Fake News! What’s the buzz all about? For months these words have been in the headlines, debated on television programs, discussed around dining room tables, and griped about at watercoolers.

How do we really define fake news? Is it outright lies, alternative facts, biased reporting, or creative license? How can we trust what we read or hear? In the Digital Age, power of the press is challenged by power of the individual.

Claims of abuse of this power are made every day. Most concerned residents want to be informed, but information overload and a focus on the negative have many giving up entirely. How do we find the balance? Who do we trust?

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The Incline Village Library will host a Tahoe Talk on this topic on May 9 at 6:30 p.m. Joining the conversation will be Betts Markle, Prim Library Director at Sierra Nevada College; Fred Lokken, political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College; and Ben Rogers, publisher of the Sierra Sun and North Lake Tahoe Bonanza newspapers.

Betts Markle has been the library director for SNC for the past 10 years, has a master’s degree in Library Science, and a Ph.D. from Colorado State University. She came to Incline by way of Atlanta, Georgia, and the Chicago suburbs.  

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Yes, Betts is a Cubs fan! Betts has received grants from the Nevada State Library to bring authors and poets to the SNC campus and the community and to establish the SNC Poetry Center and a Sustainability Resource Center. Her passion is libraries and the library services provided by each library from school, to public, to academic. 

Fred Lokken joined the Political Science faculty at Truckee Meadows Community College in 1991, and was tenured in 1996. Prior to coming to TMCC, he served as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse for nine years. He currently serves as chair of the History, Political Science and Law Department at TMCC.

He is recognized as a political pundit for local, state, and national politics. He has served for the past 14 years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Instructional Technology Council, an Affiliated Council of the American Association of Community Colleges.

He also serves as a member of the Law Related Education committee of the Nevada Bar Association. He stepped down in 2015 as a member of the Washoe County Library System Board of Trustees after eight years of service.

Ben Rogers moved to the North Tahoe and Truckee region in November of 2015 to take on the role of general manager and advertising director of the Sierra Sun and North Lake Tahoe Bonanza.

In January 2017, he became publisher of both publications. Prior to moving to the region, he was general manager and managing editor of the Grand Junction Free Press. He has worked for Swift Communications, the Sierra Sun, and Bonanza’s parent company since 2010.

Libraries have long been the institutions residents and students have trusted to vet and curate information, as well as teach them how to do so for themselves. Join us for a community conversation about this timely topic. Bring your questions and concerns. Resources will be available to help you navigate the flood of “news” that besieges us each day.