Dennis Malloy: Look out for fake news, it’s everywhere!

Today most people get their news from Facebook. That site and other social media is loaded with stories from sources putting out fake news.

Stuff that some idiot in his mom's basement makes up for the fun of it and it somehow ends up being circulated around the world in your newsfeed. Fake news has been blamed for the result of the recent presidential election and just yesterday, Hillary Clinton addressed it as a major concern for the world.

Even though I think it's pretty easy to identify these false stories for what they are, I can see why some people can be fooled by it. What's even worse to me are the groups that have a passionate cause and individually start spreading false stories to friends in their group and beyond. Here they are combining a lie with hyped up passion and hysterical emotion which can be a toxic mix.

Take the case of the New Jersey hunter who was falsely accused of shooting Pedals the Bear. He and his family were repeatedly threatened for weeks even though he didn't do the thing that he was accused of, which by the way, would have been totally legal.

So now he's suing a half dozen individuals involved in the social media saga. It's about time! People should be held accountable for their statements and their actions in spreading false, libelous statements with intent to harm.

We have some first hand experience in the matter.

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