Active measures show up on here, this is a pretty big forum with a larger than average number of influential users after all. But typically those posts are down voted pretty quickly.

It does seem to be getting pretty paranoid here. Another ny times post got flagged this morning after receiving 25 points in an hour for god knows what reason (i thought it was an interesting read): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17302371

Yes. Clarity is important.

>Do people take the 'fake news' claims seriously?

"Fake news" is now an argument against anything you disagree with. Trump pioneered the strategy, but now even Elon Musk is doing it.