Reality still matters
As Trumpism and technology erode our shared understanding of the world, ordinary people in Minneapolis put their lives on their line to record the truth.
The first video I saw of the Minneapolis shooting was bad enough. Shortly after I saw it, I had the terrible realization that there were multiple people in the clip holding their phones up — another angle was bound to surface. Within minutes, a second video was all over social media, and it was even more horrifying. In another recording, seemingly made by a neighbor, a man approaches to render aid. As armed agents rush toward him with guns, he shouts, “I’m a physician!” You can also hear someone sobbing just outside the frame: “That’s my wife!”
Much of America has now seen the first few seconds of this video obtained by the Minnesota Refo …
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.
Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors
Related Knowledge Center: Fact-checking and its detractors
Fact-checking has become a familiar tool for political reporters to hold office-holders and candidates accountable. But critics ask if fact-checkers sometimes miss the forest for the trees, and if the practice often struggles with false equivalency the way conventional political coverage does.