It referred to a real and serious phenomena, but now the phrase has been muddied by political rhetoric. It's still a problem, and it's different enough from the old clickbait sensationalism and conspiracy theory chain emails that it deserves its own name.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/for-the-new-yellow-j...

https://medium.com/@ev/i-found-it-interesting-that-when-i-we...

Nah, for the most part what some are calling "fake news" is still the old-fashioned clickbait.

I can remember several scandals over the years from the big news agencies that would be considered "fake news" by today's standards. They range from just being wrong to outright fraud. This is nothing new, this crap existed before there were websites. It's just that people simply choose not to remember to continue their desire to have something whine about.

It is also an old tactic by people wishing to discredit those that disagree with their agenda, whether it is political or economic.

I suppose fake news has been totally normal in the showbizz coverage world - and popular. Now it goes mainstream and people complain...