Val Zavala Speaks to Pasadena LWV on Fake News

Recently the LWV-PA held a fundraiser to help underwrite voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities leading into the June 5 primary and the November 6 election.

Val Zavala at the LWV of Pasadena Area (Photo – Barbara Hodgson).

On May 11, the banquet room of Mijares Restaurant in Pasadena was filled with enthusiastic LWV of Pasadena Area members anticipating Val Zavala’s topic of “The Changing Media Landscape: From Walter Cronkite to Fake News.  Where Are We Headed?”

By Barbara Hodgson

In 1980, Val’s connection with broadcasting legend Walter Cronkite began as he handed her the first of her many awards. She met him again ten years later when she interviewed him on his biography. She asked him, “What do you see as the future of America?” Paraphrasing, he forecasted that America would be the poorest, industrial nation in the world with the feeblest education system that continues to leave children uneducated and ill prepared for life.  “Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation,” Walter Cronkite said.

The world of television has evolved from cable TV in 1980 offering more channels, but you had to pay for it, to satellite TV in 1990.  Digital Subscription Channels are now flourishing and Social Media has kicked up the communication stream to a new level.

But Fake News or yellow journalism has been fueled by man’s imagination for a very long time. In 1835, The New York Sun, reported “Discovery of life on the moon” in an attempt to boost sales but the article was later proved to be a hoax.

Val Zavala with Barbara Hodgson. The League of Women Voters (LWV) Pasadena Area also endorses and supports Pasadena Tenants Union (Photo – Author).

“‘Fake News’ was not a term many people used 18 months ago, but it is now seen as one of the greatest threats to democracy…” according to The Telegraph. But if you are diligent and seeking the truth, you may dissect the conundrum of Fake News by available resources:

• PolitiFact: Fact-checking US politics
• Fact Check – Snopes.com
• FactCheck.org – A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Val concluded her talk with a quote from H.G. Wells:

Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.

*Val Zavala, anchor, producer and award-winning journalist, of KCET’s “SoCal Connected” has recently retired after a remarkable three decades of covering Los Angeles.