Fake

There is currently a great hue and cry aout so-called 'fake news'
as well as destabilizing news accounts picked up from Russian media.
Who, one might think, are working from a news paradigm different from the
one we are used to. For instance, E. Macron, a centrist candidate for the
French Presidential election, tells of many hacks to his campaign
'from the Russian border'. It might be well time to try to disentangle oneself
from all this.

Fake news entered Facebook well into the Presidential campaign. In effect,
human editors for the news feed were systematically excluding everything
conservative as inappropriate. After complaints that Facebook was too central
to the Web to not be neutral, the editing was given over to an algorithm.
Enter fake news; an algorithm cannot make any judgements about plausibility.
A lot of damaging information started to appear about the Democratic candidate,
from unknown sources.

There is a tradition of tabloid news in the English-language press, but one soon
knows how to approach it. A photograph shows Michelle Obama frowning at
her husband from the week's photos. The headline screams: Obama Divorce in the
Works. The photo was real; the headline is myth, emotional news, a juicy read
from the supermarket. No real harm done.

Macron is being currently accused of having slept at the Embassy while on a trip.
Nothing earthshaking, to my mind, but in the current context, and with respect
to  the sensibilities of French politics, damaging to him.

For the record, Canadian politicians are accused of this kind of thing all the time:
taking a plane, going on a vacation. A committee makes a judgement, they pay
back where appropriate, with an apology. Things get back to normal. But that is Canada.

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/presidentielle-2017/20170213.OBS5233/en-marche-hacke-macron-diffame-comme-par-hasard-ca-vient-des-frontieres-russes.html