Corrupt info can be as bad as food that spoiled
Thousands of Rwandan refugees were lining up for corn-soy flour in the shadow of Congo’s Virunga Volcano in 1995 when a senior Red Cross official explained that information is as vital for the human species as food, shelter and water, making radio news so important.
Corrupted information can be as poisonous as spoiled food, he added. Many of the men and women standing before us had committed genocide against their neighbors in 1994 after listening to hate-filled propaganda on government-backed stations. Some of the same murderous leaders were still spreading misinformation in the camps to fuel a cross-border insurgency.
The lesson stuck with me, even if I’ve forgotten the name of the International Committee of the Red Cross official. He helped me understand why the Voice of America had hired me to provide accurate and independent reporting from Central Africa and the importance of journalism more generally.
Almost 30 years later, we’re no better at sorting quality journalism from misinformation and disinformation. Three documentaries provide essential insights.
When most Americans imagine genocidal regimes, they think of the Nazi Party that orchestrated the murders of 6 million Jews during World War II. A new series on Netflix, “Hitler’s Circle of Evil,” examines how propaganda and marketing facilitated Adolf Hitler’s election and transition to totalitarian dictator.
Hitler turned his trial for a failed 1923 coup d’etat into a spectacle that attracted supporters, including a young journalist named Joseph Goebbels. He became the Nazi’s master propagandist, giving speeches, overseeing radio broadcasts and supervising filmmaking. He ordered party members to plaster stirring propaganda posters across the country.
Yesteryear’s propaganda posters are today’s memes. These digital images, which
typically contrast a photo or cartoon character against sardonic text, were perfected on the website 4chan. The site, founded in 2003, is the subject of “The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem,” a film co-directed by former Houston Chronicle intern Giorgio Angelini and premiered at the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals.
The film, now available on Netflix, shows how an anonymous website for computer enthusiasts and Japanese animation gave birth to the hacker collective known as Anonymous. However, the site also gave users a sense of impunity, leading some to engage genuinely in the name of freedom of expression.
“Antisocial Network” explains how we ended up with the social media sites today that are either commercial data vacuums or money-losing free-for-alls like Twitter, now known as X.
“What drives user-base numbers and revenue is anger,” explained Fredrick Brennan, who in 2013 established 8chan as an alternative to 4chan after it cracked down on misogyny and violent threats against women.
Brennan cut ties with 8chan in 2016 after it became even more toxic. The following year, an 8chan troll gave birth to QAnon, perhaps one of the most remarkable Internet hoaxes of the last decade.
The film demonstrates the reality-bending effects of falling into an echo chamber. True believers can whip casual visitors into a frenzy while keeping skeptics out. Clever panderers of disinformation secretly laugh at the fools who believe the poppycock they pump out for pay.
The imperfect antidote to misinformation and disinformation is supposed to be journalism. After 30 years in the business, I know we are far from perfect, and I acknowledge we need watchdogs too, but at least we try to serve our customers, not some other dubious purpose.
“For the Record” begins a run on PBS next month. director Heather Courtney tells the story of the Canadian Record, a small Panhandle newspaper since 1893. In the opening montage, you see legendary publisher/ editor/reporter Laurie Ezzell Brown heading out to cover a wildfire in 2019.
“I’ve done a lot of this in the past few years,” she says, foreshadowing the largest wildfire in Texas history this year.
Brown was looking for someone to take over the Record as advertising was drying up. A quarter of small-town papers have closed since 2005, and more than 20% of Americans live in areas without a local news source. They feel the loss when there’s a disaster, such as a wildfire, or when online trolls want to sow chaos.
“For the Record” captures the ethos of professional journalism by showing how Brown is a reliable, if at times controversial, source of information valued by her community. Her readers may not have always agreed with her editorials, but they know her intentions are good.
People prefer information that reinforces their point of view, but humans also like fat, sugar and salt. We know to question where our food comes from, we should be equally discerning about our information