Fake

We are called, as believers in Christ, to adhere to the truth as we find it in the Word of God. And, God's Word can shape our thinking. Philippians 4 says:
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things.
9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

We can strive to build a reputation that is one of integrity, good character, and sober-mindnessness. God does not want us to be led astray by the deception of the enemy, who seeks to draw God's people into division through lies, gossip, and slander.  We lose credibility as we spread rumors, "what we've heard," about one another.  We should strive to think about and talk about what is true, and we can rely on the presence of the Spirit to direct our steps and our thoughts.

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The Bible instructs us that we are to be earnestly seeking the truth and are to be people of
discernment. We have the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to teach us. 1st John 4 states:
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

Yesterday may go down as the day when "fake news" made news across America.  The President announced his "Fake News Awards" yesterday, and the "winners" were posted on the Republican National Committee website, GOP.com. 

NBC News, which failed to win one of these awards, which does not have a nickname like "Oscar" or "Emmy," reported:

Long advertised by the president as a celebration of — as he called it — “the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media,” the awards named 11 articles published since Trump took office. Almost as soon as he tweeted the link to the "awards" on a GOP.com page it crashed, presumably due to high traffic volume, but NBC News obtained a copy of the site.

“2017 was a year of unrelenting bias, unfair news coverage, and even downright fake news,” the page claimed before listing off “the winners," which included CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other large news outlets.

Here are the Top 5:

5. Washington Post FALSELY reported the President’s massive sold-out rally in Pensacola, Florida was empty. Dishonest reporter showed picture of empty arena HOURS before crowd started pouring in...

4. TIME FALSELY reported that President Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office...

3. CNN FALSELY reported that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J. Trump, Jr. had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks...

2. ABC News' Brian Ross CHOKES and sends markets in a downward spiral with false report...

AND

1. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman claimed on the day of President Trump’s historic, landslide victory that the economy would never recover.

Those are the President's claims, and he said that "RUSSIA COLLUSION" was "last but not least," adding: "Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people."

The President did tweet out that "there are many great reporters that I respect and lots of GOOD News for the American people to be proud of!"

CNN took four awards; interestingly enough, NBC and MSNBC won zero.

Meanwhile, both U.S. Senators from Arizona took the opportunity to take aim  the President's criticism of the media.  FoxNews.com reported that Sen. Jeff Flake took to the Senate floor to compare Trump to former Russian leader Stalin. He said, "Not only has the past year seen a president borrow despotic language to refer to the free press, but it seems that he has now in turn inspired authoritarians and dictators with his own language..."  The Fox story stated: "White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders shot back at the daily press briefing that Flake had recently visited Cuba, where he had nice things to say about the authoritarian government in that country."  That article also says, "Flake was given some support in his remarks by fellow Arizona Sen. John McCain who, in an editorial in The Washington Post, also urged the president to stop attacking the press."

Fake news was also one of the subjects of a survey conducted last year by the Barna Group.  A summary of a number of Barna surveys from the previous year states:

Three in 10 (31%) say the problem of fake news lies in reader error—“misinterpretation or exaggeration of actual news on social media”—not factual mistakes in reporting itself. From there, the blame shifts left; one-quarter (24%) says the source is mainstream liberal media, while just 13 percent point the finger at mainstream conservative outlets. Nearly one-fifth (18%) “don’t know much” about fake news, while 9 percent fault bloggers and independent journalists.

Among evangelicals, 51% say that the trouble with fake news lies with the liberal media and 25% say that it involves the aforementioned "misinterpretation of exaggeration."

Other surveys involved Trump's travel ban, taxpayer funding of abortion, trust of the President, and...prayer for the President.  The Barna Group says that 37% of all Americans say they pray for the President, and the summary says: "Among the Christian faith segments, reports of prayer for Trump are particularly high among evangelicals (88%). Interestingly, only about one-third of notional Christians (35%)—a group that, Barna’s research indicates, was key in Trump’s 2016 victory—keeps the president in their prayers."

So, "fake news" is definitely a phrase that is being highlighted in our culture.  And, I have stated that Christians should be seeking and speaking the truth.  We know that truth that can be applied to our decisions, the way we live our lives, and even the way we process the news of the day, is related to the Scriptures.

We do have to be careful about our sources of information.  We have to recognize that not all we see or hear is true, so we have to be discerning.  You have to develop credible sources of news and information - now there will be purveyors of information that will approach the facts from a certain worldview, and that is perfectly fine, because depending on reputable journalists whose worldview tracks with ours can certainly help us process what we are consuming.  But, there are also news sources that may reflect our point of view, but are loose with the facts and lean toward the conspiratorial - that should be avoided.

There also is the whole business of the sources used in reporting.  I think there is reason to be skeptical about news outlets that use phrases like "sources say" or "an unnamed source told xyz." Sometimes there will be necessity of speaking off the record, but I think that you have be careful with these so-called "insider" reports.

And, I think for the Christian who is seeking truth, reliance on third-party sources in individual conversations can be dangerous and lead us into areas of gossip and slander.   If someone comes up to you in church and says, "I heard" such-and-such or that said anonymous person told me, you should not readily accept that information.  Reputations can be destroyed as the result of repeated rumors.  And they're probably not going to be presented in the form of a legitimate "prayer request."  We have to be careful that we are not participating in spreading false or unverified information.

Again, we are the truth seekers and the truth speakers.  We find truth in God's Word, and the opposite of truth belongs in the domain of the one called the "father of lies."  He will also plant erroneous thoughts in our minds and we have to counter his schemes with the truth of the Bible.