Fake news isn’t new, despite what some politicians would have you think. In fact, politicians have been using satire and fake news for centuries, probably as long as there have been newspapers to print them in. An article on littlevillagemag.com revisits the fake news exploits of Benjamin Franklin, who you’ll remember was a Founding Father and had a hand in writing both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Most of what Franklin wrote as fake news was meant to be satirical, the article says, with his greatest work being an article in which he states that Muslims should be allowed to enslave Christians. “Filled with fake citations and an elaborate backstory, the goal of the piece was to make them see the errors in their ways — or at least to ridicule their hypocritical beliefs.” [1 image, 1 link, 1 quote, 136 words]
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