Fake News

One of the greatest beneficiaries of fake new last election was Donald Trump as the vast amount of the fake stuff was directed at the Clintons.

In fact he is a firm believer in some of the fake stuff and propagates it himself in tweets about celebrations that never happened, guilty rapists and other things.

Certainly some of the fake news was directed at him, my impression was to a much smaller extent than the other side, but I don't know if there is anyone actually measuring it. 

Of course now he has become the biggest target and problematically is probably a riper target than the Clintons ever were.

Also problematically he has a very thin skin.

We are most likely going to see him actually encourage more fake news because he will react to it.

The people who publish this stuff have various motivations.

One is of course to get "clicks" which lead to revenue.

When the target of the fake news denounces you, people go to your site to see what was published.

So responding to this stuff is sort of self defeating.

Ignoring it has some risks also.  The American public, or at least a significant portion of it, is incredibly gullible.

People say things to me that are demonstrably false and have been debunked many times, but they read it on the web and just believe it.

Of course Trump is actually one of those people.  He sees the fake news published about him, but believes the worst stories about everyone else, or at least plays along.

Whether he is deceitful or gullible is the unanswered question, but I suspect a little of both.

It going to be a rocky ride followed by a crash and burn folks.

Fasten your seat belts.