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    Back to To the Point

    To the Point

    The way forward in a post-truth world

    Fake news isn't new. It's about as old as news itself. What is new is the speed and potency of fake news in the age of social media, and the way in which it figured in this year's election.

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    By Warren Olney • Dec 22, 2016 • 1 min read

    Fake news isn't new. It's about as old as news itself. What is new is the speed and potency of fake news in the age of social media, and the way in which it figured in this year's election. From stories about Hillary Clinton selling weapons to ISIS to claims by the President-elect that he won the popular vote… sensational and poisonous stories have spread rapid fire on Facebook and Twitter, helped along by ad sales and algorithms that propel fake news to the top of pack, occasionally with violent results. How damaging is fake news to democracy, and what role do mainstream media outlets as well as technology companies play in defusing it?

    The full episode

    2 of 3
    The year in (fake) news
    1. 1:21Egypt postpones UN resolution on settlements
    2. 7:55The way forward in a post-truth worldYou’re reading this
    3. 39:38The research behind our horrible decision-making
    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Warren Olney

      former KCRW broadcaster

    • KCRW placeholder

      Paul von Zielbauer

      Co-founder of Geezer magazine, former producer for To the Point and Which Way LA?; former reporter for the New York Times

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Gideon Brower

      Independent Producer

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Evan George

      Director of Content, News

    • KCRW placeholder

      James Fallows

      Atlantic

    • KCRW placeholder

      Rebecca Blumenstein

      Wall Street Journal

    • KCRW placeholder

      Nicole Hemmer

      author of “Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s”

      NewsNationalPolitics

    The full episode

    2 of 3
    The year in (fake) news
    1. 1:21Egypt postpones UN resolution on settlements
    2. 7:55The way forward in a post-truth worldYou’re reading this
    3. 39:38The research behind our horrible decision-making
    Back to To the Point