Inside the business of fake news

Did you know that Muslims were ordered to vote for Hillary Clinton? Or that President Obama told undocumented Latinos they could vote and “will never get caught if they do?” Or did you know that the Clintons had a role in the plane crash that killed JFK, Jr? These are fake news stories, of course, but they got millions of hits on Facebook and elsewhere. These stories weren’t put out by Russians or anonymous writers making a buck from the frenzy of the presidential election. They were put out by media empires owned by people with close ties to the Donald Trump campaign.