Don't Carry Water for Election-Deniers
Don't Carry Water for Election-Deniers
Top Story: Don’t Carry Water for Election-Deniers
How do you get people to believe something that isn’t true?
Repetition.
Folks pushing voter fraud claims know it.
Psychologists call this the Illusory Truth Effect. If people hear something enough, it becomes fact to them, even if the people telling them are insisting it is a lie.
This phenomenon is why manipulating journalists can be so easy. When we hear a lie, we want to debunk it.
Figuring out how to avoid this trap — particularly as it relates to voter fraud — takes patience, discipline, and a willingness to use old journalism tools in new ways.
Here’s how:
Tips on How NOT TO Spread Election Lies
Avoid local stories that “debunk the lies.” They don’t work. Repeating things you know to be untrue is having the opposite effect. It’s reinforcing lies.
Be aware of how election-deniers try to manipulate the press. They know how lies get spread and they work hard to get you to innocently spread them. Don’t.
Use the “Is this really a story?” test. If someone told you that a fire happened on Fourth Street, then you saw that a fire did not happen on Fourth Street, your editor would kill that story. Kill stories about things that didn’t happen.
Know the facts about election fraud: how rare it is, how hard it is, how little incentivized voters are to do it, and who in your community is really into spreading election fraud lies.
Know the tactics. If election deniers are contesting small races now, understand this is a tactic to get folks comfortable with election fraud as a real thing, as the big elections in 2024 approach.
Punish liars. If sources do lie about things like voter fraud, make it clear that you aren’t going to be quoting them much about anything. If they want to get press, they need to tell the truth.
Practice patience. If losers of small elections call for recounts, wait. Only report those stories, if in fact fraud was found to have happened. Otherwise, those are not stories. Those are lies strategically planted to get you covering election fraud, as if it's a real problem.
Do enterprise stories about election safety. Fraud isn’t a story. But the safety of the electoral process most certainly is.
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