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The first fake news was found in the Bible – Pope Francis
Pope Francis compared the issue of fake news to the Biblical story of how the devil misinformed Adam and Eve through the latter, to eat the forbidden fruit, saying they would become all-knowing like God himself.
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Mr. Trump’s intent was to criticize the media for carrying reports that mostly do not favour him. In the “Fake news awards”, New York Times and CNN emerged as the media houses with most fake news.
He has since received lots of backlash from across the world including his own party.
The debate has since been ongoing as to how to distinguish between authentic news and fake ones.
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Adding his voice to the controversy, Pope Francis compared the issue of fake news to the Biblical story of how the devil misinformed Adam and Eve through the latter, to eat the forbidden fruit, saying they would become all-knowing like God himself.
According to the Reuters, the pope who recently released a document entitled “The Truth Will Set You Free – Fake News and Journalism For Peace”, emphasized that, “This biblical episode brings to light an essential element for our reflection: there is no such thing as harmless disinformation; on the contrary, trusting in falsehood can have dire consequences,
“Fake news is a sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes and leads only to the spread of arrogance and hatred. That is the end result of untruth.
“Spreading fake news can serve to advance specific goals, influence political decisions, and serve economic interests.
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“This false but believable news is ‘captious’, inasmuch as it grasps people’s attention by appealing to stereotypes and common social prejudices and exploiting instantaneous emotions like anxiety, contempt, anger and frustration.
“We need to unmask what could be called the ‘snake-tactics’ used by those (purveyors of fake news) who disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place.”
Pope Francis carried the campaign further to social media writing on twitter that “I would like to invite everyone to promote a journalism of peace, a journalism created by people for people.”
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