FORT SMITH (KFSM) -- As Facebook makes plans to fight the spread of fake news, a list of misleading, fake and satirical news websites compiled by a Merrimack College professor has been going viral on social media, but a writer who now works in Fort Smith is frustrated one of the websites she worked for is on the list.
Alana Cook has been a writer since 2000 and she worked as a reporter for World Net Daily in 2014. She currently freelances for the Southwest Times Record.
She said she is frustrated because she poured her heart into her job.
"I'm known in my field for being fair and objective," Cook said.
She said she admired her editor and she did not see any signs of fake or misleading news being purposely reported by World Net Daily.
"We had daily meetings and we had to answer to [our news editor] every single day," Cook said. "I never saw anything where people were dishonest. Far from it."
However, she said she did see short-staffed newsrooms.
"I want people to under that newsrooms, their [staff] have been cut in half," Cook said.
She believes that is the biggest contributor to mistakes made in reporting.
"I don't think the issue has to do with fake news as much as it has to do with limited resources," Cook explained.