A chance encounter in the off-licence got me thinking about fake news

It wasn’t the fault of the guy in the shop to think there had been widespread electoral fraud in the US. In fact, as a journalist, it might be mine, writes David Harding

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was cut off by Fox News for spreading unfounded claims about electoral fraud (Reuters)

I went to the off-licence the other day – the closest I get to going out nowadays. Asked by the amiable manager what I was looking for, we got talking about other things, including the previous night’s dramatic US presidential election.

“Can you believe it?” he said.  

“I know, astonishing,” I answered, while obviously looking for the second cheapest bottle of Cotes du Rhone.

“What a crazy country, I can’t believe the Democrats stole all those votes.”

If I had a bottle in my hand at that point, I would have dropped it. Of all the things to take from the previous night’s events, it was that Joe Biden was apparently on his way to victory simply because of widespread voter fraud.

Without a single shred of evidence then – and now a week later – a dangerous lie advanced by outgoing President Trump and repeated and repeated by his supporters had simply taken hold. It was as much a fact to the off-licence manager as it was that I was standing in front of him.

We chatted a bit longer, before I left (with a red), and was thoroughly fed up. It was no fault of the guy in the shop to think that. In fact, thinking about it, it might be mine. As a journalist, the last few years have exposed our industry like none before.  

In the hunt to get the story, to be the first, reporters have mistakenly given time – in print and on air – to little more than propaganda machines. We have been manipulated – and willingly so – to satisfy the lust of 24-hour news operations.

Journalists have broadcast lies about the Northern Irish border, the NHS, masks, cures for coronavirus, taking back control, where Trump holds bank accounts, fish, and now, election results. In the scramble to be the one with the story, the media has allowed itself to become mouthpieces for the corrupt and earpieces for the corruptible.  

It has created a very dangerous world. Trump may be going but his toxic legacy is not. The swamp he leaves behind will need to be drained thoroughly.  

Trust in the media has plummeted to the depths, conspiracy theories flourish, big tech pumps out “news” and we look around at a world now where claiming widespread election fraud will get you a TV slot in America. In Belarus, where we know it happened recently, it will get you a prison cell.

If there was only one thing to be learnt from the Trump presidency by the media – sadly there are many more – it is that we can no longer just treat claims as news. Some of what we have reported in recent years are lies, simple malicious untruths. They should not be reported with a health warning; they should not be reported at all.

Maybe the fightback has started. On Fox News the other night, as White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany began to speak – well, lie – about the US election, host Neil Cavuto interrupted the broadcast. “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” said Cavuto, before explaining that the senior press person in the most powerful country on Earth was claiming Joe Biden’s election team welcomed fraud and illegal voting. “I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this,” he claimed.  

Good for him and let’s home many more follow.

Yours,

David Harding

International Editor