Keller @ Large: Fake News - The Real Kind - Dies Hard
BOSTON (CBS) -- Fake news - the real thing, not the real-news-we-don't-like kind - dies hard. Especially in an era when so many don't distinguish between real news and what they see on Facebook, Twitter or pretend news sites.
Witness the emails we've been getting from folks repeating a long-disproven falsehood about the late Sen. John McCain.
Here's one from a viewer who disparages McCain based on an old, persistent smear about his actions as a young Navy fighter pilot on board the USS Forrestal in July 1967 when it suffered the the worst aircraft carrier disaster in US history.
"He crashed three planes in a fit of rage [and] exited his cockpit to see why he had to wait to take off on a bombing mission," writes one viewer. "In his haste he hit the release dropping his live bombs on the deck and then ran."
But according to the official Navy report on the incident - which found poorly-maintained equipment at fault - and extensive fact-checking by websites including truthorfiction.com, Politifact, Factcheck.org, and Snopes - none of that is true.
That hasn't stopped right-wing websites from repeating those lies, echoed yesterday in another viewer email: "He was responsible for the deaths of so many sailors aboard his aircraft carrier," because McCain presumably ignited the blaze with a grandstanding "wet start," a claim the Navy dismissed as preposterous.
The smear fits neatly into the narrative that McCain was mentally unbalanced, before and after his years as a POW. It was peddled aggressively when McCain ran for president in 2000 and 2008.
And in this internet-fueled era of manipulation, deceit and gullibility it has survived its victim.
We forwarded the fact-checkers' rebuttals debunking this smear to the folks who repeated it in their emails asking if it changes their view at all. None have responded.
But let's face it, it's not about the truth for some people.
It's about cementing your own biases and grievances with whatever mud you can skim off the web.