Harvard Must Continue Fighting Fake News

This month, in an attempt to inform the general public on ways to avoid falling victim to “fake news,” the Harvard Library website published a research guide entitled “Fake News, Misinformation, and Propaganda.” The research guide has drawn criticism from right-wing news outlets for including a link to a guide put together by Merrimack College Assistant Professor Melissa Zimdars. The guide denotes the credibility of a list of news sites, flagging various conservative websites such as Breitbart as “unreliable” and “biased” sources. While the link to Zimdars’s guide may have incited controversy, the Harvard Library’s goals to better inform people on how to avoid misinformation and “fake news” is uncontroversial and should be commended.

Aside from the link to Zimdars’s compilation of news sites, the Harvard Library research guide includes a wealth of other resources that help users navigate around fake news, misinformation, and propaganda. The link is only found at the bottom of the page, after a long list of other sources. The guide also includes an infographic with practical tips, such as double-checking stories across various websites and being cautious of URLs ending in “.com.co”. It additionally includes links to browser plug-ins that can help flag “fake news” in real time. These simple tools hold the potential to improve political discourse today by advancing the mechanisms by which we validate our information.

Furthermore, Zimdars makes it clear that she compiled the list on her own. The document includes a disclaimer that reads, “All of the contents in this document reflect the opinion of the author(s) and are for educational purposes only.” The Harvard Library website clearly attributes the controversial “fake news” list to Zimdar and does not imply that the list was compiled by the University or one of its affiliates.

The informal list gives all readers the autonomy to accept or reject Zimdars’s judgments with context. The guide presents a variety of labels, from “political” to “clickbait,” and goes to great lengths to explain their significance and why they were used. The potentially controversial inclusion of conservative sites on the list should not discredit its overall goals of providing the public with a greater critical media literacy.

As the past election season and misguided comments from our own President demonstrate, there is a need to distinguish between reputable news sources and websites that spew misinformation and conspiracy theories. An informed public is the cornerstone of any democracy.

The truth is critical in these tumultuous political times. The Harvard Library’s research guide seeks to preserve that in a climate that threatens to invalidate it. Attempts to keep students, voters, and citizens informed and aware are threatened if “fake news” pervades daily life. Any attempt to curb misinformation is critical and must be lauded.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.