(Pt. # 2) Killing the Truth with Disinformation.
How and why strategic denialism is successful.
This is the second of a series of three installments about Killing the Truth with Disinformation. If you haven’t read the first article, here’s a link.
Link to Pt. 3 Killing the Truth with Disinformation
Link to Pt. 1 Killing the Truth with Disinformation
Before we move on, I want to point something out about me.
I’m not anti-Republican or Pro-Demarcat per se. I’m fiscally conservative and socially responsible. Not extreme on either side. I tend to vacillate between the two, depending on the issue. I think we need both parties to maintain a semblance of balance in democracy. Both parties are most certainly needed.
My Opinion: If you look back at the history of our wonderful country and political system, it’s like a pendulum swinging to the right, sometimes too far, then swinging back to the left - sometimes too far there, as well. But, in between the swinging back-and-forth, we always pass through the middle for just the right balance. In the big picture, I believe we tend to stay more in the center range — more than getting stuck on one side or the other. All in all, it’s a pretty good system. Actually, a great system!
And Now… part two.
These days we’re faced with an alternate reality. Alternate facts, as “they” say. Think about how the insurrection was spun into tourists going on a tour of the Capital. They were peaceful protestors, they said. And, the violence came from Antifa.
Now… think about how those messages were played over and over, day after day on FOX and the like, then repeated on mainstream media as quotes from, get this — congressmen, senators and other officials. All giving those messages oxygen, and eventually enabling them to take root.
There are five common tactics used by science and reality deniers.
Research published in 2009 by Pascal Diethelm and Martin McKee along with research conducted by cognitive scientists, John Cook and Stephan Lewandowski, identified five characteristics of science deniers:
They rely on cherry-picked evidence;
Engage in illogical reasoning;
Believe in conspiracy theories;
Rely on fake experts (and dismissal of actual experts);
Set impossible standards for what science should be able to deliver.
Do you think Stop The Steal fits into this pattern? How about the January 6 insurrection? Or Rudy Guiliani’s flash drive incident claiming Georga election workers passed and inserted a flash drive adding fake ballots to the vote count in Joe Biden's favor.
He created lots of doubt! Especially when saying, “I have evidence.” That engenders a lot of steam and momentum. And why not?! He said he had evidence. It must be true! As we now know — there was ZERO evidence. In fact, he’s been ordered by the courts to pay out millions in defamation and damages charges.
Three things must happen for Strategic Denialism to be successful.
As Lee McIntyre writes,
Disinformation must be created;
it must be amplified;
and it must be believed.”
The goal is no longer to prolong the truth - but to kill it!
Let’s take the first point:
Disinformation must be created.
Remember Trump and his 30,000 lies? Remember the word, alternate facts being created by the last administration? And, Sean Spicer’s press conference? There are countless individuals creating disinformation, as well as special interest groups. Yes, entire organizations are producing disinformation, alternate facts, misinformation, etc.
Brief history of modern disinformation.
Let’s go back for a second to where modern disinformation began. It has its roots in various historical events and developments from many hundreds of years ago, but it evolved significantly during WWI and was further developed by… you guessed it — The Soviet Union’s Joeseph Stalin.
He pioneered the use of propaganda as a tool of state control and ideological warfare. The Soviet government employed a vast network of newspapers, radio broadcasts, and other media outlets to disseminate propaganda both domestically and internationally.
Disinformation begins with an Agenda.
It begins with an agenda for power or money — or both.
Journalist Jane Mayer, wrote an article for The New Yorker titled, The Big Money Behind the Big Lie, providing evidence that there are groups with special interest doing for election denial what the tobacco companies did for science denial.
She traces the origin and trail of millions of dollars that have funded dozens of election Integrity projects, litigation and anti-vote candidates. She quotes US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who says, “It’s a massive covert operation run by a small group of billionaire elites. These are powerful interests with practically unlimited resources who have moved on to the manipulation of our precious American gifts — the vote.”
Holy cow, Batman!
She lists the following organizations: Bradley Foundation, Turning Point USA, True the Vote, the Heritage Foundation, and the Federalist Society as a start.
In my research, Russia, specifically Putin, continues to pop up. Naturally, I remember all of the reports of Trump, Putin, and the election of 2016. And, of course, I can’t forget the time, as President of the US, Trump met for thirty or sixty minutes privately with Putin. No US staff whatsoever! No US translator whatsoever! Only Trump, Putin and Putin’s translator. That has never happened before, especially with an adversary. Why? But my bigger question: Why is this not talked about more in the media, especially now?
One thing for certain, Trump has been pulling tactics from Putin’s disinformation playbook. It was noted in Robert Mueller’s Special Report that Russia’s interference definitely happened - and should not be minimized. And… we haven’t even seen the redacted versions.
We need not forget: The former Communist Russian and KGB protocol is, Divide and Conquer. It’s kind of like it’s part of their constitution. If you’ve been paying attention, that’s exactly what Putin has been doing for years. They tried it in the 1960s, and they’ve picked it back up with the help of the extremists, especially with the addition of Trump on the campaign trail back in 2015.
Remember how Trump began to bash the New York Times, calling them fake news? He then started adding all other news outlets that reported negative stories about him. That was the beginning of this extreme separation we began to experience in 2016.
Steve Bannon. Remember him? He once said, “Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” FOX has been a key mechanism for helping amplify Bannon’s system.
I think we can all agree that he’s a disinformation creator.
