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In the past few weeks, I have found myself having a bit of a crisis.

Despite the furor over fake news, I always considered myself savvy enough to pick it out. A wildly inaccurate headline there, a misleading photo there. Stories that seemed too good or too bad to be true, with bad grammar or slightly modified URLs of popular websites. The fake news model was rather predictable.

But recently and especially after Jan. 20, a strange thing began to happen: The line between clearly fake and mainstream began to blur.

RELATED:Tucker Carlson fights fake news on his own show after a man pretended to pay people to protest Trumps inauguration

Establishment media has already been having growing pains adjusting to a newly adversarial relationship with an administration, but creeping absurdity has begun to infect mainstream media, so long as it fulfills an existing one-note narrative. Suddenly, even someone like myself who works in public policy and follows mass media daily is questioning what is real and what is fake.

Whether it was stories claiming that President Trump had photoshopped his hand bigger or was planning to scale back LGBT protections, patently false Trump stories have gone viral and gained thousands of retweets, even among supposedly mainstream journalists.

Just in the last few weeks, CNN got caught falsely suggesting that Nancy Sinatra did not want her fathers song used at the Inauguration, and the New York Times spread a story claiming Governor Rick Perry didnt know the basics of his job that turned out to be based on a single quote from a person who later said it was taken out of context.

Meanwhile, a Time magazine reporter claimed that Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. that hadactually been hidden behind a Secret Service Agent, and just this Tuesday morning, a Pelosi staffer uploaded and later deleted a video purporting to be Speaker Paul Ryan saying that a press conference was a waste of my fucking time into a hot mic. CNN journalists and dozens of others retweeted the story without the most obvious of fact-checking such as asking if there were lapel microphones or if the Speaker was near the podium (spoiler: there werent, and he wasnt).

For the most part, these types of stories share the common theme of being rather frivolous and inconsequential. But quick shares of silly stories have real-life consequences.

President Trump, regardless of how one feels about him in general, is unquestionably a master of messaging. Every time mainstream journalists cry wolf or smugly spread a story that turns out to be fake, they damage their very important role as public guardians. Every time journalists cant be bothered to fact check, they give another out to the administration in cases of legitimate criticism, and make more people take its side.

Hysteria and half-truths are a godsend to Trump, despite his complaints, because he thrives on deflection. For every discussion of whether or not the recent Executive Order is a #MuslimBan (it isnt) or maybe a de facto ban (a longer discussion), there is less attention paid to real policy questions or the tragic consequences of bad implementation.

For every knee-jerk protest of a Supreme Court nominee before most protesters have even had time to Google who he is, there is less focus paid on more eyebrow-raising actions against legal residents.

RELATED:Does fake news really work best on conservatives, or is that just what some want you to believe?

In other words, perhaps, if literally everything is terrible, nothing is. And if journalists cant fact check stories that fit a narrative, they should expect their narrative to be questioned when it matters the most.

Bad government policy has the very real potential to destroy lives, and an aggressive media is a vital part of ensuring the public knows and is able to hold elected officials accountable. The infotainment empire was rightfully criticized for turning a blind eye at some of the excesses of the Obama administration and for playing footsie with the Clinton campaign.

But the shoddy fact-checking and one-note hysteria under Trump are just as worthless, if not more so. With lives and livelihoods at stake, its time for the media to stop handwringing about #FakeNews and take a long hard look in the mirror.

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The mainstream media need to get their own #FakeNews under control - Rare.us

Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua recently announced plans to consolidate four existing state media companiesChina Securities Journal, Economic Information Daily, Shanghai Securities News and Xinhua Publishing Housewith a fifth soon-to-launch company, creating what is to be called the China Fortune Media Corporation Group.

Some reports have framed the news as relevant on a global scale. Business Insider, for instance, wrote China wants more control over its storyspecifically the story of its economybeing told around the world, in similar fashion to how RT acts to spread Russias viewpoint across the globe.

