Covering elections | Elon Musk’s Twitter | Rumble misinfo

November 7, 2022

Journalism Misinformation Press freedoms/First Amendment

Teach news literacy this week
Covering elections | Elon Musk's Twitter | Rumble misinfo

Dig deeper: Don’t miss this week’s classroom-ready resource.

Click on the image to play a video of Hannah Covington of the News Literacy Project talking with data reporter Emilie Munson of the Times Union over Zoom about how Munson’s newsroom covers elections and politics.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by news coverage during an election season. With so many sources competing for attention, how can we know what to trust? Professional journalism standards are one important sign of credibility. Reputable news organizations aspire to ethical guidelines and standards, including fairness, accuracy and independence.

This week, we talk to data reporter Emilie Munson of the Times Union, a local news organization based in Albany, New York, with a coverage area that includes the state’s Capital Region and Hudson Valley. Munson sheds light on the Times Union’s decision to publish a guide explaining how the news organization covers elections and politics — and the role of journalism standards in its news decisions. We also discuss the Times Union’s strict policies on the use of anonymous or unnamed sources. Grab your news goggles!

Note: Look for this newsletter feature the first Monday of the month. You can explore previous News Goggles videos, annotations and activities in NLP’s Resource Library under “Classroom Activities.”

Resources:

“Practicing Quality Journalism” and “Understanding Bias” (NLP’s Checkology® virtual classroom).
Infographic: “Is it legit? Five steps for vetting a news source” (NLP’s Resource Library).

Dig deeper: Use this viewing guide for the featured News Goggles video as students consider the role of journalism standards in covering elections and politics.

Top picks

Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular with people on the far right, is a hotbed of election misinformation. NewsGuard conducted 200 searches on Rumble for content about the midterm elections and found that nearly half (95) of the Rumble search results contained misinformation — and had 8.9 million views, collectively. But election misinformation isn’t confined to fringe platforms. National security and social media experts say TikTok — which has 1 billion users — “isn’t as prepared as other social networks to spot misinformation.”

Idea: Have students watch this video on disinformation [link warning: racist language] to explore how social media can politically radicalize users. Discuss examples from the video of real-life incidents resulting from online conspiracy theories and disinformation about election fraud.
Resource: “Misinformation” (Checkology virtual classroom).
Related:
- “Twitter Limits Content-Enforcement Work as US Election Looms” (Kurt Wagner, Edward Ludlow, Jackie Davalos and Davey Alba, Bloomberg News).
- “How the Biden Administration Caved to Republicans on Fighting Election Disinformation” (Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, ProPublica).
- “Political violence in America isn’t going away anytime soon” (Richard Forno, The Conversation).

Five widespread election falsehoods identified by The New York Times include baseless narratives about rigged voting machines, rampant ballot fraud, votes by people who are dead or undocumented, distrust of voting by mail and delays in vote counts deemed as “irregularities.” These debunked falsehoods build on familiar lies spread during the 2020 election that continue to circulate on social media.

Note: Check out this post on NLP’s RumorGuard for a rundown of recent election misinformation. More election resources are located on NLP’s “Election 2022: Be informed, not misled” page.
Discuss: What election falsehoods have you encountered? Where did you see them? Why do you think false claims like the ones identified by the Times spread online? What impact does election disinformation have on American democracy?
Resources:
- Infographic: “Three types of election rumors to avoid” / “Tres tipos de rumores electoral a evadir” (NLP’s Resource Library).
Related:
- Video: “Why Are Political Ads Allowed to Run Misinformation?” (Newsy).
- “Misinformation and the midterm elections: What to expect” (David Klepper, Associated Press).
- “Rumors, Conspiracy Theories, and Unsubstantiated Claims About Voting: What to Expect on and After Election Day 2022” (Mike Caulfield, Election Integrity Project).

False claims spread widely after Paul Pelosi attack

A collage shows four social media posts containing false rumors about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, including one from Donald Trump Jr. featuring a photo of a hammer on a pair of underwear, another tweet showing glass outside of a window, and two more tweets claiming that “Pelosi KNEW his attacker” and that “Pelosi & his attacker were half naked” and “both in their underwear.” The News Literacy Project has added a label that says, “FALSE AND BASELESS CLAIMS.”

