How Big Tobacco Created the Template For All Fake News

For years, big tobacco knew about the health risks of smoking and chose not to tell people. Instead, they doubled down on promoting smoking and people died. It's a widely known example, but there are some disturbing parallels to the misinformation and fake news that plagues us today.

It is a tragic but instructive story, both of how powerful storytelling can be used for evil purposes, and of how we must train ourselves and our children to recognize and ignore this type of deception. With smoking it was literally life or death. It might soon be the same for all of us.