But while the consolidation is undoubtedly about message control, Jonathan Hassid, an assistant professor at Iowa State, says the move is about domestic communications more than international. And, he added, its hardly surprising.

The Chinese government has been pushing media consolidation for at least the last 15 years, Hassidalso the author of Pressing Back: The Struggle for Control over Chinas Journalists, which investigated journalistic resistance to government demands and censorship in Chinaexplained, the Chinese government wants to get these smaller players to consolidate because its easier to manage content.

Hassid doesnt mean manage in an administrative sense; content is controlled by the state in order to support and promote the Chinese Communist Party.

In fact, while the trend of consolidation is longstanding, President Xi Jinping has noticeably ramped up media control since taking office. Since 2013, the Chinese Communist Party has moved to reassert its dominance over the message, David Bandurski, editor of the China Media Project, a website that documents and analyzes the process of media reform in China, wrote last year.

As Bandurski summarized, Not only has General Secretary Xi Jinping, using the strongest language in decades, re-staked the CCPs longstanding claim to media controlhe has also moved aggressively against influential Weibo users, effectively muzzled the more outspoken commercial press, and placed himself at the helm of a powerful new Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs.

Just last year, Jinping visited three media companiesXinhau being one of themand reiterated their requirement to party loyalty. All news media run by the Party must work to speak for the Partys will and its propositions and protect the Partys authority and unity, he decreed.

Still, while Jinping has been explicit about the role and loyalty required of media, Hassid did add that censorship in China is unusual because its not always explicit. And, unlike censorship in the Soviet Union, for instance, its not carried out by a central group.

Most censorship in China is self-censorship, he said. People think theres this big government body that censors things. But its much more clever. Reporters involved will get in trouble days, weeks later. No one knows when the axe is going to fall. The rules are so deliberately unclear, most journalists step well back from any sensitive topic.

Alyssa Oursler is a freelance writer based in San Francisco. You can find her on Twitter at @alyssaoursler.

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The Chinese Government Is Rapidly Consolidating Its Media in Order to Control Their Domestic Message - Paste Magazine

Broadcasters make billions in profits while using the public airwaves for free. In return, they are supposed to provide programming that fulfills community needs. Instead, lobbyists have successfully fought to make it easier for broadcast companies to gobble up even more free airspace while doing less to serve the public.

Take Action to end the big broadcast swindle.

2011 Revenue: $6.2 billion

Company Overview: These private equity firms own Clear Channel, the largest radio station owner in the country. Approximately half of the company's revenue is generated from radio broadcasting. The remaining half comes from advertising companies and other investments.

Radio: 866 radio stations and Premiere Radio Networks (a national radio network that produces, distributes or represents approximately 90 syndicated radio programs, serves nearly 5,800 radio station affiliates and has over 213 million weekly listeners. Programs include the Rush Limbaugh Show, Glenn Beck and the Sean Hannity Show); Fox Sports Radio; Fox News Radio; Australian Radio Network

Other: Katz Media (radio advertising broker); American Outdoor Advertising

2011 Revenue: $14.2 billion

Company Overview: CBS Corporation "has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and the CW a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime Networks, Smithsonian Networks and CBS Sports Network), local television (CBS television stations), television production and syndication (CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products), video/DVD (CBS Home Entertainment), motion pictures (CBS Films) and socially responsible media (EcoMedia)."

TV: Twenty-nine television stations and CBS Television Studios; CBS Entertainment; CBS News; CBS Sports; CBS television stations; CBS Television Studios; CBS Studios International; CBS Television Distribution; the CW; Showtime; CBS College Sports Network; CBS Television Network; Smithsonian Networks

Radio: CBS Radio and 130 radio stations

Online Holdings: CBS Interactive; CNET

Print: Simon & Schuster; Watch! Magazine; Pocket Books; Scribner; Free Press (publishing house)

