"Fake news" is in my opinion more than just getting a story wrong. Fake news, at its worst, is intentionally counterfactual or misleading propaganda, either for political reasons, or because the writer is pushing a conspiracy theory (which he himself believes), or just to profit off the sensationalism (clickbait).
A "lesser" form of fake news is what you might call "bullshit news"—desperately pushing out stories as fast as possible even if they are based on questionable sources: even if the so-called journalist doing this sort of reporting is himself honest he may well be unintentionally serving the agenda of someone feeding him garbage, or just plain making mistakes.
It sounds like CNN was starting to veer into the territory of bullshit news. I hope this episode will scare them straight. Even if it doesn't, though, they're still infinitely better than the likes of Alex Jones.
Specifically addressing Aura7541: I think you overestimate the ability of the sources you mention to perform the services the "mainstream media" currently provide. Most obviously (to me, at least), the Youtube political commentators might be able to fill in for MSM political commentators, but they are totally dependent on news providers: they do not themselves do the legwork of producing news, or at least comparatively little. Alternative media can be strong organizations with the ability to do serious investigative journalism, but they can also be total propaganda pushers or fabricate or doctor evidence. A big downside to democratizing our news sources is that it's harder to keep eyes on a thousand news providers to keep them honest rather than just a few. Independent journalists theoretically present the same problem, but I personally think these individuals would present less bias in aggregate compared to tons of small organizations. However, freelancers would have fewer resources with which to do research and investigative reporting.
Big news organizations aren't going away, and if they are, it's bad news for news.
Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
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The old smileys: 
; - ) : - ) : - ( : - P : - D : - # ( c ) ( k ) ( y ) If anyone knows the shortcut for 
, let me know!
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I have the most epic death scene ever in VGChartz Mafia. Thanks WordsofWisdom!
