Spreading false rumors and fabricated stories has unfortunately become a trend in Lebanon (and worldwide) and most of the TVs and news outlets don’t even bother verifying a story before publishing it. If we look at the most recent US presidential elections, fake election news stories shockingly outperformed real news on Facebook. The sad part is that most of the major Lebanese news outlets couldn’t care less if a story is accurate or not as long as it gets them more clicks.
Needless to say, this is wrong and news outlets should be doing their job more professionally and ethically but that’s not gonna happen anytime soon here. Until then, there’s a Facebook page called Badil.LB or وزارة الإعلام البديل which is picking up fabricated and fake stories, proving they are wrong and shaming the news outlets who spread them.
The most recent story was the one related to Putin that was published by Addiyar, then picked up by Al Jadeed and Tayyar. It sounds like a scene from an action movie but somehow all three news outlets fell for it (then removed the story).
All in all, if you are not so sure about a story shared on a Lebanese news outlet and you’re too lazy to verify it, don’t share it for your own sake and check this page to make sure it’s valid. It is everyone’s responsibility to check and validate any story or picture they’re sharing.
