Fake News

FTVLive got this email from a frustrated Photographer that has grown sick and tired of being called “fake news.”

Curious if you can address the Fake News. I work for an affiliate as a Photographer and continually get called fake, I’m starting to laugh when these comments are made. It’s a gang mentality, do you honestly think someone would utter these words to you in a dark alley? So riddle me this why don’t all these entities continually send out press releases to cover their events, please do us all a favor don’t send out a release. Personally I could care less about your event. In my opinion all they do is spew hate. Besides political events which are the worst, how about when I went to a shooting and there was a body in the street and someone called us fake, last time I looked the person was actually dead in the street unless I was delusional and it was fake.

FTVLive responds:

I feel your frustration and I have seen it firsthand.

You can put 90% of this blame on cable news. As a Journalist, do any of you look at cable news as doing actual news?

Yes, there are some Journalists that work in cable news, but they are so drowned out by Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon, Joy Reid, and others that you barely know who they are. I am still shocked that real Journalists at Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC go to work every day at those places. I would have quit long ago and found another place.

Donald Trump claims to have done many things and most of those claims are bullshit. Whether it is declassifying top secret documents in his head, or that he won the 2020 election, it is all crap.

But, Donald Trump did mutter the words “Fake News” more times than you can count and he was given a huge megaphone to do just that.

For the most part, local TV stations cover news fairly and accurately. There are some exceptions, but not many.

Local TV news is not fake news, but viewers can’t tell the difference between local news and cable news. How many of you work at a Fox affiliate and someone in the street yells at you calling you “Fox News”?

I have said it before and I stand by it, cable news (all sides) has done more to divide this country than anyone else. The United States of America would be much better off if cable news was not a part of it.

But, unfortunately, this is the country we live in now and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.

I don’t know what to do when someone calls you “fake news.” I guess just ignore them and go on doing your job the best that you can and see how it all plays out.