• Curren and Thompson

Fools' Day News

In the past, a popular April Fools’ Day practice was to generate fake news. Some newspapers, magazines, and other published media report false stories, which they then would retract the next day. Wikipedia tell us (another questionable source) that “when genuine news is published on April Fools' Day, it is occasionally misinterpreted as a joke…. On the other hand, sometimes stories intended as jokes are taken seriously. Either way, there can be adverse effects, such as confusion and misinformation, (especially when the hoax concerns people in danger), and even legal consequences. In a time of fake news as well as weird and wonderful real news, you'd be forgiven for thinking some of these were real.

Rachel Thompson of Mashable/UK, suggests that we should do away with April Fool’s day because we are living it every day. She suggests:

1. Fake news lacks disclaimers these days.

2. We need to constantly be alert and tax our brains to discern the difference between fake and real. (As if we did not have enough to do just filtering Internet news as it is.)

3. Some April Fools' Day corporate jokes can be just plain humiliating.

4. To add to the insanity, fake news is gaining more attention than real news. (Another fad for those bored 20-somethings perhaps?)

5. Someone may finally believe a fake news report, not check their sources, and blow something up. (As if we don’t have enough of that already.)

Rachel wants April Fools’ Day done away with, so we don’t add to the outrageous fake news problem out there. I simply have to agree. How about you?

#ApirlFools #FakeNews


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