This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantan.

It can feel like everywhere you look, someone's accusing someone else of peddling fake news.

Why did you see an N-reportor between that false son, fake tweet about the migrant children being

in cages?

A recurring internet story says Pope Francis endorsed Hillary Clinton.

Post-Abounded have circulated Twitter and Facebook, but it's bogus.

How the fake news is saying we're fake news, but the story is false.

Fake news is the enemy.

It is fake news.

These charges and countercharges about inaccuracy, bias, and fabrication can see modern.

In fact, they're deeply rooted in the history of American journalism.

There are patterns and resonances that recur and recur and recur.

But if there are similarities between the present and the past,

there are also areas of sharp divergence.

There are things about our present moment that are unique and uniquely dangerous.

I think there are consequential differences in what's going on now in the Trump administration.

Some very important and nerve-wracking differences.

This week on Hidden Brain, what the history of fake news in the United States reveals about

an important tension at the heart of journalism.

Should reporters think about their readers and listeners as consumers or as citizens?

Should the media give people what they want or what they need?

Andy Tucker is a professor at Columbia University and she studies the history of what we now call

...