"Flood the zone with shit": How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy

[CousinIT]

This is very much a part of why Orange Hitler was so easily able to convince people the election was a fraud. His narcissistic injury and subsequent rage needs something to blame besides himself so it's the "election was a fraud" meme, which the media is all too happy to entertain - esp Fox. And, which the GOP is for the most part happy to catapult into the media atmosphere too, to 'own the libs', and to protect themselves. Republicans are, after all, only about Republicans, and little to no one else. This is the three-headed beast facilitating the frightening coup operation we're witnessing now: Trump's narcissistic rage, the media, and Republicans.

NOTE: THIS IS FROM FEBRUARY 2020. It is not a recent article.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/20991816/impeachment-trial-trump-bannon-misinformation

. . .

Trump can dictate an entire news cycle with a few unhinged tweets or an absurd press conference. The media cycle is easily commandeered by misinformation, innuendo, and outrageous content. These are problems because of the norms that govern journalism and because the political economy of media makes it very hard to ignore or dispel bullshit stories. This is at the root of our nihilism problem, and a solution is nowhere in sight.

The instinct of the mainstream press has always been to conquer lies by exposing them. But it’s just not that simple anymore (if it ever was). There are too many claims to debunk and too many conflicting narratives. And the decision to cover something is a decision to amplify it and, in some cases, normalize it.

We probably need a paradigm shift in how the press covers politics. Nearly all of the incentives driving media militate against this kind of rethinking, however. And so we’re likely stuck with this problem for a very long time.

As is often the case, the diagnosis is much easier than the cure. But liberal democracy cannot function without a shared understanding of reality. As long as the zone is flooded with shit, that shared understanding is impossible.

[tulipsandroses]

1. Stenography Journalism- I first heard this term on Soledad O'Brien's show recently -

It was said by Joie Chen.
They were not speaking about trump, but it applies to how the media treats him.
The topic was real and perceived bias in journalism - - Stenography Journalism is just reporting what someone said. Its just writing he said this and she sad that. Ms. Chen said that's not journalism, its stenography. She said journalists should think beyond just recording a statement. Doing that just perpetuates propaganda. She said journalists should be analyzing the facts and telling the stories. I thought that was very insightful. So much of the journalism, is what she said, stenography. Trump said this. Very little pushback and analysis. Its no wonder that so many people buy his bullshit. I will say they have come a long way, but it took too long.

[octoberlib]

2. I just watched an OXford University forum on the election with

Rachel Bitecofer and she said Obama's campaign managers told her they'd have to run his campaign completely differently than they did in 2008 and 2012 because of all the misinformation and microtargeting on FB.



She said that Parscale introduced microtargeting and it's been really effective. As an example, she cited the uptick in numbers of young Black and Latino men that voted for Trump. The Trump campaign specifically targeted men who hadn't voted before and weren't interested in politics on Facebook and Youtube then bombarded them with ads claiming the Democrats took Blacks and Latinos for granted and Biden's vote on the crime bill.

The Trump campaign also used microtargeting in 2016.

She said Democrats haven't got up to speed on this technique yet and they need to pay attention to it.