War Against 'Fake News': Differences Between Mistakes and Lies

Whether the author is a professional journalist or someone posting on their social media account, knowingly publishing false information online or in print is always wrong, but recognizing intentional lying is not as simple as it might seem.

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There are different kinds of lies:

• Blatant lies:
  Someone knowingly states a falsehood

• Partial lies:
  Someone uses one fact to make unreasonable assumptions or extrapolations. The foundational fact is true, but the rest of the information is false.

• Lies by omission:
  Someone knows about pertinent facts and chooses to leave them out of a report in order to sway the audience in a certain way.

Editors do make decisions about which stories to cover and facts to emphasize on the limited pages or during the limited air time available to them, but these decisions are based on what they feel is important to their audience. Without these decisions the New York Times would be thousands of pages long and evening news anchors would have to speak faster than an auctioneer.

While websites can go into greater detail than print or broadcast, even they have to limit what they cover to keep the reader's’ attention and avoid drowning readers with too much detail or too many stories.

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Mistakes are not the same as lies. If a person reports false information based on an unintentional error, they should be willing to correct it as soon as the error is discovered. It all comes down to the intent of the author. As parents and educators, we must encourage children to look past the information and consider the reliability and motivations of the source.

Practical Tips

• Clearly identify the difference between mistakes and lies and be sure children and students understand.

• If you come across something that is falsely reported, help young learners investigate more about the source. Then ask them whether that source would have any reason to spread false information.

• Be sure to talk with them about the potential harm that could be caused by allowing false information to stand uncorrected.

Resources

• Character Education Lesson Plans and Best Practices http://character.org/lessons

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