In 2011, Donald Trump went on Fox News and made a claim that started an absolute wildfire in the conspiracy theory community. A theory that had been floating around the internet for years finally got the exposure it needed, and Birtherism erupted, engulfing half of the Republican party and creating a path to the White House for Mr. Trump and a path to the mainstream for conspiracy theories.

While Trump is often credited with the origins of the birtherism theory (that Barack Obama was in fact not born in the US and therefor ineligible for the presidency), its genesis lies within the Democratic party. In 2008, some supporters of then candidate Hilary Clinton circulated a 2004 email embellishing an old claim about her Democratic primary opponent Barack Obama’s “secret Muslim faith” by adding that he was in-fact born in Kenya, not in Hawaii as he had claimed. The power of anti-Muslim fear in the early 2000’s was weaponized against Barack Hussein Obama for having a Muslim-sounding name.

Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth

chain email from 2008

Though Clinton and her campaign never promoted the lie, it gained enough traction to circulate for a few years before it really took off when it started coming out of a big enough celebrity mouthpiece.

By the time Trump embraced birtherism as a theory in 2011, It had already been shot down by both parties and the majority of Americans considered the matter settled. But Trump’s statements acted as a celebrity endorsement, turning the once-settled matter into a new raging fire. With the powers of fear, celebrity, and the repetition Fox News was able to provide, birtherism finally had what it needed to flourish.

By the time Obama released his long-form birth certificate in 2011, it was too late. At that time, only 55% of Americans were confident he was born in the US. Its release had some effect on squashing the doubt, but not as much as you’d think. If people were arguing based on facts, perhaps its release would have had a more meaningful impact on those numbers, but since this campaign was driven more by fear, the facts just… didn’t matter.

Which brings us to the present.

How Birtherism Led to The Big Lie

While Trump eventually caved to pressure from both sides to disavow the birther theory and announced that Obama was, in fact, born here, the stage had been set. He had proven to himself and to the world that we were moving into a post-truth era where falsehoods, even once debunked, could not only be used to inspire, but could become emblems of entire movements. When Trump lost the 2020 election to Joseph R. Biden, he used many of the same tactics he had success with in birtherism. He wore denial like a badge of honor, making claims to appeal to his supporters’ emotions and repeated the message at every opportunity. The formula was simple: a theory in search of evidence.

While he continued to push this misinformation, many of his most loyal constituents, hoping to gain the favor of Trump, and thereby increase their own celebrity, repeated the claims and did his work for him. Mike Lindell (the MyPillow guy) even held a “cybersymposium” wherein he claimed he’d prove the election was stolen, only to fail to provide anything tangible. But again, we’re not dealing with scientific evidence here. Trump, Lindell and others know that. They motivate people and push their “theories” through fear and repetition.

As he now faces 91 federal and state felonies, the most severe of which are related to The Big Lie, some of this could be unraveling. Still, with nearly 70% of Republicans still believing President Joe Biden’s win was illegitimate, it may be years before this conspiracy leaves the mainstream. Until then, it might be wise to brace for another conspiracy the next time a Democratic is elected President.

The post Birtherism – How Desperation and Fear Created a New Ideology appeared first on Sean McMillan's blog.

This semester, I’m taking a course on digital literacy and, while the focus isn’t so finely tuned to misinformation, there is a lot of crossover on the two topics. When I read that I would be documenting another 24 hours of my media consumption, I thought why not just study an organic 24 hours, without me “looking for trouble” like I did last time? Below are the results.

My 24-Hour Media Diet (Fall ’23)

Last time I did this, I started mid-day, which honestly, was very on-brand for me. After all, I often work late and mid-day is sometimes where my day starts. This time, however, I was determined to track one day from dawn til dusk.

August 24th, 2023 at 12:30am: I realize that it’s past midnight and start tracking my media consumption. My sister is visiting from New York and we’re up rather late playing Wingspan, a fantastic bird-collecting board game. It’s her first time playing and she predictably ends up in last place, but the game is altogether close, with my wife taking first by one point. We listen to a few records, including Yo La Tengo’s This Stupid World.

A New Start

9:30am: I awaken. I start my day with the devastating discovery that while I was playing Wingspan with my wife and my sister last night, my Wordle streak ended. 41 days down the drain. No time like the present to start a new streak. I get the answer in four guesses.

