{"id":59124,"date":"2016-12-05T20:33:31","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T00:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=59124"},"modified":"2016-12-06T07:58:05","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T11:58:05","slug":"msm-really-frightened-by-pizzagate-scandal-labels-alt-media-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=59124","title":{"rendered":"MSM Really Frightened By PIZZAGATE<\/b><\/i> Scandal, Labels Alt Media ‘Fake News’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ‘Comet Pizza’ Gunman Provides a Glimpse of a Frightening Future<\/h1>\n


\n\"lead_960\"<\/a><\/p>\n

DAVID A. GRAHAM
\nThe Atlantic<\/h3>\n

After weeks of debate about the theoretical and abstract dangers of fake news, there\u2019s finally a concrete incident to discuss. On Sunday, a North Carolina man walked into Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in an affluent corner of Northwest D.C. wielding an assault rifle, which he fired at least once<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The man, 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch, told police he intended to \u201cself-investigate\u201d a bogus story alleging that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophilia ring out of the restaurant. The story, dubbed, deplorably, \u201cPizzagate\u201d has spread around certain fake news circles, culminating in Welch\u2019s expedition to Comet on Sunday.<\/p>\n

So much of the discussion about \u201cfake news\u201d has involved vague questions about, for example, whether Russian-backed propaganda could have been a factor in Donald Trump\u2019s victory. A big Washington Post <\/em>report<\/a> suggested that Russia had played a role in spreading lots of fake news; Adrian Chen<\/a>, among others, convincingly argued that one major basis for that report was extremely fraught. There\u2019s a broader question of the extent to which a foreign power could influence the election, and the extent to which that would really be anything new. Jack Shafer suggests not<\/a>.<\/p>\n