Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History

Long before the current preoccupation with "fake news," American newspapers routinely ran stories that were not quite, strictly speaking, true. Today, a firm boundary between fact and fakery is a hallmark of journalistic practice, yet for many readers and publishers across more than three centuries, this distinction has seemed slippery or even irrelevant. From fibs in America's first newspaper about royal incest to social media-driven conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's birthplace, And...