Did Media Literacy Backfire?
In many ways, this fake news* epidemic feels like the early days of spam&#x2F;phishing emails.  The news that has problems are like marketing emails:  There&#x27;s a valid question about the level of legitimacy we should afford them, but they&#x27;re not the same as &quot;sEXy MILfS SeLL1ng V1AGrA&quot;.<p>I disagree with the article that media literacy was the problem.  Quite the opposite, the lack of media literacy necessary to manage a flood of new information in the internet age is how we got here.<p>And like spam&#x2F;phishing emails, which managed to rope in even otherwise intelligent, logical people before they knew what it was, we&#x27;re going to have a painful adjustment period.  And some people will never quite get the memo.<p>* <i>When I say fake news, I&#x27;m not talking about stuff you disagree with, or poorly reported news or even sensationalist headlines.  That&#x27;s a different conversation. I&#x27;m talking about stuff that is made up from whole cloth. Stories like Trump personally rescuing 200 stranded marines with his private plane in Desert Storm.  There is not an ounce of truth to that, and is not based on any verifiable facts.  Yet it was one of the top viral stories of 2016.</i>