After the Fact: The Erosion of Truth and the Inevitable Rise of Donald Trump by Nathan Bomey

Author:Nathan Bomey [Nathan Bomey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: social science, Media Studies, Language Arts & Disciplines, journalism, political science, Political Process, Media & Internet
ISBN: 9781633883789
Google: b8kwDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2018-05-08T20:23:31.663960+00:00

SPINNING THE STORY

For professional news media that have so far survived the industry's contraction, fabricated or highly misleading content—ranging from videos, audio clips, and photos to simple text—represents both an opportunity and a serious threat. As doubts about the reliability of online material grow exponentially, some consumers will seek refuge in corners of the internet containing genuinely trustworthy content. Indeed, this opportunity is already presenting itself. After the early stages of fake news became well known to the general public following the 2016 election, paid subscriptions surged for several serious, traditional watchdog journalism outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the Financial Times.43 This significant increase in online subscriptions, in particular, was especially encouraging because it's increasingly clear that digital advertising alone won't sustain many journalism jobs.

But while additional digital subscriptions to venerable national news organizations are good news, the forthcoming boom in fabricated and seriously slanted online content threatens to suck those organizations into a believability crisis. Today's fake videos, audio clips, and photos are often distinguishable from authentic news if the observer is looking closely or applying a skeptical lens. Clune said,

Every single time you turn on the radio right now [and] you hear Obama saying something, you believe it's Obama because you have a good [internal] voice-recognition system. When that stuff is perfectly faked, the ultimate solution, which is a solution that's been known for a long time in human history, is trust. Brand trust. You'll have to know that if it came from the New York Times, then it's trustworthy. But then you have the problem of people faking stuff that looks like it came from the New York Times. That's a whole extra level of problems. You just get into this situation where so much stuff is fake [that] you can't trust anything. And so then you just start believing whatever you want to believe because you don't have checks on your epistemological beliefs.44

This situation plays directly into the hands of political and corporate leaders who want to evade scrutiny. Trump has already made it his mission to discredit the traditional news media, unfairly and inaccurately labeling CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and other outlets as “fake news” whenever he disagrees with their legitimate journalism.45

Those attacks encourage his followers to question responsible reporting as well. It is common for Trump supporters to barrage journalists on social media with accusations of “fake news.”46 Trump, recognizing an opportunity to get more than just the vocal support of his base, has even trumpeted the erroneous accusations in fundraising. “It's up to us to get things done and drain the swamp in Washington. I have been listening to the REAL America, and I know you're with me. Join me in FIGHTING THE FAKE NEWS and get your sticker with any contribution today,” Trump declared in an early reelection campaign fundraising push on his website in summer 2017.47

With Trump's accusations and the coming outbreak of fabricated

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