Keller @ Large: How To Spot Fake News

BOSTON (CBS) - In this era of rampant fake news spewing through your Facebook page or your Instagram feed or a thousand other vehicles, I often hear from people wondering – how do I sort out the phony news from the real thing?

This is an important topic, so let's look at a case study from a common source of sketchy news, a gossip column, in this case from Tuesday's Boston Globe.

"Did Tom Brady once date Ivanka Trump?" asks an article there, which goes on to repeat speculation that this past relationship – and the antipathy of Brady's wife Giselle Bundchen to it – might have been the reason Brady passed on attending the Pats visit to the White House where they were honored by President Trump for their latest Super Bowl victory.

This is almost certainly false, and here's how you can tell.

First, you always have to consider the source.

In this case, the sole source of the speculation is Anthony Scaramucci, the publicity-seeking clown who spent ten cringe-filled days as White House communications director earlier this year.

Scaramucci qualified his suggestion of a Brady/Ivanka love connection by noting that "I don't 100-percent know," which in English means: "I don't have the slightest idea."

And it's probably a good idea to verify anything he says, up to and including "good morning."

With a little research, we find that the likely window for a Brady/Ivanka romance would have been the early 2000's, when he was a Super Bowl champ in his mid-20's and she was just out of college. And 15-odd years later, an accomplished woman like Giselle is supposed to be jealous?

I don't think so.

I'm calling fake news on this one.

And that's how it's done.