Oremus comes off somewhat agnostic on this question, merely warning at the end that BuzzFeed’s approach might “backfire.” But it makes for an interesting contrast to the outrage against Facebook for merely allowing its users to share dubious news stories, for which crime it has to bring back the old mainstream media “fact-checkers” to serve as gatekeepers for all of Facebook’s millions of users. Yet when BuzzFeed promotes news that may very well be fake—well, hey, you don’t expect them to be like old media gatekeepers, do you?
Actually, I do expect them to be like the old media gatekeepers—exactly like them, like the actual reality of their practice, not their idealized self-image. We expect them to have the same attitude as Rather and the New York Times all those years ago. Fake news is really bad, unless it’s about someone we hate.
I’m absolutely certain, based on the experience of the past year, that the same holds true for a lot of Trump’s supporters: they think fake news is bad, except when it’s about someone they hate. So I’m going to resist the temptation to take sides with Trump because the people who oppose him are so completely despicable. But there are moments when I sure can understand that temptation.
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