"Fake news" has been a buzzword for the past year, but now more than ever. And as you may have spotted some top political figures (cough, cough) using the phrase, it's most often applied to de-legitimatize information they either want to object or simply dislike.
The most recent group to join the fake news movement is the government of Russia — a country that isn't exactly praised for its impartial media.
This week, Russia launched a website used to expose western media outlets for falsifying information about the country. But unlike similar sites and programs, which analyze a piece of news they deem fake and give explanations on why the facts do not support the article, the Russian government simply adorns articles with an obnoxious, red stamp with the word “FAKE” in all-caps and provides a one-sentence rebuke of the article without actually providing any substantial argument of objection.
Articles on the website include:
- A Bloomberg piece on Russian computer hacking
- An NBC News article on the return of Snowden to the U.S.
- A Daily Telegraph story on Russia's involvement in an assassination plot
Their tagline of rebuttal is the same across all articles, citing that the information in the piece "does not correspond with reality." So, a red "FAKE" stamp and a uniform sentence of objection... yep, that's all there is.