The History of Fake News

Robert Love writes about the tradition of “fake news” in the current issue of the Columbia Journalism Review here. As he notes, Jon Stewart fits along a continuum of folks who bring us what purports to be reportage. Stewart and his buddy Stephen Colbert at least let us know they are parodists and the news they “report” is either wildly exaggerated or complely invented. But, as Mr. Love points out, what about others engaged in the reporting of biased or fabricated news? What about those who have an undisclosed conflict of interest in the news they report?