League of Women Voters Examines Fake News at Annual Luncheon

On Friday, May 19th, the Scarsdale League of Women Voters hosted their annual luncheon at Scarsdale Golf Club with guest speaker William Grueskin. Grueskin, a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a career journalist spoke on a topic that affected all voters in the recent Presidential election; fake news. He showed some alarming statistics about the rise of news and news sources that were not only biased but entirely fabricated. This news has become difficult to contain as it quickly goes viral on social media. The people who create these sites and these articles are paid advertising revenue based on the number of clicks they receive on their page. As a result, they have learned how to maximize the spread of their false messages and fake news is becoming a real problem.

Grueskin emphasized the importance of teaching people how to separate fake news from actual news. He believes that the obligation to stop the dispersion of false new lies with not only with the distributors of the false content, but with those who read it and inadvertently support it. He emphasized the importance of learning how to distinguish between real and fake news and encouraged educators to help students read critically and recognize the signs of fabricated news stories.

He showed examples of fake news stories that claimed to be from news sources that don't exist such as the "Denver Guardian" or the "Weekly World News." He also showed how to spot fake URL's such as abcnews.com.co that at first glance look like verifiable news sources but are actually impostors.

The Scarsdale Teachers Institute is educating the school faculty about the issue by offering upcoming courses on this very topic; "Finding the Truth When All News is Fake: Developing Critical and Media Literacies through Digital Writing and Media Production."

The luncheon was the final meeting of the year for LWVS President Deb Morel. Janice Starr, who will serve as a Co-President next year with Linda Doucette Ashman, thanked Morel for a job well done. "Deb was the perfect person to embody the League's consensus driven decision-making as she listened to everyone's point of view, left no stone unturned, and was able to encourage the group to come to a consensus but never forced the issue" said Starr, "We need to continue in our mission and continue Deb's legacy to bring people together to make the best decision."