What will history have to say about 'fake news'

A story that attracted little attention a couple of weeks ago struck a nerve with me.

The story revived the theory the U.S. space program — the trips to the moon in particular — was concocted. The recent story was based on some tiny detail offered as convincing evidence. Most of you probably didn’t even see the story, so you can see how important this “evidence” was.

Today, of course, we simply put such a story in the “fake news” bin, and that’s that.

Fake news has been around forever. In ages past, we might have called fake news “gossip” or “unsubstantiated assertion” or “lies.”

The big argument about fake news is this: Is bad information disseminated purposefully, errantly or with total disregard for its validity?

Take the U.S. space program, for example. If it’s true we staged all those moonshot episodes, that’s fake news of the worst kind.

For nearly half a century, it has irked my wife I won’t admit the moon landings were real. I’d certainly like to think our government, our space engineers, our astronauts and the thousands and thousands of others who have direct knowledge — the real story — about the space program have been telling the truth all this time. But, as with everything else, there is always that nagging instinct that says, “What if … “

Which means we’re back, possibly, to unsubstantiated assertions or outright lies.

I know some well-intended folks put claims about a fake space program in the same category as those who still insist President Obama is not a U.S. citizen because he was born — they say — in Kenya, the ancestral home of the president’s father.

I don’t buy that assertion, because I’ve seen a copy of Obama’s birth certificate that says he was born in Hawaii. What I’ve seen looks as real as any birth certificate I’ve ever laid eyes on.

You know what I haven’t seen? I haven’t seen President Trump’s birth certificate. Where was he born?

That might explain why we haven’t seen Trump’s tax returns. If he’s not a U.S. citizen — let’s say he’s Irish — he might be filing tax returns in Ireland. See the problem? We’ve been clamoring for his U.S. tax returns, when we should have been demanding his Irish documents.

How did we miss that?

There’s another serious category of news that’s being labeled “fake news” by the individuals involved. This category has to do with the wave of assertions prominent men have engaged in unwanted sexual activity and harassment. Many of the accused men have acknowledged their transgressions. Others have been less forthcoming.

Only a handful claim the sex charges are fake news. You know who they are.

Do you believe them?

History books will, certainly, list the deeds of the U.S. space program among the greatest events of the 20th century. We will always have the eight-year presidency of Barack Obama to study in our history classes. One day, we may even get a peek at President Trump’s tax returns — the real ones, wherever they are.

And history will have to deal with this era of revelations of sexual misconduct by men in power. For the most part, those who have been accused have lost their positions of authority and their good names.

History, too, may wonder in years to come how a handful of politicians managed to survive the onslaught of accusations by merely claiming they were “fake news.”

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.