Entertainment: CBS Films

Other: CBS Outdoor; CBS Connections; EcoMedia

2011 Revenue: $55.8 billion

Company Overview: In 2011, the Federal Communications Commission approved Comcasts takeover of a majority share of NBCUniversal from General Electric. This merger combines the nation's largest cable company and residential Internet service provider and one of the world's biggest producers of TV shows and motion pictures. Comcasts media holdings now reach almost every home in America. It serves customers in 39 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to its vast NBCUniversal holdings, Comcast has 23.6 million cable subscribers, 18 million digital cable subscribers, 15.9 million high-speed Internet customers and 7.6 million voice customers. Comcast recently entered into a partnership with Verizon in which each company will market and sell the other's services.

TV: NBCUniversal; twenty-four television stations and the NBC television network; Telemundo; USA Network; SyFy; CNBC; MSNBC; Bravo; Oxygen; Chiller; CNBC World; E!; the Golf Channel; Sleuth; mun2; Universal HD; VERSUS; Style; G4; Comcast SportsNet (Philadelphia), Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic (Baltimore/Washington, D.C.), Cable Sports Southeast, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, MountainWest Sports Network, Comcast SportsNet California (Sacramento), Comcast SportsNet New England (Boston), Comcast SportsNet Northwest (Portland, Ore.), Comcast Sports Southwest (Houston), Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (San Francisco), New England Cable News (Boston), Comcast Network Philadelphia, Comcast Network Mid-Atlantic (Baltimore/Washington, D.C.); the Weather Channel (25 percent stake); A&E (16 percent stake); the History Channel (16 percent stake); the Biography Channel (16 percent stake); Lifetime (16 percent stake); the Crime and Investigation Channel (16 percent stake); Pittsburgh Cable News Channel (30 percent stake); FEARnet (31 percent stake); PBS KIDS Sprout (40 percent stake); TV One (34 percent stake); Houston Regional Sports Network (23 percent stake); SportsNet New York (8 percent stake)

Online Holdings: MSNBC.com (50 percent stake); Hulu (32 percent stake); DailyCandy; iVillage; Fandango

Telecom: Clearwire Communications (9 percent stake)

Other: Comcast Interactive Media; Plaxo; Universal Studios Hollywood; Wet 'n Wild theme park; Universal Studios Florida; Universal Islands of Adventure; Philadelphia 76ers; Philadelphia Flyers; Wells Fargo Center; iN DEMAND; Music Choice (12 percent stake); SpectrumCo (64 percent stake)

2011 Revenue: $5.2 billion

Company Overview: International media company focusing on broadcast TV, print and Web content

TV: Twenty-three television stations

Online Holdings: CareerBuilder.com; MomsLikeMe.com; ShopLocal.com; Cars.com; Apartments.com; CareerSite.biz; Livestream.com; Metromix.com; Ongo, Inc.; Reviewed.com; SavvyShopperDeals.com; Homefinder.com; BNOT.com; Nurse.com

Print: USA Today; over 600 magazines and other non-daily print publications; Clipper Magazine; Mint Magazine; Gannett Government Media; Gannett Education; Newsquest (U.K.)

Other: Gannett Healthcare Group; PointRoll; Planet Discover; Schedule Star; Classified Ventures; QuadrantONE; Fantasy Sports Ventures; Captivate; Pearls Review; Gannett Offset

2011 Revenue: $29 billion

Company Overview: Time Warner is the world's second-largest entertainment conglomerate with ownership interests in film, television and print.

