On Wednesday, Donald Trump once again lashed out at the media with a scathing article about 16  fake news  stories that have been published since Trump became President*.'16 Fake News Stories Reporters Have Run Since Trump Won' https://t.co/0dHld5kiVc  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017The site featuring the list, The Federalist, is a known purveyor of right-wing hoaxes and is about as reliable as Betsy DeVos in any of the many bear attacks that occur in our schools year-round, but Trump saw a headline he liked and tweeted it out because, to him, fact-checking is a waste of time. Besides, Trump is in the middle of the largest anti-media campaign since Adolf Hitler went out of his way to discredit the media to allow him to more effectively consolidate power   and this article aids that goal nicely:We are in the midst of an epidemic of fake news. There is no better word to describe it than  epidemic,  insofar as it fits the epidemiological model from the Centers for Disease Control: this phenomenon occurs when  an agent and susceptible hosts are present in adequate numbers, and the agent can be effectively conveyed from a source to the susceptible hosts. The  agent  in this case is hysteria over Trump s presidency, and the  susceptible hosts  are a slipshod, reckless, and breathtakingly gullible media class that spread the hysteria around like well, like a virus.It is difficult to adequately sum up the breadth of this epidemic, chiefly because it keeps growing: day after day, even hour after hour, the media continue to broadcast, spread, promulgate, publicize, and promote fake news on an industrial scale. It has become a regular part of our news cycle, not distinct from or extraneous to it but a part of it, embedded within the news apparatus as a spoke is embedded in a bicycle wheel.Whenever you turn on a news station, visit a news website, or check in on a journalist or media personality on Twitter or Facebook, there is an excellent chance you will be exposed to fake news. It is rapidly becoming an accepted part of the way the American media are run.The list that follows, unsurprisingly, contains stories with mostly minor errors that were all corrected quickly because that s how it works when initial reporting is incorrect. Others are simply stuff Donald Trump has done that The Federalist elected to simply say are  fake news    like his threat to send troops into Mexico, Trump s decision to ease sanctions on Russia, and the GOP rolling back Obama-era regulations that prevent the mentally ill from owning guns.Fortunately, not everyone is as stupid as Trump s followers and The Donald was quickly called out for sharing this list from such a disreputable source:Oh for Pete s sake. NOT ONE of these supposedly  fake  stories is actual  fake news.  @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/2YK4REIMUG  Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump #theresistance pic.twitter.com/bP7iJr6HkZ  #TheResistance (@AynRandPaulRyan) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump @FDRLST pic.twitter.com/NueWae3hdZ  paladine (@paladine) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump @FDRLST pic.twitter.com/ua6D83VATz  paladine (@paladine) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump hey here's someone from YOUR team being mocked on uk tv for dishing out FAKE NEWS,practice what you preach & DO SOME WORK?? pic.twitter.com/KhyDqiILWs  Darius Syrossian (@DariusSyrossian) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump @FDRLST well, 17 if you include this bullshit list.  Benjamin Byron Davis (@Tooda) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump oh my god you're embarrassing.  Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump The head honcho at this site is a known plagiarist. Try harder. https://t.co/CGKbfWhhWI  Brenna Ehrlich (@BrennaEhrlich) February 8, 2017. @realDonaldTrump POTUS complaining about fake news from a fake news website. Fakenewsception? Trademark it. Lots of money for you there.  Elie. (@eliefares) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump @FDRLST None of them are fake stories. They're stories with errors that were corrected. That's very different.  (((Punch Nazis))) (@esjacobs) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump @FDRLST I hadn't heard of any of these stories. They are all obscure news stories that YOUR ADMINISTRATION has promoted.  Kristina Wong   (@mskristinawong) February 8, 2017More #FakeNews from the #SoCalledPresident: @realDonaldTrump wrong that media is not reporting on terrorism any more https://t.co/MIy0wzEIa2 pic.twitter.com/6V531eRLpR  Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) February 8, 2017@realDonaldTrump Bowling Green Massacre and Alternative Facts dude. YOU are the number one source for bullsh*t.  Tommy Campbell (@MrTommyCampbell) February 8, 2017Though he says the phrase a lot, even Trump likely doesn t actually believe the things he falsely calls  fake news  are fake news. Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, explained Monday that the administration will keep using the term until the media realizes they are wrong for attacking Trump with facts. There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term,  he says. That s how unhealthy the situation is and until the media understands how wrong that attitude is, and how it hurts their credibility, we are going to continue to say,  fake news . Gorka is a former editor for white supremacist propaganda website Breitbart, which President Steve Bannon used to run.Yes, fake news exists. You usually see it on sites like nbc.com.co.qwdsff4wf.org. But none of these stories, even the ones with errors, earn that classification. What does qualify as  fake news  is President Asterisk s claim that President Obama was born in Kenya, that millions voted illegally for his opponent, and that anyone who disagrees with Donald Trump or says anything unflattering about him is pushing  fake news. Resist.Read more:Featured image via Getty Images (XXX)/screengrab