“When it comes to so-called ‘news’, view with skepticism…”
— Ronn Lehmann
It may seem that the notion of Fake News is a recent phenomenon, but the truth is that it’s been with us nearly as long as there’s been an ‘us’.
Here are just a few examples of news that we still believe today, but that are, in fact, fake.
In fact, Nero was 35 miles away when the Great Fire of Rome broke out, and he quickly raced to help coordinate the relief efforts. Though there were insinuations that he may have orchestrated the fire in order to build his Grand Palace in the fire-ravaged area, there was no fiddling or any other musical activities by Nero.
The truth is that by the time he was 15, Einstein had mastered both differential and integral calculus. Sure, by his own admission he was a bit of a lazy student, skipping classes and copying notes from his friends in the physics program. Nevertheless, he was still at the top of his class. Why would we believe the guy who came up with E = mc2 flunked basic mathematics?
It was real news that the stock market crashed in 1929. But stockbrokers jumping out of windows? And even, as some reports claimed, lines of brokers waiting for a free window? Nope, not even one verified instance of that happening…call it none.
Lady Godiva was real, as was (presumably) the horse. And she did live near Coventry. But that’s about it. This story didn’t even appear until 200 years after the good Lady died, and historians at the time of the supposed ride only made reference to the fact that she was married to Leofric, Earl of Mercia and that she donated a lot of dough to the church. You think if she had really ridden through town naked someone would have mentioned it.
There are lots more examples of historical Fake News, but you get the point.
In the meantime, when it comes to so-called ‘news’, view with skepticism, approach with caution, don’t take at face value, consider the source, or keep a grain of salt nearby.
All of these images were AI-generated. So…you know…fake.
Ronn Lehmann advises organizations and leaders on the human factors that determine their culture. Lehmann developed the Cultural Audit Process, which is designed to provide an outside perspective of an organization’s culture: what’s important, what’s rewarded and punished, what the rules are, and how people “show up.”
Success Authorities’ book, “Conversations for Clarity: Critical Questions Leaders Must Ask Themselves” is available now at Amazon!
