Donald Macleod: All this made-up baloney is really hard to swallow

WHAT do a gorilla called Harambe McHarambeface, a man who married a snake and a morgue worker who gave birth to a dead man’s baby have in common?

They are all examples of hoax news. And while these may be just a bit of daft fun, there is a darker side to the current trend for fake stories.

Some of it could even be seen as malicious propaganda that has been published to deliberately misinform.

Let’s take the top four examples of fake news stories from last year: “Obama signs executive order banning Pledge of Allegiance”; “Pope Francis endorses Trump”; “FBI agent suspected in Hilary Clinton email links found dead in murder-suicide”; and “Trump offers free one-way ticket to Africa or Mexico to whoever wants to leave America”.

Each one made-up baloney that millions of ordinary voters and people in the media greedily gobbled up as fact.

Aided by technology, the fake stories spread with the speed of a global pandemic.

Now, manipulating or indeed having state-controlled media is nothing new.

Dictators around the world have been guilty of it, and it can be argued our own media were biased in the reporting of Brexit and the indy referendum.

But this fake news phenomenon is a lot more sinister and dangerous.

You know things are out of control when two of the world’s most important people start moaning about it.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to re-boot globalisation and remove fake news claiming it has polarised views.

I reckon he needs a boot up the jacksey for not doing more to stop it on his own site in the first place.

Then, of course, there is The Donald.

A man who has become a victim of his own success with fake news and who is now raging at the media, claiming they are siding with the opposition, lying over his love for Russia and accusing them of using hoax reporting to distort his presidency.

Regardless of what your views are on the man – and I haven’t made up my mind yet – his press conference on Thursday was one of the most explosive encounters ever shown live on TV.

His slap-downs of several journalists, including the BBC’s indignant John Sopel, were hilarious viewing and I expect there will be a lot more to come.

However, the worst thing about fake news is its hijacking of those two inoffensive four-letter words, now wrapped up as one phrase and thrown about by the easily offended, the hostile, closed-minded social media warriors whose opinions differ to yours.

“Fake news” has become their social media sanctuary, an easy opt-out from sensible debate.

Really, it’s so bad even I, your humble columnist, Donald MacLeod, a modest, unassuming, virtuous and charitable man of great moral fibre, have been accused of peddling fake news by one disgruntled reader.

Yes, me, a veritable saint among men, someone of the highest integrity, a rare beacon of light in the fight for truth and justice. A man who knows not how to lie and whose words are dipped in honey. Pah! How dare he cast such a wild aspersion?

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to check out my column this week, readers. Now, I really must dash, as I’m due in Hollywood tonight to pick up the Oscar for Hunk of the Year. Honest!