Paradigm Shift

The night before some really heavy thunderstorms rolled through. It delayed my flight to Baltimore four hours. I was annoyed. All that was forgotten the next morning. The skies were clear, bright blue, as the sun rose. I checked into the meeting for program directors and ten minutes later, everything changed. In an ironic twist we were discussing paradigm shifts when the first plane hit. Everytime I see a late summer sky like that one eighteen years ago, I'm reminded of that day and how fragile this all is.

Viral Posts Mislead

Social media is having a huge impact on information we share. Does it make journalism obsolete? I hope not.

Remember the song "What you See is What You Get" by The Dramatics? Not anymore. Technology, combined with social media, is going to present a huge problem for the 2020 election. The footage was shared hundreds of thousands times on Instagram. The power of social media to mislead is immense. According to Pew research, most Americans continue to get news on social media, even though many have concerns about its accuracy.

Fake video taken at face value

The video was share hundreds of thousands of times. If it is this easy to fool users, imagine the effect of fake news shared on social media. We got a taste of this in 2016. The same tactics are being intensified for 2020.

Below are four fake stories being spread on social media. The four stories were highlighted as false by Factcheck.org.

September 6, 2019

A 1978 photo of a Somalian army recruit has been misidentified on social media as Rep. Ilhan Omar, who wasn’t born until 1982.

September 6, 2019

Viral posts on social media make the baseless claim that the shooter in Odessa, Texas, had a sticker on his car for Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. The Texas Department of Public Safety said there was no sticker on the car he was driving during the attack.

September 5, 2019

Viral social media posts wrongly suggest that President Donald Trump’s three eldest children are citizens only because of birthright citizenship.

September 5, 2019

A fake tweet circulating online attributes a made-up statement about hurricane preparation to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Hold tight. This is only going to get worse. Our defense? Check our sources. Seek out credible news sources.