The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently died, and the obituary published in the New York Times focused a lot of attention on controversies over same-sex marriage and ordaining women.  This obituary provides an unfortunate, yet clear example, of what goes through my head when I consider the term fake news.

The obituary is not fake in terms of being just a pack of lies.  I do not dispute that these controversies happened during Monson’s term.  The obituary is fake in that it is in disguise.  What it is, is political activism masquerading as journalism.

It would have been quite easy to publish a straight-forward, neutral obituary.  Instead, they used the opportunity of the death of a beloved religious leader to forward their political agenda.  Thus, if you were expecting objective and unbiased media coverage, you are getting something that is fake.

I don’t really need the New York Times, or other media sources, to tell me what to believe, or how to behave.  I have chosen to follow who I believe to be prophets and apostles for that.  I lost a prophet recently, but in short order, another one will be called.  And I can tell you this much, I will be paying much more attention to him, than I will the New York Times.