Track Friday for ProPublica

Bullshit is everywhere, am i right? The top FB stories before the election had the Pope endorsing Donald Trump, and Hilary's involvement in a murder plot. And our President-elect recently tweeted that Mike Pence was harassed by a group of thespians.

From Joe McCarthy to Putin,  to Trump's birther movement, leaders have used misinformation to stoke fear and gain/consolidate power for decades. And the media is more ill-equipped than ever to give us a clear picture. Budgets are tight, reporting is lazy, and there's pressure to tell their readers only what they want to hear.  If you'd read only CNN leading up to this election, youd've have assumed Trump voters were white uneducated men, which turned out to be true except for the millions and millions of other people that voted for him.

So how do we stop this rising tide of fake, weak or inaccurate information that has now engulfed our entire news landscape?

I have no idea. The first thought that came into my head was -- remove  the Internet. That way i wouldn't have to think about updating my FB profile pic which still shows a backup quarterback from a very bad football team.

Barring that, I'm going to start by participating in Track Friday this week, to raise money for ProPublica, a non-profit organization that supports quality, fact-based journalism. ProPublica acts as a supplemental news room for media outlets across the political spectrum (a tad to the left, but neutral does not exist). Sure, this may be especially important to me because my wife is a journalist, and I used to be one too. But a national media based on good, investigative, fact-based journalism is, I believe, our best bet for a strong and well-informed democracy.

Please support me so we can better call bullshit wherever it shows up.