By Cory Vaillancourt • Fake News Editor | When I started writing this yearly feature five years ago, it was intended to highlight the then-emerging phenomenon now known as fake news. I thought that 2016 column would be a one-off, a satisfying way to blow off some steam and play with some local news stories in the same fashion as revered satirical outlet The Onion.
Boy was I wrong, and there’s only one person to thank for the five-year anniversary of the Fake News Freakout — Donald John Trump.
Trump has done more to promulgate the concept of fake news more than possibly anyone, both through his denigration of real news that he deems fake news, and his promotion of actual fake news that he believes is real.