EDITORIAL - Alternative truth and fake news are different

Fake news and alternative truths are not one and the same. And it is both sad and alarming that some people have taken to confuse one for the other. Fake news is fake news. There are no ifs and buts about it. Fake news is a falsehood, an untruth, that is deliberately spread or made public by whatever means, and for malicious reasons.

Fake news is even different from a rumor. A rumor is just a piece of unverified information that, if verified to be true, ceases to be a rumor and becomes a matter of fact. If it turns out to be false, then it becomes a story that has no basis. A rumor has a life of its own that either gets prolonged or snuffed out as a result of verification.

Rumor has a chance in life. The only reason it is not as well-loved as the truth is because there is a 50/50 chance it can turn out to be false. But it does have an equal shot at the truth. Fake news, on the other hand, is dead from the very beginning. Whatever life support it may derive it derives from the malice of those who conjured it, and the malice of those who pass it on.

Alternative truth, on the other hand, is neither fake news nor a rumor. It is in fact a truth that only happens to be unacceptable to everybody. But that does not diminish its veracity. Most people may be repelled by the durian. But there are quite a number who love it. Somewhere in there lies what you might call alternative truth –some people may find the durian offensive, but others find it heavenly.

The durian cannot be called offensive just because those who think it is may be superior in number. It is not the numbers that determine truth. Because fewer though they may be, the people who love the durian will swear that the taste of this Southeast Asian fruit is worth the olfactory sacrifice they have to pay. And that makes for an alternative truth to the widely-held version about the durian.

And that is just the durian. It is quite easy to move to other subjects and perspectives where the distinctions can and may apply –principles, religions, professions, physical traits, mental adeptness. The list is virtually endless. For as long as people remain distinctly unique from one another, truths and alternative truths will always have to co-exist. It is a co-existence that leaves no room for fake news.