What Can Be Done About Fake News? Forum April 9

When it comes to news, it can be hard to tell truth from fiction these days. The troubling onslaught of “fake news” has clearly had an effect on public opinion and the electorate. But what can be done about it, and what affect will this all have on First Amendment rights?

The Natick Democratic Town Committee  is hosting a forum on fake news, the threat it poses to the mainstream media and the democratic process, and how we can combat it, presented by Rick Holmes, former Opinion Editor at the MetroWest Daily News.

The forum, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Morse Institute Library on Sunday, April 9, from 2:30–4:30pm (the library opens at 2:00pm on Sundays). We encourage elementary, middle, high school, and college students to attend as well.

In a January 14, 2017 editorial, Holmes defined fake news as “a damaging rumor—either untrue or difficult if not impossible to verify—that is injected into politics to hurt a particular candidate … and the weakened ability of the responsible press to debunk them. Unscrupulous, media-savvy political operators have used these changes in the landscape to make rumors more lethal than ever.”