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fake news
Can I make a plea not to use that term if at all possible?
It's a sneaky conceptual confusion.
News is news. It's only news when it's true. There is no such thing as 'fake news'. If you use that term, you either denigrate news (if you call something true false) or elevate something false to the status of 'news' (even if, as someone opposing it, you want to say it is false), in the process devaluing actual news by calling something false also 'news'.
The sooner this contradiction in terms, generally used either maliciously (in the former case) or innocently self-defeatingly (as in the second case), disappears from popular usage, the better.
Oliver Schick-
I did think about it as I wrote it, but more because it is so Trumpian and I do really dislike it as a phrase. In the end used it as lazy shorthand.
I disagree with your reasoning though Oliver. It was presented as news and it is falsified - so 'fake news' or 'false news' or whatever. The Onion or The Day Today are satirical news. Adding a modifier to 'news' is perfectly possible, especially if by doing so one is highlighting that what is presented as news is actually not.
villa-ru
Tories already unleashing the fake news.
https://twitter.com/BBCDanielS/status/1191732381306277890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1191732381306277890&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2Flive%2F2019%2Fnov%2F05%2Fgeneral-election-news-latest-corbyn-brexit-speech-gove-says-labours-claim-uk-us-trade-deal-cost-cost-nhs-500m-per-week-nonsense-live-news