News Literacy: How to Distinguish Between Noise and News

These days, thanks to the internet, anyone can be a publisher, offering "alternative facts" and outlandish conspiracy theories to receptive audiences. Inconvenient truths from legitimate news organizations are frequently being attacked as "fake news." How did we get into this mess and what can we do about it?

Dennis Stern has worked as a journalist and newspaper executive for most of his career, including 28 years at the New York Times. At the Times, he held various editing roles in the news department before moving to the business side to become deputy general manager. He gets his daily dose of news from numerous sources: in print from the Times and the Valley News and on-line from at least a half-dozen web sites, some more trustworthy than others. He lives in Lyme.