Bra Joe Thloloe, director of the SA Press Council and legendary editor, recently made the following remark that stuck with me at a panel discussion about so-called fake news.
“If it’s fake, it’s not news,” Thloloe said and pleaded with the public and the media to stop using the phrase “fake news”.
The term has become a magical, all-encompassing phrase to describe a range of things: from patently false clickbait websites to legitimate news publications you don’t agree with (think Donald Trump and Mzwanele Manyi).