On to the next. Amplifiers.
In this day and time, it’s way too easy to amplify a message, a talking point, a lie.
FOX does it. So does Newsmax and similar extreme right digital platforms.
We all know what YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok can do to amplify a message. Algorithms are designed to keep people on that platform, which amplifies and feeds the flame of disinformation and hate.
In 2021, Mathew Ingram wrote in a Columbia Journalism Review:
“The algorithms themselves, and the inputs they use to choose what we see in our feeds, are opaque. They’re known only to senior engineers within those companies, or to malicious actors who specialize in ‘computational propaganda.’”
Algorithms weaponize disinformation creating automated propaganda.
Number three: It must be believed.
For many years this was the most baffling aspect for me. How can people, many of whom I’m friends with, and of high intelligence, believe such crap? For some issues, I can understand. But, a lot of the disinformation is complete nonsense. I won’t even go into the Q-Anon.
Lee McIntyre, in his book, On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy, writes, “The goal of disinformation is not just to get you to question some particular fact…but to erode your trust in the ‘truth tellers.’”
In other words - you can’t trust mainstream media - or believe anything they say.
Lee McIntyre adds, “This is why distrust, and not just doubt, is the prime objective of a denialist campaign. Mere doubt can be overcome with evidence, but distrust cannot.
When someone refers to NPR, NBC, CBS, CNN and the like as fake news, I like to ask them if they ever watch it. Their answer: No. I then follow up with, how then do you know it’s fake news? We know why, don’t we?
They create an opposition, an enemy. Bannon made it clear. Then constantly push to erode trust in them. Us against them.
Then - there’s tribalism. We all want to feel a part of. To belong. With that, there’s the emotional appeal.
While reading Brian Stelter’s book, Network of Lies, I got a zinger. He says, “Americans more and more defined themselves by who or what they opposed, detested, denigrated.”
I go immediately to the issue of abortion. That’s a great issue to oppose and detest. Now, they say, join us to fight the enemy. Become part of our tribe. And remember, you can’t trust the mainstream media.
A key aspect.
We can’t take lightly that FOX & friends (extreme media outlets, not the show) have hammered day-in and day-out topics to detest. To oppose. To hate. All of which the opposition (Democrats) are for. If you watch FOX, you’ll see that they zero in on topics to oppose and hate in the opposition, rather than focus on facts. They cherry-pick and take a half-truth, bake it, and then add way too much yeast, which blows the half-truth severely out of proportion. Of course, fear is the number one tactic: You must oppose them or they’re going to take your children…(exaggeration). Not much, though.
Let’s pause again for a second:
Disinformation creators divide to conquer.
They polarize. Create silos. Make it us against them.
They focus on issues to oppose, hate, fear.
They not only create an opposition - but an enemy. Then feed that fire with fear.
They appeal to tribalism and emotional appeal.
But the first and foremost tactic is to divide to conquer. And that, my friends, they have done.
We’ve seen this extreme polarization develop right before our eyes for the past eight or so years. Remember, divide and conquer is the key component of Soviet Communism. Putin communisim.
In his book Hoax, journalist Brian Stelter tells the story of how a 2016 Russian-manufactured conspiracy theory—regarding the murder of Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich—found its way onto the popular morning show Fox and Friends because (as a Fox News employee later revealed in a lawsuit) it “advanced President Trump’s agenda.”
First, it wasn’t even true — then notice it said Russian-manufactured conspiracy theory. In addition to that, there is increasing evidence that FOX has been reporting stories that come straight out of Russian TV, the state-funded, Putin-controlled TV.
Bottom line — FOX and their friends on the extreme right are unquestionably disinformation creators. They follow the Putin playbook and are perhaps much more tied to Putin’s influence than we know. Tucker Carlson was certainly a mouthpiece for Putin and his war in Ukraine.
With a background in media and news - I’ve always watched all the outlets — local, national and cable networks, including FOX. Yes, FOX. I love to observe how each covers not only the news, but specific stories. Although, it’s gotten to where I can no longer watch FOX. It’s so unbearable. They used to produce news during the day - then opinions at night. Now, it’s agenda-driven propaganda. All. Day. Long. But… every once in a while I can’t stop myself from taking a peek.
News Organizations, in general.
Most news organizations start the day with, What topics, issues and stories are important for us to cover? What’s newsworthy today?
FOX, on the other hand, seems to start their day with, what’s our agenda for today? What information do we want or need to push? What is going to further our agenda? Recently, I’ve begun to wonder who is behind the FOX agenda. Watching last night regarding the Supreme Court hearing on immunity was appalling. It was nothing more than propaganda. I couldn’t believe it.
They do the very thing they accuse real media of doing.
There are some exceptions in mainstream media, however. For example, MSNBC leans heavily to the left. But still, the difference between them and FOX is they report the facts and then add their bias. FOX starts with an agenda, then molds their shows to conform and push propaganda. There just isn’t any other word for it.
I can, comfortably, say that FOX is no longer a news organization. And we — capitol W, E should not treat it as one. I can no longer say it’s conservative news. It’s propaganda news. Not unlike communist TV or Russian state TV.
Now… what can we do about this craziness? How can we stop the insanity?
That’s next on the final installment of ThinkonThis, Breaking Fake News.
Such good and important information! Thank you for making it so clear.
Thank you for reading and supporting me. It's so important thar the shadows behind these instigators get revealed.