Look around you. Complete and utter bullshit is on the rise. Hell, Oxford Dictionaries even named 'post-truth' word of the year. At the center of this national discussion is the ubiquity of fake news, which President Barack Obama characterized last month as a direct threat to our (so-called) democracy. Denzel Washington was the subject of a widely circulated fake news story this year involving the president-elect, something he was asked to address at the Washington premiere of Fences last week.
"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed," the Oscar-winning actor told the Washington Post. "If you do read it, you're misinformed." So what do we do? According to Washington, that's the question we must all face head-on. "That's the great question," he said. "What is the long-term effect of too much information? One of the effects is the need to be first, not even to be true anymore."
A big chunk of the burden moving forward falls on journalists, Washington noted, as they can be a source of truth in a landscape of bullshit. "What a responsibility you all have, to tell the truth," Washington told the Post. "Not just to be first, but to tell the truth. We live in a society now where it's just first, who cares. Get it out there. We don't care who it hurts. We don't care who we destroy. We don't care if it's true. Just say it. Sell it. Anything you practice, you'll get good at it. Including B.S."
Dude is right. Are you listening?
