Harvard University Fake News Sites List: Professor Explains Inclusion of Mostly Conservative-Leaning Sites
An Ivy League academic institution, Harvard University, is recently under fire for publishing an infographic and resource page in its library website titled "Fake News, Misinformation and Propaganda."
The criticism stemmed from the inclusion of numerous conservative-leaning sites that were lumped together in a list of "fake news" websites found under the section "Tips for Analyzing News Sites."
The list includes website publications such as The National Review, The Drudge Report and The Washington Examiner among others. Satirical news website The Onion was also included in the same list.
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The list of fake news websites was compiled last year by Assistant Professor Melissa Zimdars from Merrimack College.
The topic regained popularity because of recent events, most especially the U.S. presidential election which is still embroiled with issues about fake news and Russian-funded propaganda.
To her defense, Zimdars said that she did her best to include websites that are both right and left-leaning.
"There are more conservative or right of center websites included in my resource partially because there are more of them," Zimdars said in an interview with The Washington Examiner.
The professor also clarified that not all of the listed websites are labeled "fake news." "The tags political, unreliable, and even clickbait actually describe generally credible and verifiable content that supports a particular political perspective," she said, adding that these sites "sometimes uses sensational/emotionally charged headlines or language (tag: clickbait) and should be read in conjunction with other sources (tag: unreliable)."
Meanwhile, Kent Haeffner, president of the Harvard Republican Club, admitted that although Zimdars' list could be helpful to guide students in determining legitimate news sources, its seemingly biased list against conservatives could possibly alienate students with conservative-leaning ideologies.
"It would be a huge disservice to the Harvard community not to have [conservative] perspectives represented in research or in other things simply because they're on this list," Haeffner said in an interview with The Crimson.
Haeffner also noted the absence of clearly fake news sites such as Infowars and sites that are almost in the same footing as The National Review, such as Vox and Salon.
