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# Lower than Fake News
- URL: https://goodoil.news/lower-than-fake-news/
- Published: 2020-05-29T01:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2020-05-28T10:19:47.000Z
- Author: idbkiwi
- Tags: Media, News, NZ, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 03:00

What does Fake News do when confronted with their own fake news? Well, they fake it, and by doing so descend from fake news to something lower. I know not what that may be called, maybe deep-fake-news or worse-than-fake, perhaps vandalised-news? Who knows? Maybe just ‘*New Zealand Herald*‘.

Because when the absurdity of that formerly august journal’s [ridiculous headline](https://goodoil.news/breaking-fake-news-for-immediate-release/) last week “Jacinda Ardern most popular PM in a century” was pointed out to them through these very pages it set the *Herald*‘s egg-on-face scrapers into action, scurrying to deep dark corners to scrub the stupid headline and bogus claim from the story, hoping nobody noticed, then they just continued on — as if nothing had ever happened, nothing to see here. Wasn’t us, we didn’t do it, honest.

All Granny needed to do was issue a correction, amend or update the story and note the change of headline. Perhaps. ‘An earlier version of this story carried the headline ‘Ardern most popular PM in a century’; that claim was incorrect. The article has been changed to reflect the update. The error is regretted’. That’s what an honest, professional outfit would do. Sadly the *NZ Herald* is neither. Nobody expected them to say[ ‘Conservative outfit we despise made us look stupid’](https://goodoil.news/breaking-fake-news-for-immediate-release/), nobody.

The headline was designed to be sensational; aren’t they all? That’s not a sin, of course not, but it sure did its work: the *NZ Herald* story was re-published world-wide with the fib repeated in *Forbes, Reuters*, the *Guardian*, *Newscorp*, numerous aggregators and even ‘The Old Grey Lady’ herself:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/idb-one.png)

The BFD

Stuff’s Steve Elers followed up, calling them out on the story, specifically, in his column of Saturday last: “**News turns fake when facts give way to untruths, hyperbole**.”

Yet even that ‘untruths’ burn didn’t motivate Granny into owning up to the clandestine changes, thus the lie continues on and on.The *NZ Herald*, by refusing to come clean, made fools of all those who reproduced the piece, and demeaned those whose effort, in times long gone by, earned the outlet the status of ‘trusted’:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/idb-two.png)

The BFD

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/60baae8a227fc1272ff3e75fbe25fa5b561cc24a53d2ed3898c212cb1874c502-1.png)

The BFD

While I see an inept, incompetent, unprofessional editor and a shabby amateur attempt to wallpaper over a ridiculous mistake, journalism lecturer Mr Elers sees something more deliberate, asking not ‘how’, but ‘why’:

> “I would go so far to say that fake news is a real threat to the democracy of our country. In this case, the question needs to be asked: Why was Ardern promoted as the “most popular prime minister in a century” when she clearly wasn’t?”

Good question. Be careful out there, especially in what you read.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/lady-wellington-the_bfd-grave.jpg)

The BFD “It won’t be long now…” Credit Lady Wellington

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