‘Fake news’ sounds new, but Thucydides, writing about 2,500 years ago, reminds us that intellectual laziness is a long-standing attribute. 

Most people, in fact will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.

Source: Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, trans. by Rex Warner (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1959), p. 23

Photo credit: front cover of the Loeb edition of Thucydides