In the aftermath of the twin shocks of 2016—Brexit on one side of the Atlantic, Donald Trump on the other—many in the media identified “fake news” as the culprit and as one of the emergent evils of the modern world. It was invoked the way terrorism was after 9/11: shadowy, stateless, destabilizing. It's no surprise that, by June 2019, 50 percent of Americans viewed it as a bigger threat than terrorism, with 70 percent saying that it was greatly affecting trust in government institutions.
“Fake news,” of course, has led a double life. The term describes the spread of disinformation by Russian troll farms. It is also one of Donald Trump's favorite phrases, which he barks at the reporters who document his corrupt administration. Charges of fake news once discredited figures like Trump—if the election that brought him to power was tainted by bots slinging propaganda, he cannot be a legitimate president—but they are also now used to discredit news organizations trying to hold the powerful accountable.
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