it remains important for serious media outlets to pick apart Trump's daily fabrications and lies
Senior Republicans Are Complicit in Trump’s “Spygate” Propaganda
By John Cassidy10:20 A.M.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/senior-republicans-are-complicit-in-trumps-spygate-propaganda
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According to Nyhan, this helps explain why things like the Obama birther myth and the belief that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction persist, many years after they have been discredited. Fortunately, not everyone is hopeless. In a recent experiment, Nyhan and his colleagues took the alarmist speech that Trump delivered at the 2016 Republican National Convention and explained to a group of people, some of whom were Trump supporters, how Trump’s claim of rising crime rates was simply wrong. “It did seem to change their view of the facts,” Nyhan said. But, he added, “People did not come to view (Trump) more negatively, over all.”
Findings like these highlight why it remains important for serious media outlets to pick apart Trump’s daily fabrications and lies. Exposure to corrective information—particularly repeated exposure—can cause some people to change their minds. But this process can’t be relied on to correct the problem of directionally motivated reasoning, and that’s why it’s also imperative that senior Republicans stand up and defend Mueller and his investigation. “The basic problem is that people take cues from political élites on their side,” Nyhan said. “And right now the cues that Republicans are getting are mostly from Trump. There are very few Republicans defending the rule of law, and that is very worrying.”
Far from questioning Trump’s “Spygate” narrative, some senior G.O.P. figures are validating his tactics. In an interview with the Times, John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said that, although he wouldn’t use the President’s exact words, it was legitimate to question the F.B.I.’s “motivation” in launching its investigation of Trump’s Presidential campaign.
Let’s be clear about what’s happening here: acting either out of fear or cynical self-interest, the leadership of the Republican Party is allowing Trump to deliberately defame and undermine law-enforcement agencies that are supposed to operate independently of him, especially on matters related to his conduct. Down this road lies a stunted democracy. History shows that propaganda can be hideously effective, especially when used repeatedly by people in power. (“The past was alterable,” Orwell noted, in “1984.” “Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”) To overcome these tactics, leaders of influence and authority must confront them with rival narratives based on facts. In this case, the narrative is straightforward: the F.B.I. was just doing its job in 2016, and by keeping secret its investigation of Trump’s campaign it may have helped him to get elected.
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