Appreciation post: My grandma's trick for spotting tabloid lies

I recall when celeb news came from papers, and my grandma showed me which bits seemed fake. She said to watch for too much drama in titles and see if other sources say the same thing, a tip that still works online. What old ways do you use to figure out what's true now?

4 comments

4 Comments

alicemartinez1mo ago

Wait, you skip all celeb news now? That seems wild to me, @shane_bell. I get that it's mostly noise, but sometimes it's fun noise, you know? My grandma's trick about the drama in the titles is still my first gut check, honestly. It's not perfect, but it makes me pause before I believe some crazy story. The real problem is when the drama is in the quiet stuff that looks real.

shane_bell1mo ago

Feel like those old tricks don't hold up anymore with how the internet works. Online stuff is built to get your attention fast, so drama is everywhere on purpose. Waiting for other sources to agree can take too long when lies spread in minutes. I just skip most celeb news now because it's all noise. Trusting grandma's method might make you miss how sneaky fake news has become.

blairm931mo ago

I limit myself to a couple of trusted news sources. It filters out most of the nonsense before it becomes a problem. Guess I'm old school, but it beats chasing every flashy headline.

henry_fox1mo ago

Seriously, I saw a fake story about some politician last week that blew up everywhere before the real news sites even checked it. My feed was full of people fighting over something that never even happened. Even your trusted sources take hours sometimes to fix the record, and by then the damage is done. I get wanting to keep it simple, but man, you gotta at least peek at a couple places now just to see if the basics add up.