TV: One television station and the Warner Brothers Television Group; Warner Brothers Television; Warner Horizon Television; CW Network (50 percent stake); TBS; TNT; Cartoon Network; truTV; Turner Classic Movies; Boomerang; CNN; HLN; CNN International; HBO; Cinemax; Space; Infinito; I-Sat; Fashion TV; HTV; Much Music; Pogo; Mondo TV; Tabi; CNN Espaol

Online Holdings: Warner Brothers Digital Distribution; TMZ.com; KidsWB.com

Print: Time, Inc.; 22 magazines including People, Sports Illustrated, Time, Life, InStyle, Real Simple, Southern Living, Entertainment Weekly and Fortune

Entertainment: Warner Brothers; Warner Brothers Pictures; New Line Cinema; Castle Rock; WB Studio Enterprises, Inc.; Telepictures Productions, Inc.; Warner Brothers Animation, Inc.; Warner Home Video; Warner Premiere; Warner Specialty Films, Inc.; Warner Brothers International Cinemas

Other: Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment; DC Entertainment; DC Comics

2010 Revenue: $3.2 billion

Company Overview: Tribune owns 23 TV stations, one radio station, 12 daily newspapers, numerous magazines and other media properties.

TV: Twenty-three television stations and the Food Network (30 percent stake); WGN America; CLTV Chicagoland; Tribune Entertainment

Radio: One radio station

Online Holdings: Zap2it.com; TribuneDirect.com; MetroMix.com (minority stake); CareerBuilder.com (minority stake); Apartments.com (minority stake); Cars.com (minority stake); ForSaleByOwner.com; HomeFinder.com (minority stake); Healthkey.com; Topix.net (minority stake)

Print: Twelve daily newspapers (including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the Hartford Courant); Chicago Magazine

Other: Tribune Media Services; Classified Ventures (minority stake)

2011 Revenue: $14.9 billion

Company Overview: Viacom is the world's fourth-largest media conglomerate, with interests primarily in cable television networks, programming production and distribution. Viacom controls over 160 networks that reach more than 600 million people around the globe.

TV: Viacom Media Networks (160 cable channels including MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TV Land, Spike TV, Tr3s, BET and CENTRIC)

Online Holdings: ParentsConnect.com

Entertainment: Viacom Filmed Entertainment (produces motion pictures under numerous studio brands including Paramount Pictures, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies)

Other: Nickelodeon Games Group

2011 Revenue: $40.1 billion

Company Overview: The Walt Disney Company owns the ABC television network; cable networks including ESPN, the Disney Channel, SOAPnet, A&E and Lifetime; 277 radio stations, music- and book-publishing companies; film-production companies Touchstone, Miramax and Walt Disney Pictures; Pixar Animation Studios; the cellular service Disney Mobile; and theme parks around the world.

TV: Eight television stations and the ABC television network; ESPN; Disney Channels Worldwide; ABC Family; SOAPnet Networks; A&E (42 percent stake); Lifetime Television (42 percent stake); the History Channel (42 percent stake); Lifetime Movie Network (42 percent stake); the Biography Channel (42 percent stake); History International (42 percent stake); Lifetime Real Women (42 percent stake); Live Well Network (42 percent stake)

Radio: ESPN Radio Network; Radio Disney

Print: ESPN The Magazine; Disney Publishing Worldwide; Juvenile Publishing; Digital Publishing; Disney Music Publishing; Marvel Publishing

Entertainment: Marvel Entertainment; ABC Studios; ABC Media Production; Pixar; Walt Disney Pictures; Walt Disney Records; Hollywood Records; Mammoth Records; Buena Vista Records; Lyric Street Records

Other: Buena Vista Concerts; Disney Mobile; Disney Theatrical Productions; the Disney Store; Disney theme parks and water parks; Disney English; Disney Interactive Media Group; Disney Games; Playdom, Inc.

2011 Revenue: $4.2 billion

Company Overview: The Washington Post Company is engaged in print and online publishing of newspapers and magazines, television broadcasting and cable television systems. The company also owns Kaplan, Inc., which provides higher education services, test preparation, language instruction and professional training.

TV: Six television stations

Print: The Washington Post; the Herald; the Washington Post News Service; Post-Newsweek Media; Greater Washington Publishing; the Slate Group (Slate, the Root, Foreign Policy); El Tiempo Latino; Express Publications (Express, ExpressNightOut.com); Social Code; Classified Ventures (17 percent stake)

Telecommunications: Cable ONE, Inc.

