It is a term I loathe.
And one I get accused of all the time.
Fake News.
So what is it doing on today's front page?
Well, because in this case, it fits.
Fake News has been the calling card of President Trump and his followers, convinced that the media has it in for him.
It has filtered down the local journalism as well. Don't believe it? Just glance at the early comments posted on today's lead story, which details the charges filed against a Marple man who stands accused of making up a racist email linked to a county employee, then writing a story about it for his online news site.
Many of the initial comments took the newspaper to task for even reporting on this story initially. That stemmed from a press conference held by Democrats after the story was published demanding a thorough, independent investigation of the incident. The story made clear that the county had not been able to verify any such email, and that the story itself was being questioned.
Even some of the Democratic politicians who were standing on the steps of the Media Courthouse admitted they were unsure of the veracity of the story.
One of them was Jack Stollsteimer, the Democratic candidate for district attorney.
Yesterday his opponent, Republican D.A. Katayoun Copeland, took those officials to task for jumping to conclusions about the initial story.
We reported that, too.
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