Fake News: nothing new there

Have you heard of "The Donation of Constantine"? It's an early, but by no means the first, example of fake news. In the 13th century, the Catholic Church produced a document purported to have been written in the 4th century, in which the Emperor Constantine, having been miraculously cured of leprosy by Pope Sylvester, promised huge tracts of lands to the church. It was then used to usurp many huge countrified areas of Europe. More than a hundred years later a Jesuit priest worked out the document was a fake. It used words not in use at the time it was said to have been written, and whole phrases that didn't come in at least until the 8th century.
          Fast forward to the 1680s, when opponents of Catholic James II prepared the fake news that James's wife, Mary of Modena's new baby was not hers at all but had been smuggled into the Royal Bedchamber in a bed warmer. The whole story was a pack of lies, but it caught hold and played a significant role in the ousting of James by good ol' proddy King Billy.
          Adolph Hitler liked a bit of fake news himself, and often invented entirely fictitious reasons for invading European countries: they're mistreating our German expats, they asked us to come in, honest, etc etc.

And on to the present day, where anyone who dares to speak out about Donald Trump gets accused of peddling fake news. Like CNN, who showed side-to-side pictiures of  the crowds at Obama's and Trump's inaugurations, clearly illustrating far larger numbers at the former. Fake news, said DT, and refused all further questions from CNN at press conferences. This, you might say, is not of cosmic importance, though Trump's insistence that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by a cabal of scientists, probably at the behest of the Chinese, is. It will allow him to bin all plans to reduce CO2 output, just at the time when these curbs are absolutely vital to the future of the world. And if America abandons its green initiatives, many, many countries are going to follow suit. China has said it will follow through on its promises, and you have to concede that a world where China is more progressive than than America is a world gone mad indeed.