If historians one day want to look back on the events of 2025 to demonstrate how the world has entered the age of disinformation they could scarcely do better than what might be called Valve-gate. This refers not to a Watergate sequel but to the moment President Donald Trump posted on his social media site a congratulations to the United States military for entering the state of California and under “Emergency Powers” turning on the water that could presumably now be used to battle Southern California wildfires.

This was false and misleading for a number of reasons, not the least of which was, as state authorities later explained, active-duty military had not been involved and the federally owned pump in question, which had been merely down for maintenance for just three days, would have little impact on water reserves which were already pretty healthy. The hydrants running dry in the Los Angeles area — certainly a serious problem at various wildfire outbreaks — had to do with local infrastructure shortcomings, not a lack of water from the north.

Yet how many Americans were left to believe the version of events posted on Truth Social and how many hung around for the corrections from state authorities or even the partial one from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt who explained the military in question was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers? We’re going to guess that the public’s understanding was probably left muddled at best which is not exactly an uncommon outcome in the first month of 2025 — as it was for 2024 and probably will continue far beyond 2026. (And, to be clear, our calls for more accuracy do not only apply to the current president and members of his party. Politicians on both sides have a nasty recent track record of not coming completely clean with the truth.)

Americans don’t face an occasional leak of misinformation, it’s more like a fire hose pointed daily in their general direction. And it doesn’t help when companies like Meta decide to end third-party fact-checking on their social media platforms.

How much easier for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to capitulate.

Fact-checking can be a thankless task, especially on such an asymmetrical information battlefield. And it likely doesn’t pay the bills when it annoys politicians with whom you are seeking to cozy up.

What’s the average person to do about this? That’s clear enough. Each of us has a responsibility to be a thoughtful consumer of information. We must behave like responsible journalists and constantly assess the credibility of our sources including their potential political bias. That can’t usually be determined by a single article or internet posting. It requires further study and review over time asking questions like:

What is the source’s reputation? How does the source’s output stand up on issues about which you may have significant personal knowledge? Are postings updated as new information becomes available? Are errors admitted and corrected? Are a variety of opinions represented? Does the reader (or watcher) have to pay for content (as with any commodity, price is often a sign of quality)?

Frequently, one can make a deeper dive into issues of consequence. Publications and websites that cover in-depth matters of science, health or technology, for example, can give the reader far greater insight than even mainstream publications like The Baltimore Sun. Make no mistake, we remain proud of what our reporters and editors produce for daily consumption and have long devoted our opinion pages to a broad range of views from the reasonably well-informed. But please do not give us a pass either: Look around. Judge for yourself how we stack up.

Not everyone enjoys the present circumstance, this thunderous cacophony of information, good and bad, around us. It’s jarring when you realize that certain people in positions of power — whether social, political or economic — misrepresent reality to advance their own interests. Yet the only responsible way to deal with this is not to shut off the outside world but to use the tools available to uncover the truth, to recognize credibility and to guard against misinformation — including AI-generated fiction with its deepfake photographic, audio and video presentations.

Last week, there was a valve to check out, but every day forward, we must be prepared for a widening floodgate of falsehoods, fakery and deception. That is simply the reality of our times.