“Community Columnist” Michael H Schrader (About Fake News)

Written 3 April 2015

A movie director friend of mine, as a joke, decided to make a biographic change to his Internet biography page by changing his age. This director, whom I graduated high school with, is now four years younger, according to all the information available on the Internet. The problem with Internet sources is that many reference other Internet sources, so while it may appear that there are twenty different sources providing the same fact, actually it is one source that has been copied by others. For those who write and publish, it is important to understand this to avoid looking like a fool, and more importantly, lose credibility as a writer.

I am a news junkie. I have multiple (around a dozen) different news apps on my phone that I read throughout the day from various sources – international, national, local, television, and print. My Twitter feed is like the old news teletype machines that were ubiquitous in radio newsrooms back in the day. With all these feeds, one would think I would have read about the Lexington dance “controversy” prior to reading about it last week here in the Times Herald. After all, it is “outrageous” that a school would cancel a dance with a theme of “American Pride” to not offend the sensibilities of non-Americans, especially in Lexington, Massachusetts, where some of the first shots of the American Revolution were fired to deter the British from reaching Concord. The school mascot in Lexington is the Minutemen, the epitome of America and our fight for independence from the yoke of the crown. What is wrong with our country that, in such a patriotically significant place, the school would cancel a dance with a patriotic theme in order to not offend? This is truly political correctness gone amok!

It turns out, that is not really what happened. If you Google this sickening event, the top hits are all blogs, newsletters, and websites that represent one particular, one could say extreme, political point-of-view. It required several hours of searching to find coverage of the story that were not from this one particular worldview. The actual narrative is as follows: the upperclassmen of Lexington High School elected to have the “American Pride” theme for their upcoming April dance. As part of the theme, students are supposed to dress in red, white and blue. For a reason not entirely clear, some of the advisors suggested changing the theme to “National Pride” so students wouldn’t feel obligated to wear red, white, and blue. Given that red and blue are gang colors, perhaps some of the students were concerned for their safety wearing those colors. Perhaps some are Jehovah’s Witnesses whose religion forbids certain patriotic displays as being blasphemous. The idea of changing the theme was discussed, but was never acted upon. End of story. Except it isn’t.

You see, there are those who, for whatever reason, like to take something simple like a debate over a theme of a school dance and twist it into something it isn’t. Sadly, these muckrakers publish and broadcast and are viewed by many as legitimate “journalists”, which they are not. Fame seekers, troublemakers, and rabble-rousers would be better descriptions. These extremists thrive off of creating controversy where there is none and often just make stuff up. Just because you read it on the Internet or hear it on the radio or television doesn’t mean it is true. Before you get angry or upset (and call your local newspaper community chat line), make sure that what you read or hear is actually the truth. There is nothing more embarrassing than stating a strong opinion on an issue only to find out that, well, you are wrong.