Trump's Lies Are a Virus, and News Organizations Are the Host

[kpete]

News outlets that quote without context Donald Trump's falsehoods and conspiracy theories make themselves unwitting hosts for viral lies.



The president's part-symbiotic/part-parasitic facility with media is a virus-host relationship.




First solution: Practice "selective abstinence."

When it's not necessary to quote the president directly, don't do it—especially on television.




Second solution: Aggressive contextualization.

Either apply Lakoff's concept of "truth sandwiches" (Tweet = context + Trump quote + correction) or strenuous fact-check throughout all direct quotes of the president, as many journalists, notably @ddale8, do reliably.

Finally, be realistic: Lies will get out.

News media accounts for a sliver of total information amplification tech. Trump's Twitter bullhorn is larger than any news org. Fox News still avgs the most viewers on cable news. Facebook BS often outperforms straight reporting-->

The goal is not to cleanse the body politic of presidential lies and conspiracies, which would be impossible.

Rather, it's to limit the spread of falsehoods within the audiences that trust in us. To build an epistemic quarantine around truth, for those who care to know it.

MORE:

Trump’s Lies Are a Virus, and News Organizations Are the Host
Journalists have become complicit in spreading the president’s falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Here’s how they can do better.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/should-media-repeat-trumps-lies/576148/

Link to tweet

[empedocles]

1. Important, great post.

We at DU I think see and get aggravated at that softness all the time.

[Some in cable news seems to be getting more aggressively precise as trump wears on though].

[dalton99a]

2. A must read

We're dealing with a dangerous pathological liar

[malaise]

3. Get thee to the greatest page - must read

Rec

[duforsure]

4. Media outlets repeating his propaganda, lies and accusations

Are complicit and responsible for what we're now witnessing in this country. They're profits over the people and the truth is sickening. Repeating his lies isn't reporting, its spreading propaganda for him.

[Achilleaze]

5. k and r

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. Excellent Diagnosis

Kick!

[yonder]

7. K&R, great post

[Botany]

8. Joseph Goebbels' "The Big Lie"

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

[triron]

9. perfect metaphor.

[lilactime]

10. K&R

[mastermind]

11. news organisation do not exist in the US

there are only for profit entertainment networks pretending to be news.

[msongs]

12. his lies are plastered all over DU on a daily basis nt

[GusBob]

14. Well to be fair, not all of them. He lies so much. But you have a point

There were times this past year when his early morning tweets would be breathlessly posted here within minutes there would be 2or3 threads repeating his drivel

The "top of the hour" Radio newscasts seemed to blasting them all the time too

Not as much anymore. I think the general public is suffering from trump tweet fatigue

[Duppers]

13. THIS!

K&R