Fake news is an old, old story. One of the biggest fake news items in the first half of the 19th century emerged from Montreal. A book, published in NYC called The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, titillated Protestants across North America with lurid tales about priestly sexual abuse of nuns in Montreal  in convent cellars equipped with lime pits to dispose of any unwanted offspring. There was an investigation that turned up nothing and inaccuracies in the book pointed to fabrication.  I first learned about this as a kid from my vey anti-Catholic grandmother who died in 1966 more than a century after the book was published. Poison like this can do its work for generations. Stopping  it in the internet age is a daunting but necessary task. We must do a much better job of educating kids to be critical and sceptical thinkers, which includes teaching them about why and how fake news spreads and why it poisons discourse. Great article.