* “Mama Laura and I went to a dinner party where we said the first of our goodbyes to Californian friends.”

Note: The dinner party took place on September 22, 2018.

* “Another guest then excused the lies that pour forth from a certain commentator on Fox News.”

Source and note: As I make clear in the next sentence, I’m referring to Sean Hannity. About his lies, see, for example, Peter Baker, “Fox Rebukes Sean Hannity’s and Jeanine Pirro’s Participation in a Trump Rally,” The New York Times, November 6, 2018.

Key passages and quotes from Hannity: “Mr. Hannity’s role here was a surprise and yet not. On Sunday, the Trump campaign organization announced that Mr. Hannity and Mr. Limbaugh would join the president at the Cape Girardeau rally as ‘special guests.’

By Monday afternoon, Mr. Hannity was disputing that. ‘In spite of reports, I will be doing a live show from Cape Girardeau and interviewing President Trump before the rally,’ he wrote on Twitter. ‘To be clear, I will not be on stage campaigning with the President. I am covering final rally for my show. Something I have done in every election in the past.’ The Trump campaign news release was deleted from the web.

Except then he was onstage campaigning with the president. ‘Sean Hannity, come on up,’ beseeched Mr. Trump.

Mr. Hannity climbed onto the stage and took the microphone. Referring to the news media pen in the back of the arena, Mr. Hannity echoed one of the president’s favorite lines. ‘By the way,’ he said, ‘all those people in the back are fake news.'”

* “‘I’m keeping a patch of it in a box with other things of the past…'”

Source: Text exchange with Louis on November 25, 2018.

* “Now if only more of us would tune out the carnival barkers and click-baiters to do an evening’s worth of research – pro, con, and in between – on whatever’s riling us up.”

Note: For your research efforts, here’s a checklist to determine whether you’ve come across fake news. Courtesy: Ann Auman, professor of media ethics, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.