[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 258]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                  MEDIA SHOULDN'T DECIDE WHAT IS FAKE

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, you may have heard about this new 
phenomenon called fake news. Fake news usually consists of false and 
made-up stories. Actually, it is not new and it has been around as long 
as there have been media.
  What is new is that a few liberal media organizations are going to 
label news stories suspect if they feel the stories are not true. This 
should be of great concern to anyone who believes in free speech.
  It works this way: nearly half of all Americans get information from 
Facebook. Facebook has now decided to let liberal media like ABC News 
and the Associated Press determine whether news is fake or not. This 
represents the liberal mindset that the media know better than the 
American people what is good for them.
  A better idea is to trust the American people and let them determine 
what is real news and what is not. The American people will learn to 
discern the good from the bad if the media stops telling them what to 
think.

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