I then read about the previous night’s GOP debate. I follow politics pretty closely, but with my sister in town, it seems that both politics and Wordle have fallen by the wayside. I scroll around on X mostly and I don’t end up opening any articles. It looks like Vivek Ramaswamy had a pretty solid showing and Ron DeSantis pretty much got clowned on.

10:00am: After heading downstairs, I watch my son (9), his best friend, and his cousin play some MarioKart. I have trained him well, and he is quite handily beating the competition. I’m tempted to play, but I get wrapped up in a conversation with my sister about Yevgeny Prigozhin’s apparent demise. She’s pretty sure it was a set up. I get on my phone and open the BBC News app first to see what information they have. I end up looking at NPR and New York Times articles as well before I move on from the matter. There’s no proof of wrongdoing, nor is there any evidence mentioned, but Putin’s reputation certainly looms over the conversation.

Game Time

2:00pm: After wrapping up some housekeeping, I sit down to play some games. I’ve got the day off work today and it’s the last day of Fortnite’s battle pass, so I’ve got a little catching up to do if I want to unlock Optimus Prime (which, of course, I do). I play for about 2 hours and hit all my goals. Mission accomplished.

4:00pm: I play Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, a mobile game that requires specific actions every day at specific times. 5:00pm marks the end of a Grand Arena Championship, which is a two-day battle against a different opponent each time. I’m in the 48th hour here and I’ve done squat. I sign in and do my fights, winning enough battles against this opponent to secure a win. I screenshot the scoreboard and send it to a friend who also plays. I also post the screenshot in Discord for my in-game pals to see. Today I am royalty.

Family Time

5:15pm: My daughter (7) is trying out for a community theater production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical. We spend a good 15 minutes rehearsing her audition piece, titled Naughty. It’s the song that introduces the audience to the character of Matilda, and she is hamming it up with a thick British accent singing “sometimes you have to be a little bit nough-ty (hyphen added for emphasis)”.

5:40pm: I watch one episode of the Amazing World of Gumball with my kids. It’s a silly, mindless show that they’ve discovered and they’ve probably watched every episode 4 or 5 times. I enjoy it a bit, but it’s just nice to be sharing something with the kids. You’ll note everything we do today is inside because there’s a heat warning in Michigan because it’s so disgustingly hot and humid. Like glasses instantly fog up humid. Ew.

6:45pm: I take my son to his piano lesson and listen in the next room as he learns “Cantina Band” from his Star Wars beginner piano book. He struggles sometimes learning new songs, but he sounds great tonight.

The Great Refresh

At this point, I kind of have to drop a disclaimer. I don’t mean to be preachy in my posts, but I aim to be as honest as I can, and sometimes that means I have to mention politics. Now, for those as plugged into politics as I am, Thursday, August 24th has a bit of an expectation looming over it. Donald Trump announced earlier in the week that he had planned to turn himself in to the Fulton County Courthouse on Thursday. This is his fourth indictment, but one of the key differences for politicos like me is that the Georgia case is taking a mug shot. A mug shot. Of a former president.

Here’s where I can’t not let my politics show: I’m no fan of Trump. I’m like, really not a fan. And so, I spend a good amount of time refreshing my X feed to see this mug shot drop. I’m not proud of it, but I really do get caught up in the moment wanting to see it posted online. It’s one of those moments where it truly feels like you’re living history. Those are always weird moments and Trump has given me a lot of them.

Showtime

8:30pm: Each week, my podcast cohost and I host what we call a “Dathchat”- a live video chat open to anyone who supports our show on Patreon. Most weeks, we have a couple people stop by and chat, but this week no one showed up, which is great because I had to work very early the next morning. This meant we were able to record our weekly episode promptly, so after prepping the show notes for about an hour, we recorded episode 356 of Galactic War Report from about 10:00pm to 11:00pm.

The topics vary from week to week as we have to address game updates that drop rather frequently. There weren’t really athat many updates this week, so we have to piece the show together by reporting on our own activity during the week and doing some features on strategy. Sometimes a slow news week gives us a little breathing room to play with the format and that’s what happened this week. Solid episode.

