Just saw this in Drudge:

 WASHINGTON
Two incidents hit The Miami Herald in recent days that underscore new tactics by those seeking to discredit mainstream media, and they augur what experts said are dark days in the battle between credible news and misinformation…
…In the first incident, a perpetrator used a software tool to create two fake tweets that looked like they came from the account of Alex Harris, a Herald reporter preparing tributes to the slain students. One fake tweet asked for photos of dead bodies at the school and another asked if the shooter was white.

In a second incident, someone again used a software tool to create a phony Miami Herald story — in the high tension following the Parkland shooting — saying that a Miami-Dade middle school faced threats of “potentially catastrophic events” on upcoming dates, indicating that a new mass shooting was in the offing.

Hoax attempts against Miami Herald augur brewing war over fake, real news

I find that I need to take this events with a not-so-small dose of Schadenfreude. The Miami Herald has pushed, twisted and molded news to fit their political vision that  my guess is somebody decided to return the favor in concentrated form.

“Obviously this has broad civic consequence if you have a citizenry that doesn’t know where to turn to get truthful information,” (Edward) Wasserman said. “Your information flows are being contaminated in ways that are very difficult to discern and very difficult to disentangle.”

Dear Mr. Wasserman (Who used to work for the Miami Herald and now is the Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism over at Berkeley) you  know well that the media, specially newspapers have not been interest in the veracity of an event for a long time. They are in the NEWS business not in the TRUTH business. And if anything, the financial degradation of the Miami Herald shows that people have long ago stopped trusting them.

Do you know why the hoax items was believed by many? because journalists in the past have behaved equally ghoulish and insensitive. How many repetitions and versions of the question “How do  you feel?” being asked to an obviously grieving person who just lost a loved one have settled the idea of journalistic callousness among us. And the undisguised left-wing leanings found in editorials and articles do not help making us trust you. So, when we hear or read outlandish stuff like that, it is easy to take seriously. There is a reason why The Onion and Duffle Blog are so popular: They are outlandish, the sound good but they don’t hide they are full of crap and making shit up for profit.

Let me tell you something that happened just this past week. I had not been a subscriber of the Miami Herald in years, but kept one for the Nuevo Herald which is the Spanish Language newspaper of the county and run by the same company to keep mom entertained. My sainted mother got tired of the BS and said not to waste any more money on that “pedazo de mierda” (You use Google translate if you want) so I cancelled that subscription too over a month ago.  On Thursday I get a call from them asking me to reconsider my decision. I don’t take offense since I can understand how any company would like to keep making money but I told the young lady on the phone that mom was the only reader and she is the one not wanting. Then she asked me if I would consider a subscription for the Sunday edition only because “it has well over $100 in coupons every week!”

I asked She Who Must Be Obeyed since she is the  coupon-warrior of the house and the offer was waved off. She explained that she gets better coupons online and keeps them on het phone. Plus we get “sales bulk media” (junk mail) every Thursday that has pretty much the same crap and it is for free. I passed along the denial to the Herald Sales lady and hung up.

It did not strike me till a bit later that the Miami Herald could be so desperate that was using as an excuse to subscriber its Sunday Edition as a vessel to deliver discount coupons for Publix and  $19.99 oil change at Midas. I am guessing it is the American Version of England’s using the newspaper for Fish and Chips.

Let’s face it: Fake news complaining that somebody is doing Fake News using their name simply does not strike much sympathy in this day and age.