Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
AN interview by the BBC with Elon Musk has been going around since last month. In it the BBC tech reporter predictably raised fake news and disinformation with the new owner of Twitter. But when pressed for specifics — just one example — the journalist twisted and turned but was at a loss for words. "You just lied," Musk politely said. It was a gotcha moment, but this time it was the journalist that fumbled before an intrepid interviewee.
What was the lie? It was in the use of sweeping, fear labels like "fake news" and "disinformation" to demolish anything that does not fit into one's narrative. These words have been casually thrown around, rarely with proof or evidence that they've become meaningless. Fear-labeling is not new. To be called a heretic in medieval times could get one burned at the stake. In the "Red Scare" of the 1950s, many actors and writers were blacklisted in Hollywood, among them the future US President Ronald Reagan. In Mao's China, university professors and even loyal Communist Party officials, denounced for being "counter-revolutionaries," lost their jobs or worse, were thrown in prison. The fearmongering, as we can see, runs across all political lines.
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