"We'll tell you what the news is," declared the press secretary to a dissatisfied reporter.
In late 2003, at the time the Iraq War began on what appeared as flimsy evidence, many younger people turned from television news to a fake news comedy programme on cable TV -- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart -- for their sought-after information.
Stewart, a comedian, stated that his primary purpose was comic. He lampooned the Bush administration and the subsequent Obama administration (though the latter not as pointedly), repeatedly demonstrating the hypocrisies and inconsistencies of both office-holders and the media.
Fox News and its cynical motto -- Fair and balanced (its right-wing bias showed it was neither) -- was a particular target. So also were the conventional media which had followed Fox into a pattern of shouting matches between political opponents.
Though Stewart rightly claimed that his was a fake news programme dedicated to laughter, it became the primary source for critical analysis of news for millions. While many upholders of journalistic standards praised the programme for its social value, it also had a downside.
From a strictly participant democratic standpoint, laughter -- as Freud, among others, has posited -- functions socially as a means of discharging fear and anxiety, especially in a public and social milieu.
It may well be that when those who dissent from the common view are given the outlet of laughing at the sources of their dismay, they become satisfied at the release, sufficient to do nothing further about it.
Stewart, who retired this past year from the show, has been urged to return to help people understand and cope in the era of Trump. He's made it clear he's done his job and the rest is up to all of us.
During the election campaign, social media such as Facebook were exploited both by Trump himself and people intent on simply making money. Fake news which might have influenced the election included the Pope's endorsement of Trump, and the claim that Hillary Clinton sold weapons to Isis.
Of greater concern has been the effect of this new kind of fake news on action taken by those who believe it.
In Washington DC, 28-year-old Edgar Welch was jailed for firing an assault weapon in a pizza parlour he had read was the centre of a paedophile ring run by Hillary Clinton.
A far more serious potential danger was created when Pakistan's defence minister threatened Israel with nuclear attack in response to a fake item on "AWD News" that wrongly claimed Israel had made such threats against Pakistan.
That's how wars can begin. The comic fake news has morphed from informative to seriously misleading. That's when the laughter stops.
What we need to do in self-protection is to apply even more stringently our scepticism and critical capability to what we see or read, especially on the internet. If it sounds too strange or too bad to be true, it probably isn't true.
Just as we can avoid being taken in by Nigerian scams, when we suspect the fake news, reach for the delete button.
�Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.
