I'm not sure why, but I just cracked up when I read an article in FMT that reported on the minister responsible for communications and multimedia's denunciation of allegedly false coverage of the anti fake news law that is due to become a new law of the land in Malaysia. The circuity of the logic and word play is just too delicious to bear. The irony of the situation will surely be lost on the people concerned.
Anyway, must we really legislate on everything?
Surely the originator of the expression "fake news", Donald Trump, has shown how easy it is to classify all inconvenient truths as fake news. The way Trump dealt with adverse news coverage is to repeat his assertion of fake news as many times as possible.
Eventually the point is reached where the people who believe in him and support him finds reassurance that if their Dear Leader has angrily asserted that any particular news on any event or matter that is unfavourable or inconvenient to him was fake, then, it was indeed fake. It's as simple as that.
Trump has shown how effective that strategy is. No need for legislation. Just in his speech and his tweets, he has been able to deal with adverse news. No need for legislation. Just have a thick skin. Isn't a thick skin one of the main criteria for being a political leader?
It's all so silly, so much so that the Humpty Dumptys who want to legislate everything should really fall off the wall if only to get some good sense knocked into their heads.
pix sourced from here
