So Sayeth Mr. Lincoln

A few astute observers are curious about the image of Abraham Lincoln that appears in the photo of my office in the "Onward and Upward" post. Honestly, it's just a printout of a viral meme — an oldie-but-goodie, I guess — but it's worth sharing again and again.

All of us are grappling with high-stakes fallout from media asymmetry, information overload, and critical thinking deficits, too. More to the point, we are grappling with serious epistemic dysfunction in this current age of misinformation, disinformation, algorithmic manipulation, and erosion of trust in our Fourth Estate.

When I was still teaching, I used to hammer home to my students the profound importance of truth and accuracy in journalism, and I continue to shout it from the rooftops today. Perhaps President Lincoln here can help remind all of us to stay vigilant in our everyday lives and to just keep our bullsh*t detectors tuned up and running.

Here's a digital copy of Honest Abe for you to share. When you're finished doing that, take a look at my favorite "fake news" cheat sheet and share that, too! ☮︎