All the News That's Fit to Fake, Or, Conservatives Are More Profitable

Two influential people were reported by NPR dead today, Hugh Hefner and Paul Horner.  Hugh and who? I confess that I had not been following the fake news leads as closely, either. Many of them came from Paul Horner and his website "National Report," who had creatively alleged that protesters against Donald Trump were paid and even put up a fake Craigslist ad to back his story up. His object was two-fold, to "educate" people and to make about $10,000/mo on Google ads on the website. Such business acumen has unintended consequences. He regretted being instrumental in getting Trump elected.

"I hate Trump," he said. But he targeted conservatives with his stories because he found it was more profitable....

"I mean that's how this always works: Someone posts something I write, then they find out it's false, then they look like idiots," he told the Post. "But Trump supporters — they just keep running with it! They never fact-check anything! Now he's in the White House. Looking back, instead of hurting the campaign, I think I helped it."  

We have long known that being liberal is a losing proposition.  It costs money to have a social net and requires sacrifice to be "fair" and "equitable." And, most social liberals like me don't have time to troll strangers' websites and pass along news -- fake or otherwise or become one of the thousands which help make something go viral, probably because we don't have time to fact-check. Liberals are either too shrill or too shy and don't have the social skills or temperament to host talk shows meant to present only one side or debates in which the inevitable conservative view trumps (pun intended?). Even those really shrill ultra-conservative radio talk shows were hosted by people who may not have had such extreme views but knew on which side their bread was buttered and also pragmatically know (unlike the staunch liberals with honorable values) that it doesn't matter whether you eat the slice right-side up or not, you still get both the bread and the butter. Staunch liberals with honorable values would rather not eat the bread, even if they can't see the butter on the other side of it.

R.I.P. Paul Horner, but I doubt it'll be the end of fake news.