What is fake news?

Fake news is news that is not factually true. Sometimes this involves creating news stories out of thin air. Sometimes this involves taking a news story and reporting on wild hypotheses about the story that turned out to be based more in neurotic fear or Propaganda.

Parodies are a form of intentional fake news. While the most well known is "The Onion," there are a variety of fake news sites for humor purposes. Often times, especially in comedy, real news is mixed with fake news. Examples include Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.

During the 2016 Presidential Election, Donald Trump was famous for blasting media about fake news, which generally turned out to be true news and accompanying opinions that were unfavorable to him. In that sense, Trump successfully conflated "biased news" with "fake news" to many Americans, when they are very different things.

It is important to distinguish the facts from opinion. Many news shows, particularly 24-hour news shows are forced to offer both, as there just isn't enough news for a 24-hour news cycle without having boring repetition. Opinions, even wrong, does not necessarily make a show "fake news."