My take on the news -- is it fact or is it fiction?

I’ve decided to become a news poet and to try to write a poem a day based on something reported on NPR. That doesn’t mean that I won’t also check other sources about that issue. For example, my first poem is on fact checking. I read several different major media accounts of the facts following the first debate between Trump and Clinton. The irony is that fact checkers don’t always agree on what was factual and what was not. It seems that even “facts” take a conservative or liberal slant, which is in itself an oxymoron. A fact is a fact. It shouldn’t be possible to dispute it. Oh well. Here’s today’s poem based on the story “Do Fact Checks Matter?” at http://www.npr.org/2016/09/27/495233627/do-fact-checks-matter

NPR Graphic by Meg Kelly from NPR.org

Fact or fiction

“Just the facts, ma’am.”Not my opinion?What I believe?Places I’ve been?Things I’ve seen? Facts are so old school,So history-book dry,B-O-R-I-N-G We don’t needTruth-squadding.We’re in a post-fact periodWhere alternate narrativesRing truer than truth. Refutation, repetition,Recitation.Spin makes it true. We believe what we want to believeWhatever supports our viewsConfirms beliefs Someone’s pants are on fireDig in your heelsFor this “constant roar of information.”