[Morgan Freeman] It Was About the Money

Remember, it’s never about the money.

Well, it is about the money. Until it isn’t.

And frankly, the kind of fake news this BBC story describes really isn’t what concerns me. It’s so patently false on first appearances it’s simple for the reasonable to detect and ignore. Hyperpartisans in any party are going to believe what they want to believe, especially if it appears too good to be true.

What irks me is the money thing.

Pity Mr. Blair. The Great Recession killed the construction industry that fed his family. So he turned to creating fake news and reveled in the fact it brought him enough money he could quit his day job.
Then Facebook changed its algorithm and he’s not making as much money as he was in the past.
So does the BBC ask him how he’s supporting his family?

No, they don’t.

And they let him get away with saying it was never about the money.

Here is what they say:

“But once the fake news started to get clicks, he was able to use Google’s advertising platform to convert page views into money. In 2014, he quit his day job.

“’Once writing became lucrative enough to not destroy my body in construction any more,’ he says with a laugh, ‘that’s when it became time to stay at home with the kids and do this.’”

Yet later, it’s this:

“For Blair, the money began to dry up. Largely because of Facebook’s changes, he says he now makes a faction of what he did at the height of the fake news boom.

“But he insists money was never the motivator, and instead he claims to be a ‘leader of the resistance’ against President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.”

Cheers to Mr. Blair for keeping up the good fight.

But a wag of the finger to the BBC that let this contradiction go unaddressed in its story.

Because it was about the money. Until the money dried up. And it might still be about the money, though neither Mr. Blair nor the BBC tell us.

Now you probably suppose I’m pro Trump.

No, I’m not.

I voted for Ted Cruz in the primaries – not my proudest moment – and for Evan McMullin in the final election. My presidential voting record is across the board – I’ve voted for Obama. For Romney. For Bush. Heaven help me, I also voted for H. Ross Perot and Ralph Nader. I’m more of a protest voter than a party-liner. That’s my way of protesting and I’ve never made a dime off it.

And also, it’s pretty harmless, my way of protesting. My protest votes occur in a solidly partisan state, where protest votes cannot swing any election.

Producing fake news and trolling conservative websites, well, we’ve seen the harm that’s done. You don’t have to look much further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to see what fake news has wrought.

Mr. Blair can protest and resist all he wants. But the biggest bit of fake news I see in this story is the lie that it never was for the money. It was, until it wasn’t. And when mainstream media outlets leave holes in their own stories like this, that’s more troubling than any number of Hillary Clinton death hoaxes. Legitimate news outlets can produce fake news of their own, wittingly or unwittingly in the blink of an eye, and by doing so they toss kerosene onto the fake news fire.