archive

The post-truth society

Michael C. Dorf and Sidney Tarrow (Cornell): Stings and Scams: “Fake News”, the First Amendment, and the New Activist Journalism. Fake news is about to get even scarier than you ever dreamed: What we saw in the 2016 election is nothing compared to what we need to prepare for in 2020. Jared Keller on how Wikipedia is cultivating an army of fact checkers to battle fake news. Terrell Jermaine Starr on how Russia weaponizes fake news. Jeremy C. Young on the antidemocratic origins of fake news. Adrian Chen‏: “This got me thinking that the fake news panic in large part reflects a Twitter-Facebook divide in media”.

From CJR, a study finds Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda. National Enquirer, Facebook, and Russia Today — here’s the media consumption habits of some Trump supporters. Newsmax and the rise of Trump: Chris Ruddy has emerged over the course of the last few weeks as one of the president’s most prominent unofficial spokesmen — but their ties long antedate the administration. Carole Cadwalladr on Robert Mercer, the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media. Pro-Trump media sets the agenda with lies — here’s how traditional media can take it back. PR flacks may be the media’s secret weapon against Trump.

Julia Felsenthal on how the women of the White House Press Corps are navigating “fake news” and “alternative facts”. Is Trump trolling the White House Press Corps? At daily briefings, Sean Spicer calls on young journalists from far-right sites — the mainstream media sees them as an existential threat. How political reporters enable Trump and hurt themselves: The chase for leaks, and willingness to repeat the administration's lies, will only make matters worse for the media. How the Trump White House is trying to intimidate journalists. Trump has declared war on the press — media should come to the battlefield. How does Donald Trump think his war on the press will end? The president has long toyed with the media, but the stakes are much higher now.

Trump’s in the White House bubble, and he loves it: The president is more cloistered than his predecessors, relying on Twitter and cable news instead of retail politics. Jeet Heer on the case for taking Trump’s tweets seriously. Greg Sargent on Donald Trump’s deliberate corruption of reality-based governing. Facts are enemies of the people: Lies, damned lies, and the totalitarian mind-set.

S.I. Strong (Missouri): Alternative Facts and the Post-Truth Society: Meeting the Challenge. Fact-checking changes minds but not votes, according to new research. Tristan Bridges on why people are so averse to facts. It's not all relative: Can a devotion to cultural tolerance lead to the triumph of alternative facts?