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Put in a little historical context. I'll get to John McCain later.
As in other mediums, the mainstream media can be rife with blatant fake news stories, such as a fictional ''Washington Post'' story that Russia hacked the U.S. power grid in 2016.<ref>Leetaru, Kalev, "[http://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/01/01/fake-news-and-how-the-washington-post-rewrote-its-story-on-russian-hacking-of-the-power-grid/ 'Fake News' And How The Washington Post Rewrote Its Story On Russian Hacking Of The Power Grid]," ''Forbes'', Jan 1, 2017.</ref> This happens through mistaken reporting resulting from bias or a failure to screen stories. While leftists accuse conservatives of being behind fake news stories, the evidence shows the exact opposite, although fake news is designed to appeal to audiences all across the political spectrum.
As in other mediums, the mainstream media can be rife with blatant fake news stories, such as a fictional ''Washington Post'' story that Russia hacked the U.S. power grid in 2016.<ref>Leetaru, Kalev, "[http://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/01/01/fake-news-and-how-the-washington-post-rewrote-its-story-on-russian-hacking-of-the-power-grid/ 'Fake News' And How The Washington Post Rewrote Its Story On Russian Hacking Of The Power Grid]," ''Forbes'', Jan 1, 2017.</ref> This happens through mistaken reporting resulting from bias or a failure to screen stories. While leftists accuse conservatives of being behind fake news stories, the evidence shows the exact opposite, although fake news is designed to appeal to audiences all across the political spectrum.
==Origins==
==History==
"News articles" that are completely fictional have a long history. The motivation is often for the amusement of the author, or the desire to make money by selling the newspaper or handbill based on its entertainment value. Such "news articles" are sometimes purely satirical (something that has a long history), or intentionally malicious, often for political reasons. For example, malicious claims about Presidential candidates (illegitimate children, etc.) have a long history in the United States.
In the more recent past, but before the advent of the widespread propagation of false information through the internet, the most visible instances of "fake news" were probably the "supermarket tabloids" that could be found at checkout counters of supermarkets. These were often full of blatant nonsense, and (nearly) everyone knew that, and bought them only for their entertainment value. Perhaps the most blatant of these was ''Weekly World News'', which seemed obsessed with some half-human half-bat creature named "bat boy", and with extraterrestrials. They sometimes devoted entire issues to extraterrestrials, and, in one instance, had three articles relating that each of the Presidential candidates in the 1992 Presidential election ([[George H. W. Bush]], [[Bill Clinton]], and [[Ross Perot]]) had been taken for a personal ride in a flying saucer to see Washington, D.C. from the air.
These fake articles continue, often with an extreme political slant. Recent issues of the ''National Enquirer'' (perhaps the most blatant fake newspaper since the demise of Weekly World News) had completely false articles about Special Forces raids, carpet bombing, drone strikes, and naval assaults by American forces in the Middle East. The ''Globe'' has run headlines alleging that Hillary Clinton is a Russian spy and has a "new treason indictment", which is not supported by the corresponding article. Another headline, unsupported by any evidence in the article, stated that Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin were stopped trying to escape from the country. And there were numerous headlines during the 2016 Presidential campaign stating that they were in possession of evidence that would put Ms. Clinton in prison.
The explosive growth of the internet in the early years of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, and the political divisiveness of the 2016 Presidential election, saw an explosive growth in fake news, far beyond supermarket tabloids, and the use of the term "fake news" to describe this.
==Modern origins==
Cybersecurity experts began using the term "fake news" to describe social media postings that attempted to spread false information regardless of the political ramifications of its content.
Cybersecurity experts began using the term "fake news" to describe social media postings that attempted to spread false information regardless of the political ramifications of its content.