News Distortion: The New Fake News
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Philip M. Napoli is the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy and the Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.
Brendan Carr, Chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission, gestures during an address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on March 3, 2025. (Photo by LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images)
Tenyearsago,theterm“fakenews”explodedintotheAmericanlexicon.Thetermmeantdifferentthingstodifferentpeople,butmostimportantly—andmostdestructively—itbecameawayforcandidateDonaldTrumpand,later,PresidentDonaldTrumptodismissanddiscreditunfavorablereporting.WhenTrumpdeclaredanewsreporttobefakenews,hissupportersinevitablyagreed,withthetruth-tellingfunctionofjournalismdramaticallyundercutasaresult.“Fakenews”becamearhetoricaltoolfordelegitimizingjournalismamongstalargeswathoftheelectorate.
GiventhepoliticalvalueofthefakenewsconceptforthefirstTrumpadministration,itshouldcomeasnosurprisethatthesecondTrumpadministrationhasfig
