The problem runs deeper than fake news. As George Monbiot argues in his column in The Guardian, the problem is that the media frequently offers news about a fake world. In an insightful and courageous article, he warns that symbols and sensations have replaced substance and analysis. We struggle to understand because critical issues remain in the darkness. We see the “world as it is portrayed, and not as it is”.
Fifty-four years ago, Justice Willian Brennan Jr, wrote: “public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government”. Brennan reasoned that “erroneous statements are inevitable in free debate” and that public discussion must be “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open”.
