Just how harmful could one little fib be? (Caught in Lies)

I wonder all of the time whether or not the news I am seeing and hearing is factually correct or in some cases completely made up. If I read a news article that I simply can not imagine to be true I like to dig a little deeper and see if it is true or not. Unfortunately most people nowadays are getting all of their news and information from Facebook, which is one of if not the worst place in the world to get your information. I have lost count of how many times someone has shared a Manatee or Onion article thinking it is true, even though these websites are 100% satirical news. I was completely blown away by how many people thought that “The Walking Dead” was seriously going to film in Moncton or that the Maritimes was going to be getting a NHL team. What’s worse than this is that so many people get all of their facts from Facebook which during the presidential race was annoying as hell as Facebook is arguably extremely heavy in left wing political opinions. I by no means believe that Trump is a good man or should have won but the amount of videos that stated Trump was the next Hitler was getting out of hand. On the other hand Trump is one of the worst offenders for false information, saying whatever he wants to about just about every topic imaginable. One of my least favorite “if it’s on the internet it must be true” moments was when everyone, and I mean everyone, shared that stupid status on Facebook about how by posting it they were withdrawing their consent from Facebook to use any of their photos or intellectual property. This was obviously fake as you have to agree to a terms and agreements before ever using Facebook, just because you say something it doesn’t instantly make it so.

The two articles honestly didn’t surprise me all that much, I assumed someone would have made up a story or two by now. The “Jimmy’s World” one wasn’t that bad as even though “Jimmy” himself didn’t exist the story still shed light on a very real problem that inner cities face. It is too bad that the reporter had to fabricate a story about it to get attention drawn to the heroin epidemic but it could have been an award winning, false story that swayed public opinion towards thinking Mexicans were the reason the US economy was declining. The reporter didn’t give any false information or facts, just fabricated a heart wrenching story about a young boy named Jimmy. The article about Harper not taking communion was stupid to begin with, my biggest problem with it is why does anyone care whether or not Harper did or did not put the piece of bread into his pocket?! I am a Christian and I know that you are supposed to eat it then and there when you receive communion but Harper’s religious beliefs are none of mine, or anyone else’s business.

I actually do agree with Shafer’s statement simply because I know from personal experience. I don’t know how many times I’ve been required to write about a moment in my life for an essay and to be honest there are no moments in my life that I can write an entire story about that are school appropriate. I’m sure if I was a better writer I may have been able to make an interesting story about the time my family went to Boston or we went on a road trip to someplace but I’m not so the next easiest thing is to add details that never happened. I wrote the same story about a trip my family went on during march break up to a friends camp every time I was required to write an essay about a moment in my life ever since middle school. I had an amazing time while we were there but it mostly consisted of riding around on snowmobiles and playing cards which is hard to write about, so I would fabricate some details about the trip. Every good author has probably stretched the truth a little to get a good story. I do not think there is much colleges and universities can do to graduate students who can handle the stress and responsibilities other than make their courses harder.

I think that an ombudsman should come into the mix once so many complaints or questions arise about the authenticity of the article or newspaper in question. One thing that we definitely want is truth in journalism or else the entire population will be worse than a herd of sheep, believing everything they’re told and following the flock to whatever lies that they are being told.