Comment: It's time to call out fake news

But it’s a phrase calculated to deliberately undermine trust in the media – if Donald Trump is remembered for anything as president, it’ll be for creating this insiduous phrase.

That’s why we’re happy to support Local Newspaper Week’s campign against Fake News. We’ll be spotlighting the issue in a number of different ways over the coming weeks, starting with an interactive day.

Fake News is the very opposite of what we stand for, and what we do. It’s time we called it out.

No-one would dream of saying the newspaper industry is perfect – parts of it make me weep with despair – but it IS regulated, and we take responsibility for what we write in print and online.

You can disagree with us, and challenge us – but you won’t ever find Fake news in our titles or websites.

Contrast that with social media, the spiritual home of Fake News, where opinion is served as fact, and the same myths come round quicker than you can reach for the retweet or ‘like’ button.

The way we communicate, and the way we digest our news, has changed.

Fake news is a dangerous, cynical and deliberate attempt to undermine our industry and treat people with contempt. I’m more than happy to meet its users head on.

Allan Crow, Editor

Editor