INTERNET — This past election cycle, a particularly contentious topic has been fake news sites, websites that intentionally provide misinformation to gullible readers on social media. Up until now, writing for a fake news site was quite easy, but reports of an increasingly cautious public has led bogus news writers to question whether they will soon be left without a readership, and wondering who to trust.
“Before, all I had to do was make sure that whatever I was writing was definitely not true,” said Meghan Donaghue, a writer for govSERFs.ne. “Sometimes I’d write something true by accident, and my editors would get angry, but for the most part, it was a pretty easy gig. Somehow, I was making money from this, but it wasn’t until I saw a story on CNN about how purveyors of fake news are in trouble that I began to be unsure about my prospects.”
Some have argued that these sites actually had a tangible impact on misinforming particularly stupid voters. Critics of the practice have petitioned to crack down on distribution of these websites, including “bankersAreBadAndThatIsMyOpinionNotNews.info” and “reallyReallyFakeNews.com”. Donahue and other writers for the websites are unsure whether to trust this new development from potentially fake sites like “BBC.com” and “CNN.com.”
“Who knows what their agenda is?” Donaghue said. “Cable News Network? Really? That sounds pretty contrived, if you ask me. Until the news shows up on LyingNewsOnly.org, I think I’m going to work on Monday.”
