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Saturday, October 03, 2020

HOW TO GENERATE FAKE NEWS BY FRANK J. FLEMING

 TIPS FOR MAKING FAKE NEWS

Include real details. One of the important features of fake news is that it sounds real. That means you include details that are true. For instance, let’s say you start an article this way:


President Trump today set fire to a…


People will read that and say to themselves, “The president is Trump! This could be a real story!”


Or if you start a story with:


Today in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, escaped llamas...


People will google that and say, “Hey, Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States. The rest of this story could be true as well!”


But if you get a detail wrong that people know, that could ruin the whole ruse. For example, if you wrote:


Boron, which has a melting point of 2,113 degrees Kelvin…


Someone could say, “Hey, Boron has a melting point of 2,349 degrees Kelvin! What is this guy trying to pull? Maybe the rest of this article about Russians putting a mind-control device in Kamala Harris is wrong as well.”


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