We have an international satellite inside our home that gets live television feeds from Europe. We’ve had this dish for 20 years, mostly for Marieta’s mother (she speaks Romanian, and now has Alzheimers — the TV in her room helps maintain a “conversation”).
I see Romanian news coverage almost every day. Something terrific on these TVR International broadcasts struck me and needs to be shared. It should be copied here, and become a regular feature. I wish American news networks would copycat this.
The daily feature is called “BREAKING FAKE NEWS.”
Huh? What? No, this isn’t a parody or a comedy show. This is on the main national news station.
Apparently, Romanian media and culture is just as infected with lies, distortions, memes, and AI-generated slop as here, or anywhere else. National dialogue on important issues gets polluted. It becomes nearly impossible for regular citizens to decipher between fact and fiction. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM!
TVR International examines the most egregious “fake” outrage topic of the day and then deconstructs it with actual data, facts, historical records, and expert testimony. Runs about 10 minutes long. The “FAKE” topic is always something plucked straight off social media. Sometimes, they take on popular myths widely believed as true, which are demonstrably false. On this particular day (Friday) TVR showed the now widespread lie that “foreigners” are causing all the problems in France with protests and riots. But they pick a different topic every day, from all parts of the world, and it’s fantastic! Sometimes they go after Trump. Other days, it’s Putin. And Romanians have their own troll factories and sludge sweatshops that gum up our sense of reality. Sadly, Romania has become one of the hubs of a global disinformation network — so it’s good to see the nation’s most watched TV news network exposing their lies.
Sometimes, knowing what ISN’T true can be just as essential as knowing what IS true.
Gee, we sure could use a “BREAKING FAKE NEWS” segment here in the USA. There’s no shortage of fake news that desperately needs to be exposed. We should also expose the vile perpetrators of these lies. They should be known and shamed publicly, though I realize lying has become both entertainment and sport, with no consequences.
I took this photo above of TVR International’s “BREAKING FAKE NEWS” (a great title with a double meaning) this morning….