In 2019, I was the subject of a fake news story. A conservative website took one line from

an interview I did, reworded it in a way that was both inaccurate and specifically designed

to stoke the moral outrage of a certain population. And then it was pond off as news. Eventually,

other websites wrote their own version of the original piece and it spread, as it was designed to,

because the more people clicked on it, the more advertising money the owner of the website

received. I still get questions about it from people who assumed it was true because, after

they read it on the internet. It didn't feel good on my end to have my image and words twisted into

a caricature for others to point to and say this, this is what is wrong with America. But it felt

even worse when I suddenly realized how often I myself have clicked on headlines that were exaggerations

or falsehoods perfectly written to stoke my liberal moral outrage. And how often I assumed

what I read was true. And how often it solidified my worldview so that I was sure to click on the

next story and the next story and the next story, none of which were written by actual journalists.

We are in a historical moment where the truth seems up for grabs by anyone with a screen name

in a Wi-Fi connection. And these cynical clickbait perversions of truth for the purpose of a

massing ad revenue are destroying us. But there are so many rigorously professional journalists

who keep us informed and who do so at a personal cost that I had failed to grasp until I had the

conversation you're about to hear. So with gratitude, I give you my guest today, renowned journalist

Maria Inahosa, the host of Latino USA. And to those who tirelessly report the actual news on our

behalf, I say thank you.

Hey, confessional listeners, I just want to thank you for supporting this podcast. And I wanted you

to know that there's a place called the Corners where I regularly engage with readers, post essays

and prayers and bonus content from this podcast. It's called the Corners because it can feel as though

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