'Misinformation' and the 2020 Vote

Looking at reporting and discussion of the 2020 presidential campaign, has any word been misused as often as "misinformation"? In much political debate, it was used to mean "information I don't like," rather than something that was provably false. That confusion extends to a new survey of American attitudes done by Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The survey questioned 2,752 respondents and was conducted in mid-November.

Gallup found that 64 percent of Americans believe they were subjected to more "misinformation" in the 2020 campaign than in earlier campaigns. That number included 52 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents and 79 percentof Republicans. "Majorities of those who say they were exposed to misinformation this election year believe they were exposed to it on social media and cable TV news," the study says. "This finding is in light of the fact that major internet companies handled misinformation differently in the run-up to the election and afterward by enacting measures to label false information -- something they largely did not do before this year."

The surveyors found some common ground between the political parties but also major differences. Start with where people believe "misinformation" is coming from. Gallup asked, "Where do you think you were exposed to misinformation about the election this year?" Everyone -- Democrats, independents, Republicans -- pointed to Facebook. But Facebook was mostly an aggregator of other media reports. And there were big differences between the parties about the original sources of "misinformation."

Forty-four percent of Democrats said "misinformation" came from cable TV news -- by that, they mostly meant Fox News -- while a larger number, 77 percent, of Republicans pointed to cable TV as the source of "misinformation." By that, they meant CNN and MSNBC. When it comes to traditional broadcast news -- ABC/CBS/NBC -- only 21 percent of Democrats saw that as a source of "misinformation," while 81 percent of Republicans did. That's a big difference.

And then there were the national newspapers. Only 10% percent of Democrats pointed to the big papers -- The New York Times and The Washington Post -- as sources of "misinformation," while 57 percent of Republicans did.

The results are clear: Democrats believe "misinformation" is coming from the deepest recesses of Facebook and Twitter, with an assist from Fox News, while Republicans believe it is coming from ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

There's more. Remember how Facebook and Twitter clamped down on the Hunter Biden laptop story? Twitter even shut down the New York Post's account. What about that? Was that "misinformation"? It appears the Biden material that was published was accurate, even though Democrats and their allies in the media did not want to see it.

Gallup's question related to internet censorship produced the most striking party disparity in the entire poll.

The first problem was the question: "Do you think major internet companies went too far, were about right, or did not go far enough in trying to prevent the spread of false information about the election on their websites and apps?" The problem here was the phrase "false information." Were the emails on the Hunter Biden laptop "false information"? Certainly not the parts that were verified by some recipients and are currently the subject of a federal criminal investigation. So it is entirely reasonable to think that the big social media companies clamped down on accurate information in the Hunter Biden case.

Nevertheless, in response to Gallup's question, just two percent of Democrats said the social media companies went too far, while 66 percent of Republicans said they went too far. That is a huge, huge difference. On the other end, 60 percent of Democrats said the companies did not go far enough, while just 23 percent of Republicans said they did not go far enough.

Those two numbers undoubtedly reflect different things. Democrats would have been happy had there never been any mention of Hunter Biden at all -- that's their idea of "misinformation." But Republicans have seen four years of false reports about President Trump colluding with Russia, about him being a Russian asset, about a pee tape and a dossier, and much, much more. They've seen "misinformation" in all of those news sources -- ABC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC/NBC/WashingtonPost/NewYorkTimes -- that Democrats trust. The new poll tells us a little about American attitudes toward the media and "misinformation." But it tells us a lot about Republicans and Democrats and their dramatically divergent conceptions of what "misinformation" is.

Great topic!

On both sides there is “fake news”, misinformation, propaganda and wishful thinking. Nobody looks critically at what their own side is saying. Scepticism is only evident when picking holes in the opponents’ arguments.

Theories and opinions have been pitched like dog whistles, alongside the insidious misrepresentation of theory as fact.

That is ‘post truth’ in a nutshell.

On one side, leftist op-eds talking about the existence of twenty genders as if it is an unassailable biological and moral fact. It is a ludicrous claim - but nobody on the left challenges it. They can’t ALL believe it’s true, but those that know it’s pure troll-dung won’t speak up as that would require moral courage.

On the other side I give you “Trump is in contact with an alien federation that has a base on Mars, WE NEED HIM!!! Said an Israeli”. You have to be mad to think a revelation like that would bolster The President’s credibility. It’s blatant troll-dung.

Between the two, there are onion layers full of arguments and revelations that are perhaps a quarter true, perhaps contain half truths, and very occasionally turn put to be 100% unvarnished fact.

Until you can see the BEEF behind a very bold claim on the internet you need to keep asking “where’s the proof”, or at least play Devil’s Advocate - I’d like X to be true but what if X has been made up by a troll on order to laugh at the fools who bite.

The Daily Mail site is a perfect example - most of its ‘news’ is lifted and shifted from other sources. No critical thinking is applied to that. There is no quality control. On one day they’ll say red wine is a health food, the next they’ll say it gives you cancer.

One day they’re supporting President Trump, the next they’re demonising him.

If people had a long enough attention span, they would be wise to the fact that it is folly to assume that the Mail is reporting truth, or trolling. Even when it is posting an ‘exclusive’ massive story that we’d love to be true.

Instagram started posting a link to the election results as
they saw them, below every Trump related post.

Now they still do, but also state as a fact that Biden will
be the next president.

They also sensor inconvenient truth.

They never did this for Trump in 2016 and beyond.

This isn’t settled yet, and yet Instagram is trying its
best to convince people it is.

One of the best things about Trump pulling it out, would be
the egg on the face of these bastard organizations.

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