22/02/17 - Fact-checkers are weapons in the post-truth wars, but they're not all on one side

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/feb/15/fact-checkers-are-weapons-in-the-post-truth-wars-but-theyre-not-all-on-one-side

The article focuses on the recent controversial topic of Fake news and how one of the biggest initiative to battle this has been to set up "fact checkers". These fact checkers aim to find reports with less then viable sources and debunk false claims or exaggerated narratives. However, the article specifically focuses on the fact that although fact checking is a huge part of the war against fake news, it is easily going to get manipulated by those in power in order to push across their own specific agendas that either regect alt-right or left-wing views depending on their own bias. This is not at all what fact checking is aimed to be, in the case of "Fact Checking Turkey" it has been consistently making reports that support the Turkish governement under the guise of "fact checking".

• "journalism has to get better at spreading facts; at making its case and showing people what is really going on"
• US non-profit Media Matters put out a warning to European fact checkers that conservative outlets would attempt to discredit them with attacks on their independence, impartiality and the backgrounds of their staffers
• US president, Donald Trump, calls news organisations and reporters he doesn’t like “fake news”, so outlets with a reckless approach to the truth will hit back by attacking the fact checker, not the fact.

Personally, I had known for a long time that this was going to happen. The people in power have been up in arms about this issue for a really long time purely for the fact that I believe fake news is taking away their power. However, with the intention to fight back at fake news, they are using their good intentions with the guise of pushing their own biased agenda. This is something that is incredibly worrying and also interesting to note as the majority of people that are worried about fake news are those in power. Why aren't young people up in arms about this issue? Surely because we are the digital generation we should be caring about this issue? The fact of the matter is, we're so much better at filtering false information on the internet rather than the older generation that we do not see this as a huge issue that will affect our generation.