POST-TRUTH: THE AGE OF MISINFORMATION

Mark, Peter, I agree with you both. However, I would draw a distinction between the quality of media & the truth of what it says. Ignore social media & look at, e.g., the BBC. It's now nothing more than a left-wing, politically correct propaganda machine, happy to spread disinformation & bias on pretty well everything, climate change being a fine example. Small wonder that people resort to social media, although I take the point that this is largely independent of despair at the traditional news distributors. Personally, I think Veronica Guerin is bonkers, but maybe that's just me. Even the investigative journalists have their own agendas, though. I confess to liking Mars Bars. Nothing to do with the advertising, although I'm fed up at their getting smaller. Soon they'll be "fun (i.e., no fun at all) size." Not entirely irrelevant, as confectionary advertising is just as dubious as everything else; as you say. As far as the search for truth is concerned, beyond advising you to read "Private Eye", I'm not sure I know the answer.

Sadly James amongst other things we all know the Esso sign means happy motoring, Milky Way is the snack you can eat between meals, Big Brother is watching you and a Mars a Day helps you work rest and play. Advertising Standards don't seem to even apply to most advertising, and journalism is awash with opportunists paid by those who advertise on their websites based on hits, rather than by the quality of what they write. True we do not have to listen, but we do seem to have to live with the choices of those who see something shiny, read it and believe it. Discernment and questioning seem to have become regarded as a bad trait, by those who are happily motoring on Esso fuel whilst consuming a milky way under the watchful eye of big brother, saving that Mars Bar for working, resting and playing. If ever an age needed investigative journalists like my namesake Peter Taylor, Veronica Guerin, or if it has to be entertaining even Roger Cook in his heyday, then that time is now.

"Post-truth" is clearly the phrase of the moment. It means lies. However, let's suppose there was Russian-backed, or even Russian-created, pro-Trump propaganda. Nobody's obliged to pay any attention to it. Also, nonsense has been with us since mankind first learned to communicate. Why is nonsense on the internet any more credible than any other kind of nonsense?

It is a sad day when we allow anyone anywhere to in ANY way impact our elections. It is especially so when the impact came from a foreign entity who directly favored one candidate. Yes cyber security needed to have been better but the mainstream media needed to do their jobs and ask the tough questions & keep insisting on calling out the plethora of lies of any and all candidates each snd every time such lies were stated