Opinion: Has fake news fooled you? Blame your level of education, not your politics.

To the editor: Anne Friedman makes an excellent point when she says it’s our responsibility to read news items critically. (“It’s not just Trump supporters who spread fake news. Liberals do it too,” Opinion, Feb. 28)

But how does one learn to do that? It’s a skill that apparently doesn’t come naturally, as courses that teach critical thinking are often mandatory for a college degree.

By de-emphasizing education, we produce a society that is increasingly inept at telling truth from fiction, leading to the inability to distinguish between a candidate who is qualified to hold office and one who is not.

This is how we get an administration that wants to increase the military budget by $54 billion while cutting spending on education.

Anne Pichler, Pomona

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To the editor: Recently, I’ve had three different friends tell me three different fake-news-gone-left untruths: President Trump started a riot in Sweden with his remarks about that country; he called for viewers to boycott the Oscars broadcast; and he not only labeled the press the enemy of the people, he also claimed he never said that.

I have what Jonah Goldberg has described as the feeling of having passed into a parallel universe. To my otherwise astute friends, these outlandish things now seem plausible. The doors of perception, rather than being cleansed, have been clouded, and every absurd thing appears probable.

Carole Cooper, Manhattan Beach

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To the editor: There may be examples of “fake news” on the left, but they are different from those on the right.

The continued allegations of millions of illegal immigrants voting, the years-long focus on Hillary Clinton’s actions concerning Benghazi and her e-mail server, allegations of improprieties by the Clinton Foundation, Fox News focusing on President Obama’s travel expenses, Trump’s pronouncements having to be refuted so frequently — these are all so much more damaging to our country than anything Friedman reports.

Daniel Fink, Beverly Hills

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