Other: Kaplan (Kaplan Higher Education, Kaplan University, Kaplan Test Preparation, Kaplan International, Kaplan Ventures, Kaplan EduNeering, Kaplan Learning Technologies, the Kidum Group, Kaplan Continuing Education, Kaplan Global Solutions, Colloquy, Kaplan Virtual Education and Kaplan VC LLC); Avenue 100 Media Solutions, Inc.; Bowater Mersey Paper Company (49 percent stake)

2011 Revenue: $33.4 billion

Company Overview: News Corps media holdings include the FOX Broadcasting Company; television and cable networks such as Fox, Fox Business Channel, National Geographic and FX; print publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and TV Guide; the magazines Barrons and SmartMoney; book publisher HarperCollins; film production companies 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Blue Sky Studios; numerous websites including MarketWatch.com; and non-media holdings including the National Rugby League.

TV: Twenty-seven television stations and FOX Broadcasting Company (FOX Network, MyNetworkTV); FOX News; FOX Business; FOX News Radio Network; FOX News Talk Channel; FSN (12 regional sports networks); FX; SPEED; FUEL TV; Fox College Sports; Fox Movie Channel; Fox Soccer Channel; Fox Soccer Plus; Fox Pan American Sports; Fox Deportes; Big Ten Network; National Geographic U.S.; Nat Geo Adventure; Nat Geo Music; Nat Geo Wild; Fox International Channels; Utilisima; Fox Crime; NEXT; FOX History & Entertainment; the Voyage Channel; STAR World; STAR Movies; NGC Network International; NGC Network Latin America; LAPTV; Movie City; City Mix; City Family; City Stars; City Vibe; the Film Zone; Cinecanal; Elite Sports Limited; BabyTV; STAR India; STAR Taiwan; ESPN STAR Sports; Shine Limited

Online Holdings: Hulu.com (32 percent minority share)

Print: HarperCollins Publishers; the New York Post; the Daily News; News International (the Times; the Sunday Times; the Sun); News Limited (146 newspapers in Australia); Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal, Barron's, SmartMoney, Factiva, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Local Media, Dow Jones VentureSource)

Telecom: Satellite: BSkyB (39 percent minority share); SKY Italia

Entertainment: Fox Filmed Entertainment; Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment; Twentieth Century Fox Television; Twentieth Television; Fox Television Studios

Other: Marketing/advertising: News America Marketing Group; News Outdoor; Fox Library; IGN Entertainment, Inc.; Making Fun, Inc.; Wireless Generation

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Who Owns the Media? | Free Press

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), a foe of the Second Amendment, appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joetoday to discussPresident Trump's temporary travel ban. Murphy's opinions about Trump's executive order included the claimthat gun control would make America safer than the Trump travel ban (starts around 3:18):

Said Murphy:

Of course, neither immigrants nor anyone else will be getting an "assault weapon" anytime soon, as they do not exist: it's a made-up, fairy tale category of firearm.

Murphy went on to say that the right to keep and bear arms was a "huge liability" in our law today.

The gun control crowd likes to put burdens on law-abiding folks rather than the people who can't be trusted to obey our laws. If you aspire to immigrate to the United States but are too dangerous to have a gun or access to a gun, then you have no business here.

But the anti-Second Amendment crowd wants that reversed: they would prefer no one have a firearm as the solution todangerous people roaming around, some of whom we've graciously let into our country, whomight do bad things with one.

Murphy wasn't done.

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[WATCH] Sen. Chris Murphy: Gun Control Will Make America Safer Than Trump Travel Ban - PJ Media

Forbes

We Already Screen Cell Phones At The Border, Will Social Media Be Any Different? Forbes One could imagine a specialized version of such a tool identifying any social media accounts that appear to be under the control of the user and running these against the NSA and other databases for any hits of interest or any other accounts that have ...

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We Already Screen Cell Phones At The Border, Will Social Media Be Any Different? - Forbes