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dmckeon
NYT title, but Epstein is not the important part of the story.

> The articles in praise of Mr. Epstein came about partly because of an online publishing model adopted by some news organizations that relied on outside contributors who often wrote for little or no pay, with little or no input from editors.

So, formerly trustworthy news sites are serving as pass-through conduits for whatever content PR firms can pump in through a “contributor”. Oh tempora, oh mores.

not_a_cop75
More astroturfing. The only difference in this model is who has access, and how low the bar is set for the potential of corruption.
[dead] ycombonator
This why most people call them fake news.
rejschaap
No, people call them fake news because they do not like the facts that are reported.
oblongx
I'd wager it might have something to do with lack of objectivity in almost everything reported.
[dead] brighter2morrow
Lies by omission, quotes without context, misleading statistics, and good ol' anonymous sources. They may be "facts" in the literal sense but they are intentionally misleading.
s_y_n_t_a_x
It's the facts that aren't reported, and the facts that are overemphasized or out of context.
BubRoss
You can call that bias, but calling it fake is not true.
s_y_n_t_a_x
It's a euphemism of the behavior of the media. No one means the news is 100% fake, but that there is some manipulation and bias going on.

At some point when there's enough bias it does become fake news because you can't trust the source at all.

BubRoss
There are two separate things. One is reporting certain things and not others or worse, trying to skew the gravity of various facts with tainted opinions from someone invested in the perception of them.

Then there is literally reporting things that aren't true and are made up. Various news sources indulge in the first two, but any news source with a shred of respectibility doesn't engage in actually reporting things that are false.

anm89
Why use this language? Fake news is this specific double speak created by Trump which has a different but related meaning to the words generally.

Fine, but I don't understand why so many people who he is attacking choose to legitimize this usage by parroting him at their own expense.

Note: Im not taking about the OP here, just Americans and American institutions generally

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