Trying to engage in rational debate online often seems to be an exercise doomed to futility. It’s not just the rabid tribalism that has infected public discourse, on all sides and at all levels, but the growing impossibility to even agree on basic facts.
A great deal of the problem is not just disinformation — being wrong — but purposeful misinformation: deliberate lies. Despite their smug self-congratulation, the worst offenders are what Obama glowingly praised as the “curated media”.
Nowhere are the deliberate and damaging lies of the mainstream media more apparent than in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Kyle Rittenhouse shot three black men. Kyle Rittenhouse traveled across state lines with a gun. Kyle Rittenhouse had an AK-47.
These are three examples of false information being spread about Rittenhouse, whose trial ended last week with his acquittal.
Prominent influencers, including lawmakers and reporters, are sources of some of the misinformation—possibly disinformation—leaving experts troubled.
I’ve similarly tried to engage with left-wing Americans on the matter, only to be flabbergasted at their completely arse-about grasp of what are well-established facts about the case. For instance, one fellow, with multiple degrees to his name, blustered that it was “all lies” that the three shooting victims had any criminal record. Even when I posted links to official DOJ and prison records for all three, he was adamant that it was just “right-wing lies”.
What topsy-turvy land do these people get their delusions from? The mainstream media.
On CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Nov. 21, reporter Mark Strassman falsely said Rittenhouse “drove in from Illinois armed for battle.” On CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” on Nov. 11, Harvard University professor Cornell William Brooks falsely said Rittenhouse was carrying an AK-47. The Independent falsely reported late last week that Rittenhouse shot three black men.
Here are the facts: Rittenhouse was in Kenosha the day before the night of the shooting, because the town, just 20 miles from his home, was where he worked. Rittenhouse helped clean graffiti that day. The next day, he was given the gun — which he was legally entitled to carry — in Kenosha, by a friend. The gun was not an AK-47. All three shooting victims were white. A jury unanimously agreed that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense when he was attacked by a mob, including the three he shot.
These are all facts.
Not that you’d know that, if all you took notice of was mainstream media.
“As soon as the Rittenhouse situation happened in Kenosha, the establishment media immediately created a narrative that would work with their particular, preferred narrative. As we now know, that led to a good many mischaracterizations and errors at that time,” Jeffrey McCall, a communications professor at DePauw University, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“By now, those media outlets are so committed to that narrative that they can’t drag themselves to correct previous errors or provide accurate details today. This not only reflects that some media outlets work with predetermined, ideological narratives, but that they are also too lazy to report facts as provided in the actual trial,” he wrote.
Media critic and former journalist Ryan Chittum describes mainstream media coverage as “tendentious, false, and often malicious”.
“On balance, the press has been a destructive force on this story […] There have been innumerable journalistic disasters in the Trump era, but this is the most blatantly reckless one of them all.”
If the media were bad enough, politicians and academics were even worse. Especially academics who are cited as experts at identifying misinformation.
Lisa Fazio, a Vanderbilt psychology professor, shared a video of Amber Ruffin, who has her own show on NBC, making multiple false or evidence-free claims, including the assertion that Rittenhouse brought a rifle across state lines. That video has been watched more than 7.7 million times since Nov. 19, boosted by the likes of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
Shannon McGregor, a professor at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, shared a tweet that called Rittenhouse “openly white supremacist,” a claim that has no evidence supporting it.
The Epoch Times
Having promulgated their lies, the politicians and academics have so far refused to correct themselves. None responded to the Epoch Times’ request for comment.
And their followers go on believing absolutely in the lies.
Which, it is increasingly clear, is the whole point.
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