In the fall 2017 issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, I came across some pithy wisdom from Janine Gibson, editor in chief of BuzzFeed UK. She worked at The Guardian for 17 years, overseeing its U.S. edition. That paper won a Pulitzer prize for its reporting of the Edward Snowden leaks on NSA surveillance.
The periodical is busily analyzing what they call “the Trump effect.” That’s plenty of grist for the mill.
Countering charges of “fake news” is tricky, difficult, not-very-rewarding work. Says Gibson: “We can force change by piling on where our rivals have proved wrongdoing, instead of knocking it down in case it beats to an award.”
I love her parenthetical thought here: “(We could also stop publishing all our stories at the same time of year to increase our chances.)”
She continues: “And we’re going to have to stop politely ignoring the false news and then inviting its purveyors onto news programs ‘to provide balance.’ Two extremists shouting at each other in the name of news is what got us into this mess. Because how we find the news is a question for all time, with a billion answers. Where the news gets published isn’t really in our hands, But, what it is? What we amplify? What we report. That’s on us.”
I think there’s another dimension, too. In an age in which “news” and “opinion” is nearly instantaneously published on social media, I wonder if the “news consumer” has the patience to sift sources before passing on the tidbits thrown our way. It’s so much more exciting to pass on a hot tip or a particularly ripe piece of opinion than to be patient, evaluate and test our sources.
It’s important that the youth of today grapple with these questions. Without an aware public, the democratic experiment is deeply endangered.
There's more than one way to real 
This is the sentence that caught me: “Two extremists shouting at each other in the name of news is what got us into this mess.” In truth, the shouting began long before Buzzfeed, or Twitter, or Facebook. I remember precisely who it was who started the shouting — Chris Matthews — and I remember precisely why I turned off (and then got rid of) the televisions. I have no taste for that sort of thing, and it’s only gotten worse. In fact, it’s so bad at this point that I find myself uncertain we’ll ever get out of it.
I used to worry that I’d die before my cat, and she wouldn’t have someone to care for her. Now, I worry that I won’t die before the country is destroyed.