In March of 1883, the editor of the Canadian Post called out rival paper, the Warder, for spreading fake news. In a column titled, “A Specimen Warder Lie,” the Post reprinted the paragraph of “untruthfulness” and followed with a cheeky rebuttal.

The Fenelon Falls Gazette asks . . . us to say why the Dominion government took so deep an interest in the counties of Victoria and Peterboro as to vote $390,000 for Trent navigation on the eve of an election. This is easily answered. The Dominion government DID NOT VOTE A CENT OF THE MONEY TILL AFTER THE ELECTION WAS OVER AND DONE, and had Mr. Keith been returned instead of Mr. H. Cameron there never would have been a cent granted to this day. [Warder, Feb 23.]

This above is a characteristic specimen of the Warder’s unblushing mendacity. We are amazed that even the Warder should venture on a statement the untruthfulness of which is patent to everyone. It is perfectly well-known that the sum in question was voted in the session of 1882, prior to the elections, and for the express purpose of influencing the ten or twelve ridings along the line of the work. The Warder could not possibly have been so hopelessly ignorant as not to know this fact. Stand up, there, Ananias, and declare on Mr. Fee’s affidavit whether you did, or did not, knowingly tell a lie in the above paragraph.

The Canadian Post, Friday, March 2, 1883.

In fact, the Post called out the Warder for spreading lies on more than one occasion, and editor Sir Sam Hughes even faced charges of slander.

Fake news has been around forever. It is the reason we need ethics in journalism and diverse newspapers and not a single conglomerate controlling all media. Imagine if the Warder had been the only newspaper in 1883.

Original article is transcribed above, but here is the clipping, and a digital copy can be read here: https://vitacollections.ca/kl-digitalarchive/3179864/1883-03-02/issue