What is fake news other than yellow journalism?

Yellow journalism seems to have seen a giant uptick with the advent of the Internet – click bait and what not. But there is something insidious behind it all. Click bait, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily bad as it’s nothing more than clever copywriting. What I’m talking about is a shift in the consumer rather than the producer.

Along with yellow journalism, we, as a culture, have also lost sight of caveat emptor. Caveat emptor is the sworn enemy of yellow journalism (along with con men and their ilk). It appears to me that far too many of us have been guilty of trading caveat emptor for hook-line-and-sinker, at least on some occasion.

Yellow journalism/fake news will always be present as long as we have media and news outlets. It is unwise to hope that it can be eliminated. Yet we, as consumers, can choose to be responsible for digging deeper and not allowing emotion or self-righteous inclinations to get in the way.

Sure, that sounds a bit preachy, but we would love for those on the other side of the divide – be it religious, political, or otherwise – to be equally cautious, assuming we are cautious ourselves.