Fake news has been around since printing.
The New York Sun got it’s start with a fake story about seeing bat-men on the moon, and on a slow news day the editors would just make up a tale about Viking ships seen sticking out of rocks in the desert, flying machines that picked up cows, flying monsters shot down by cowboys.
If you can remember back to March and April of 1966, the newspapers were full of stories about sunken cities found off the coast of Peru.
Remember about 25 years ago when Chinese rifles and ammo was banned in the USA? The news media had a field day showing three train cars full of confiscated ammo. But you never heard that someone looked closer and found it was perfectly legal Russian ammo, not Chinese.
Remember the rigged tests on trucks to “prove” they would burst into flames when wrecked?
As someone once said...”If you do not take a newspaper you are not informed. If you DO take a newspaper you are mis-informed.”
Mark Twain