Besides the perception of being fake and blatantly being fake, another thing that may lead to the label of fake news is the failure to clearly distinguish op-eds from news reports. Slate is a good example. In their About section, Slate clearly states that it is a “general-interest publication offering analysis and commentary about politics, news, business, technology, and culture.” In other words, they are based on commentary (opinion) rather than reporting, thus Slate does not directly claim to be a news source. However, they do not do a good job of identifying themselves forthrightly, especially outside of the About section. So, if I happened to stumble across Slate's content without knowing the premise of the website, then it would be understandable if it were to make me upset or alienated. This is potentially fake news, yes, and until Slate better labels themselves as "commentary" (as they ought to in this news climate), the dreaded label will reoccur. [1 image, 4 links, 1 quotation, 158 words]
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