Ministry of Truthiness

I note that Trump has taken to using the term "fake news" in ways that blur the earlier sense of the phrase. It muddles the distinction between good-faith poor journalism which —whether through bias, exaggeration or oversight — may be inaccurate and perhaps misleading, and a deliberate hoax which has no basis in fact and is intended to make you believe that it is something other than what it really is. A Yiddish proverb has it that "a half truth is a whole lie" and then there's that Blake quote about a truth told with bad intent. All well and good. But there remains an important difference between badly relaying the truth, and successfully purveying fabrications.