Parker: James O’Keefe demonstrates what real fake news is

You see? O’Keefe’s mission has been to prove that the media are biased. While this may be true to the degree that all human beings carry biases, the Post’s editorial board isn’t coy about its positions. That said, the editorial and opinion pages shouldn’t be confused with the reportorial staff, which adheres to basic journalism tenets, including, “park your bias at the door.”

Essentially, Phillips baited the Post and the Post declined to play. Or, rather, the paper did what it’s supposed to do and checked out the story. This isn’t cause for trumpets and heraldry, mind you. It’s what journalists do. As opposed to what pseudo-journalists — also known as typists — claim they do. With a little footwork, reporters were able to trace Phillips to Project Veritas and demonstrated that her story was a fraud.

It was — you may now cue the horn section — FAKE NEWS.

Thanks to O’Keefe, the Post also showed a skeptical public just how different real journalism is from the effluvia produced by Project Veritas. Perhaps there’s a place for him at Pravda.

Moore, meanwhile, might have hoped to discredit all his accusers, though O’Keefe refused to respond to questions Monday regarding his relationship to Moore. If one woman would lie, however, wouldn’t it be possible to suggest the others were lying as well? In a lesser-case scenario, if the Post had run with the story without confirming it, O’Keefe could prove that The Washington Post was biased against Moore for publishing a fake story.

Again, none of this happened.

The liars are the bad guys

The lie was outed by the truth, while O’Keefe’s own obvious agenda was revealed. Hating the media these days is good business and good politics among a certain constituency. If anyone should feel betrayed by O’Keefe, however, it would be all those people who have been duped into believing that the mainstream media are the bad guys. Let’s be very clear. The bad guys are the ones who knowingly lie.

Recall that it was Trump who popularized the phrase “fake news” whenever he didn’t like some story written about him. Not that covering Trump requires embellishment or fakery. Originally the term was used in real news stories about fake stories being promulgated through social media. But Trump’s marketing savvy — and his appreciation for the fact that people tend to believe what they want to believe — prompted him to make “fake news” the battle cry of the conservative right.

Excuse the echo, but this bears repeating: Those who would purposely mislead or seek to confuse others are bad people. Worse, they are evil.

Conspiracy theorists will always be among us, and the credulous are in no danger of extinction. However, that a million people — or 60 million — believe something doesn’t make it true. Nor does crying “fake news” alter what is. The proof is anyone’s for the asking.