Fake News vs. Real News – and how to tell the difference 

Sometimes the stories are made up, like "Pope Francis endorses Donald Trump." Sometimes they're politicians' spin, like dueling claims of lawmakers in Tallahassee and Gov. Rick Scott over money for economic development. And sometimes, they're flat-out lies. As more and more of us expand our news sources – going beyond newspapers and television to websites, Facebook and Twitter -- we're running into more and more stories that raise questions. Fake News? Real news? Something in between? And how do you tell the difference?

Join the First Amendment Foundation and the League of Women Voters of Orange County for an evening with professionals -- a reporter from PolitiFact, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its fact-checking, and a newspaper and a television editor -- who'll talk about what you can do to identify where a story comes from, and what’s behind it.

Tickets: $15 [Click the REGISTER NOW button at the bottom of this page to register.]

Moderator: Richard Foglesong, Professor of Political Science at Rollins College

Panelists: Joshua Gillin, Beth Kassab & Anthony Colarossi

Bios:

Joshua Gillin is a staff writer for PolitiFact Florida and the Tampa Bay Times. He previously was a reporter, editor and blogger for tbt*, the daily tabloid edition of the Times, and has written about media news for The Poynter Institute. A Nebraska native, he has a degree in journalism from his home state university and is a diehard Cornhusker. He has worked in many writing and editing capacities in news, sports and features at the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Beth Kassab is enterprise editor at the Orlando Sentinel, where she oversees the newsroom’s investigative and enterprise work. Before taking on that new role in February, Beth wrote a column at the Sentinel for 10 years. She won first place in column writing from the Florida Society of News Editors in 2015 and first place from FSNE in digital innovation in 2014. Beth is a rare Orlando native who joined the Sentinel in 2001. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News and FOX-Channel35. Beth graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism and serves on the advisory council for UF’s Journalism College. She lives in Oviedo with her husband and two young children.

Anthony G. Colarossi is the Executive Producer of Special Projects for WFTV-Orlando, Channel 9. He leads the station's investigative team, manages daily and longer-term investigative stories and oversees its political coverage. He is also the producer of Channel 9’s weekly public affairs program, Central Florida Spotlight. Before joining Channel 9 in 2012, Anthony worked for the Orlando Sentinel for 13 years. His assignments included covering the Casey Anthony case/trial; Shuttle Columbia disaster; Orlando Police Department use of force trends; abuse in Florida nursing homes; and wrongful convictions/judicial system failures. Anthony, a native of Brooklyn, is a graduate of the State University of New York at New Paltz. He has an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an M.B.A. from the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College.

Richard Foglesong is the George & Harriet Cornell Professor of Political Science at Rollins College, and teaches courses on American national politics, urban politics, and urban policy. Dr. Foglesong was the first recipient of Rollins’ Bornstein Award for Outstanding Scholarship; his books include Immigrant Prince: Mel Martinez and the American Dream (University Press of Florida, 2010); Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando (Yale, 2001); and Planning the Capitalist City (Princeton, 1986). He has also taught at UCLA, where he was the Harvey Perloff Visiting Professor of Urban Planning, and Hong Kong University, where he was a Fulbright Fellow. His civic activities include chairing the Citizens Advisory Committee for MetroPlan Orlando, the Orlando area’s three-county transportation planning agency.  Dr. Foglesong received his MA in Urban Studies and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow.

 

 

Register Now!