote him as follows:

“In the name of God, I ask the technology giants to stop exploiting human weakness, people’s vulnerability, for the sake of profits without caring about the spread of hate speech, grooming, fake news, conspiracy theories, and political manipulation.”

Of course, it seems obvious that the Pope is referring principally to Facebook, Twitter, and other unregulated social media platforms that have proliferated in recent years; but they are not the only problem.  So-called mainstream news programs and their less-well known competitors (both conservative and liberal) are perhaps just as much to blame for the misinformation or lack of information that plagues average citizens as they search for truth.  Station managers, editors and reporters often decide to pump or suppress a story based on their own political or social opinions.  I have seen instances of this on numerous occasions, and it appears to be getting worse. The Kyle Rittenhouse affair is an excellent example. The young man was convicted by mainstream reporters long before his case came to trial, and they had many critical details absolutely wrong. Also recall the despicable and false attacks on the young Nicholas Sandmann, Covington High School student. Commentators at CNN, MsNBC and and writers at the New York Times should hang their heads in shame.

I recently finished reading Rigged, Mollie Hemingway’s account of how political operatives sought to influence to 2020 Presidential election by using the Covid pandemic to mask critical changes to election laws, getting control of electoral machinery in certain key districts, and otherwise tampering with the process of choosing our political leaders.  To some extent, that sort of tampering has taken place in every American election over the life of the Republic, but never on the scale of 2020.  Although Hemingway hesitates to charge specific instances of deliberate election fraud, believing it difficult to prove, I am convinced that there was more than enough of it to change the election outcome.

But the most alarming part of Hemmingway’s story is her description of how mainstream media, including ABC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, MsNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the highly respected and supposedly neutral National Public Radio collectively sat on conclusive evidence of the Biden family’s corrupt activities in China and the Ukraine.  They even labeled the Biden story Russian disinformation, which was a blatant lie without any foundation in fact.  Their burning desire to drive Donald Trump out of office outweighed any remaining shreds of journalistic integrity.

If the truth had been known, even allowing for election skullduggery, Biden would never have been elected as President of the United States.