Table of Contents
Introduction vii
Part I The History of Fake News
Section I Fake News Has Seen Around a Lot Longer Than You Think
Chapter 1 The Impact of Fake News 1
The Gruesome Story of Jack the Ripper
Chapter 2 The Beginning of Fake News 12
The Glorious Victory of Ramses II * The Demonic Rulers of Constantinople
Insert: The Printing Press 22
Chapter 3 Fake News and the French Monarchy 24
The War of Words Between Marie de Médicis and Her Son * Marie Antoinette, Destroyer of France
Insert: The First Newspapers 36
Chapter 4 Fake News and America's Founders 38
Benjamin Franklin's Very Special Printing Press * When Thomas Jefferson Really Wanted to Be President
Chapter 5 Fake News Takes On Science 48
The Wild Worlds of Edgar Allan Poe * The New York Sun's Fantastical Lunar Creatures * That Time the Wichita City Eagle Said the Earth Would Explode
Insert: The Impact of the Telegraph on Fake News 59
Section 2 Yellow Journalism, Propaganda, and Disinformation, Oh My!
Chapter 6 Yellow Journalism 63
Hearst, Pulitzer, and the Spanish-American War They Sold
Insert: Backlash Against Yellow Journalism 70
Chapter 7 Fake News at War 72
WWII: How the Nazis Used Lies to Kill * When the British Faked a Mutiny Over the Radio * The Fake Military That Might Have Just Won the War
Chapter 8 When Racist Conspiracies Become Fake News 83
How First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's Clubs Secretly Planned an Uprising
Insert: The Alien Invasion. That Wasn't 90
Chapter 9 Smoking Is Good for You and Other Fake News About Your Health 94
The Tricks of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee * Dr. Andrew Wakefield and His Fake Medical Study About Vaccines
Insert: The Introduction of Television 102
Chapter 10 The Fake News Intelligence Battles 104
When the Soviets Claimed the US Created HIV-AIDS
Insert: Welcome to the Internet 112
Section 3 Drowning In Fake News
Chapter 11 Going Digital 117
The Syrian Woman Who Didn't Exist * A Fake News Website Empire * When George Bush Couldn't Get Rid of Fake Campaign Websites
Insert: Fact-Checking Websites 126
Chapter 12 Fake News Goes Viral 128
Fake Rumors That Killed Innocent People in Mexico * How Fake News Almost Started a War * When Russia Definitely Didn't Shoot Down an Airplane
Chapter 13 Fake News Takes Over Elections 140
Hillary Clinton and the Man Who Shot Up a Pizza Parlor * The Guy Who Paid His Student-Loan Bill with Fake News * That Time Russian Troll Farms Tried to Rig the US Election
Insert: Fake News Weaponized Around the World 161
Part II How We Fight Back!
Chapter 14 Facts vs. Opinions 166
The Study That Shows It's Hard to Tell the Difference
Exercise: Fact or Opinion? 174
Chapter 15 I'm Biased, You're Biased, We're All Biased 176
La-La-La, I'm Not Listening-A Study * Cognitive Dissonance and the Aliens That Aren't Coming for Us * Why Negativity Bias Makes Us All Eeyore * The Author Makes a Confession About the Oscar Pistorius Trial and Confirmation Bias * How to Check Your Biases
Exercise: Identify Your Biases 188
Chapter 16 Understanding Bias in News Media 189
Unintentional Bias, aka When It's By Accident * Intentional Bias, aka When It's Definitely On Purpose * And How to Tell the Difference
Exercise: Can You Spot the Bias? 196
Chapter 17 How to Spot Fake News Articles 202
Titles That Make You Go Click, aka Clickbait * All the Red Flags * Why Trusted Sources Matter
* Exercise: Real or Fake? 216
Chapter 18 73% of People Say They Don't Understand Polling, and Other Fake Stats 222
Thomas Dewey Who? * The Part Where You Learn to Spot Fake Polls
Exercise: Polling Practice 232
Chapter 19 Your Eyes Are Lying: Spotting Fake Photos and Videos 238
The Time a Teen Activist Did Not Rip Up the Constitution * North Korea's Bad Photoshopping Skills * How to Spot Fake Photos * No, This Commercial Airline Didn't Do a 360° Roll * Fake Videos, aka Deep Fakes
Exercise: How Was It Photoshopped? 247
Chapter 20 Memes Aren't News and Other Social-Media Tips 252
The Man Who Jumped to a Lot of Conclusions About Some Buses * Social Media Tips * Political Memes That Fool Us
Exercise: To Trust or Not to Trust? 267
Chapter 21 Managing the Chaos of the Breaking-News Cycle 274
The Day a Mass Shooter Targeted a Concert * What Breaking News Is and Isn't * How to Not Panic
Exercise: Sorting Through Breaking News 281
Chapter 22 Conclusion 288
The Part Where It Takes All of Us
Afterword 292
Fighting a Pandemic and an Infodemic * When Lies Come for Democracy * The Part Where Maybe We're Learning
Acknowledgments 299
Notes 302