From: "Sowards, Steve" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2016 13:40:38 +0000 It's going to be hard for future historians to understand what happened in politics in 2016 if no one preserves the stream of "fake news". It's a primary source, and clearly was influential in the debates around the election, and possibly for the outcome. As usual, though, preserving social media news is a challenge, regardless of content. Steven Sowards Associate Director for Collections Michigan State University Libraries East Lansing MI 48824 -----Original Message----- From: Susan Lafferty <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2016 23:03:28 +0000 Hi everyone, Just because we respect some journalists and news outlets and not others doesn’t mean we have a role in deciding what is fact and what is fiction. If we choose to preserve 'real news' and not 'fake news' we do a disservice to those outlets that don't toe the line and to readers who believe those outlets. Do we have a right to preserve only our own reality? I think not. · Think of how inaccurate the reporting was with regard to polls in the recent US elections - that reporting was 'fake news' too. · What about all the reporting of WMDs in Iraq? Are we preserving the outlets that challenged this ‘real news’? · Think of all the conspiracy theories about JFK - now some of them appear to hold some truth... · In previous generations, censorship and misinformation have been utilised in mainstream media for ‘national security’ purposes · In previous generations, McCarthyism was given a voice in mainstream media. · In previous generations minorities had NO voice in mainstream media. · What about when Oliver Cromwell was the good guy? (see? some of you will say he still is, others won’t) Left and right wing ‘rags’ and rubbish magazines tell us the truth sometimes when we don’t want to hear it. Someone needs to preserve them too. We have a responsibility to preserve 'fake news' as sources of research for future generations. If not, we run the risk of increasing the bias of preserved knowledge available to them. Just like my Japanese friend was never taught anything about WWII in school… Let those future generations decide for themselves, in hindsight, what was true and what was fake, by giving them the whole picture. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg could continue to rely on the Facebook community to decry ‘false news’ and concentrate on weeding out bullies. Respectfully, Susan Lafferty