YES: Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was violently attacked at the couple’s home in San Francisco on Oct. 28. YES: The accused attacker, David DePape, has been charged with a range of crimes by state and federal officials, including attempted murder, attempted kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary, false imprisonment and threatening the life of a public official. NO: Despite widespread claims, DePape was not wearing only underwear when police arrived. NO: DePape and Pelosi did not know each other, did not visit a gay bar together before the attack and were not engaged in a tryst when police arrived. YES: Partisans cited excerpts of coded language that Pelosi used with an emergency dispatcher and other details to push misleading questions about the attack and to imply that it was staged.

NewsLit takeaway: Breaking news events are often chaotic and confusing to follow. Confirmed details take time to emerge, especially when there is a criminal investigation involved. In the interim, trolls and other bad actors, along with well-intentioned internet sleuths, try to fill the information void with speculation, baseless claims and fabrications. Their goals range from the pursuit of engagement and clout, to establishing favorable political narratives, to intentionally spreading confusion to obscure the truth.

The attack on Pelosi fit this pattern. Partisans immediately sought to concoct conspiratorial narratives to minimize the seriousness of the attack and to upstage the political motivations behind it. The Pelosi attack falsehoods are a solemn reminder to be cautious about sharing or amplifying information and to avoid jumping to conclusions during breaking news events until a fuller, fact-based picture emerges.

No, Trump didn’t release statement congratulating Musk on Twitter takeover

An Instagram post reads “BREAKING: President Trump will have his Twitter account reinstated on Monday!” and features an image of a statement allegedly released by former President Donald Trump congratulating Elon Musk on his takeover of Twitter and stating, “I have been told that my account will be back up and running on Monday.” The News Literacy Project has added a label that says, “FABRICATED.”

NO: This statement was not released by former President Donald Trump shortly after Elon Musk took control of Twitter on Oct. 27. NO: As of Nov. 7, Trump’s account has not been reinstated, nor has Musk or Twitter made any announcements about ending Trump’s suspension. YES: Trump told Fox News he plans on staying on Truth Social, the social media platform he founded. YES: A spokesperson for Trump confirmed that the alleged Trump statement is a fabrication.

NewsLit takeaway: Convincing fabricated statements can be created and shared in minutes, and often surface in the immediate aftermath of breaking news. The fake Trump statement spread quickly online after Musk closed his Twitter purchase. While supporters like commentator Dinesh D’Souza posted it as if it were genuine (the tweet was subsequently deleted), Trump’s political action committee never posted the statement on its official site or released any such statement to reporters.

Screenshots of alleged statements or social media posts that circulate without any live URLs are a red flag for credibility. Searches for additional news sources also often reveal only a single or partisan source for a piece of viral content.

You can find this week's rumor examples to use with students in these slides.

	After a number of high-profile Twitter accounts changed their names and profile photos to mimic billionaire Elon Musk, the new Twitter owner and self-described “free speech absolutist” announced that accounts that “engage in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended.” The rule is one of several changes made to the platform after Musk acquired it — although he did say that no previously banned Twitter accounts would be restored until after the midterm elections.
	In collaboration with the Pew Research Center, a BBC reporter created five fake social media accounts to research how algorithms push disinformation to Americans online and its political impacts. While the experiment partially revealed how algorithms work, some experts say creating fake accounts crosses an ethical line.
	Researchers found that Russia reactivated government-sponsored troll accounts ahead of the midterm elections to stir up anger, undermine Americans’ trust in elections and paint the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine as wasteful spending.
	An NBC News report about the Paul Pelosi attack, retracted for inaccurate information, continues to fuel conspiracy theories shared online and on TV by conservative commentators.
	A new Knight Foundation poll found that about six in 10 Americans worry disinformation will influence the midterm elections.
	The vast majority of people who kill journalists in retaliation for their work face no punishment, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists — a fact that the mother of journalist James Foley, who was killed by ISIS in 2014, is trying to change.
	Why do we fall for misinformation? Psychologists say it’s because our brains use mental shortcuts and hold on to falsehoods even after hearing the truth.

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Thanks for reading!

Your weekly issue of The Sift is created by Susan Minichiello (@susanmini), Dan Evon (@danieljevon), Peter Adams (@PeterD_Adams), Hannah Covington (@HannahCov) and Pamela Brunskill (@PamelaBrunskill). It is edited by Mary Kane (@marykkane) and Lourdes Venard (@lourdesvenard).

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