Conspiracies, Deep Fakes, and Mistrust in the Media

Conspiracy theories have become much more prevalent in recent years, thanks largely in part to the media’s dishonesty in reporting the facts. What was once the domain of Coast to Coast AM listeners and conspiracy theorists on Reddit is now mainstream, and many now questioning what they see on TV, believing them to be the product of CGI or Deep Fakes, even in the presence of facts that prove otherwise.

Hypervigilance of the media has become emblematic of an age where disinformation has become a household term. From Russian dossiers to “the storm is coming” QAnon predictions, the phenomenon is present on both sides of the political aisle - and it only looks to intensify as the media continues to paint a rosy picture of the Biden administration, in contrast to its vilification of Trump.

Given the preponderance of fake news and biased, one-sided coverage of contemporary events, many wonder if what they watch on television is even real. With the emergency of new technologies like CGI and Deep Fakes, people are doubting what they see.

Most recently, a video of Joe Biden speaking to the press on the White House lawn raised suspicion of being fake due to the placement of microphones in front of him, which appeared to be added into the frame. While discerning skeptics eventually figured out that the confusion was the result of a too-large fuzzy microphone and the odd placement of cameras in relation to Biden and the reporters in front of him, many were quick to jump to the conclusion that Biden may not have even been there - building on concerns about his ailing health and his refusal (at the time) to speak openly to the press or hold any public events.

Worse still, the media’s efforts to lie about the origins of the COVID-19 virus and its continued propagation of politically correct narratives concerning mass shootings, random acts of violence, and the invisible threat of “white supremacy” has made people doubtful of the news.

People know they’re being lied to, but they don’t know by how much. The lack of transparency coming from the Biden administration and the media’s willingness to provide cover for Democratic politicians in contrast to its too-often hypercritical coverage of Republicans, conservatives, and figures outside the mainstream, has driven many to seek alternative sources of news, which open them to exposure to conspiracy theories.

Apart from its one-sided coverage of Trump for the past four years, the media’s done its fair share of spreading conspiracy theories about Russian collusion, prompting those on the progressive side of the political spectrum to weave their own conspiracy theories about Russian disinformation, to a point where their own cheerleaders in the media have become targets of leftist suspicion.

Following Trump’s COVID diagnosis in 2020, liberal conspiracy theorists (now dubbed “BlueAnon”) jumped onto the idea that the media was somehow bought and paid for by his administration - or worse, the Russians - to downplay the severity of his illness and employ the use of a green screen, or possibly even a Deep Fake, in a speech on the White House lawn. And much like Biden’s own appearance weeks ago, Trump did not fake his appearance.

Distrust in the media isn’t merely a right-wing phenomenon. According to Edelman’s trust barometer, per Axios, over 56% of Americans believe that “journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations,” and a further 58% believe that “most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public.” When polled, only 57% of Democrats trust the media, in contrast to 18% of Republicans.

New York Times’ Heidi Larson argues, “we don’t have a misinformation problem, we have a trust problem.” Admittedly, it’s in the interest of the New York Times to defend its own coverage - but one must consider why people mistrust the media: it certainly isn’t because the media’s doing any favors for itself.

Consider Snopes, Politifact, and other “fact-checking” organizations: while most of their corrections are arguably fair, a few so-called corrections are fabrications of the truth intended to serve political narratives. Case in point: Politifact’s efforts to fact check The Federalist’s claim that the organization was not interested in fact-checking Vice President Kamala Harris’ mistruths backfired in Politifact’s face. If you can’t trust the fact-checkers not to tell lies, who can you trust?

The end result is the same: people don’t trust the media, and the media only has itself to blame for it.

With trust in the media at an all-time low, the only way for the media to regain its footing is to earn back the public’s trust, and the only way for the media to do so is to report on the facts regardless of the consequences.

The truth itself is in jeopardy when the media is more concerned with telling people “his truth” or “her truth” over, simply, the truth. Unless your intent is to tell lies, the truth should not hurt you. Facts often prove inconvenient, but the inconvenience they pose is nothing in comparison to a response predicated on lies. 

You can follow Ian Miles Cheong on Twitter @stillgray