I know a lot of people who podcast, and one thing I appreciate about our show is our quick turnaround time. From the moment we stop recording, I can usually have a show edited and uploaded within an hour pretty easily. I cruise through editing this episode (my Garageband game is strong) and play just a bit more of Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes before I crash, preparing to get up for work about 4 hours later. What can I say? I am dedicated (have a problem).

The Wrap

So what have we learned?

Admittedly, this was one of my lower-intensity days. I spent a lot more time gaming than I normally do and I only left the house for a brief piano lesson since the air conditioning was so crucial in this heat wave. (I recognize it’s been worse in Arizona this year, but this was Michigan’s hottest couple days.) I think maybe there’s some knowledge to be gleaned by how dedicated to gamin I was with the end of Fortnite’s season and the very late night session of Galaxy of Heroes. I have always been aware of my demons, I just let them have a little fun on this day.

I think the two other interesting notes with regards to my media consumption are:

1. When my sister said Putin shot Prigozhin’s plane down, my instinct was to check multiple sources. As much sense as it makes for Putin to exact revenge on someone who so directly insulted his authority so recently, I have seen too many assumptions prove false to take anything like that at face value. My official stance is: I have no proof but it would track.
2. The feeling I had when refreshing X for Trump’s mugshot. As I mentioned, I’m no fan of his, and I’m sure there was some degree of schadenfreude involved, but I really felt like I was living through a distinct moment in history. To be blunt, after the last few years, I could really do with less of that feeling as I am (and I think we all are, to a degree) just over it.

The post Another 24 Hours appeared first on Sean McMillan's blog.

When considering a career in journalism, one must ponder such questions as “Can I make a real difference?,” “How will I survive on such meager pay?,” and “What am I even doing with my life?,” but perhaps my most vexing concern is “How will I get through to those that simply don’t trust the media?”

Where We’re At

People trust the media less now than at any time in the last 40 years. In a way, it’s hard for me to conceptualize that people whose sole job is supposed to be informing the public and shedding light on injustices, corruption, and new discoveries are some of the least-trusted people in the world. But alas, a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2021 concluded that between 2016 and 2021, public trust in the media (in general) dropped from 76% to 58%. I know there are some bad actors in the field, but even if you could correct for that, 58% is shockingly low. So what gives?

How It Started

Looking further into the Pew data, Democrats’ trust in media has declined somewhat, but around 2016, Republican’s trust of the media plummeted from 70% to 35%. Trust had been eroding bit by bit since 9/11, when every newsroom in America devoted everything to the terrorist attacks. What followed however was a slew of decisions based on ratings rather than facts.

The coverage of the US invasion of Iraq didn’t do any favors for building trust in the media either, with a rather strong pro-invasion bias appearing in much of the media. Additionally, the massive scope of the new 24-hour news cycle was riddled with blunders such as Geraldo Rivera’s accidental disclosure of classified battle plans.

The drastic cut in trust around 2016 however is a direct result of Donald Trump’s continuous attacks on news organizations such as The New York Times and Washington Post. In addition to creating nicknames such as “The Failing New York Times,” he went so far as to call the news media “the enemy of the American people.”

Trump’s war on the media has always resonated with his supporters, who often see any criticism of Trump as unfair and politically motivated.

The Role of Misinformation

Arguably, Donald Trump’s political career began with an infamous bit of misinformation. As early as 2011, Donald Trump played a key role in spreading the misinformation that President Barack Obama was not born in the US. As more and more Republican voters bought into this conspiracy theory (which was repeatedly debunked), Trump saw a winning formula for getting the support he needed to secure the Republican nomination for 2016. What followed was a milieu of falsehoods such as:

• The size of the crowd for his inauguration

• The path of Hurricane Dorian

• The severity of COVID-19

• Windmills cause cancer

or even

• Who won the 2020 election

All of this is to say that Donald Trump did more to normalize conspiratorial thinking and distrust of experts (especially journalists) than anyone in modern history and the damage he’s done will take some time to repair.

Where We’re Headed

As we approach Donald Trump’s potential indictment this week, his supporters may soon be faced with yet another line they’ll have to cross: Once Trump is has been arrested, will they still support him? Inevitably, many will. He’s been impeached twice, banned from social media platforms, lost an election, incited a coup attempt, and was even dumped by longtime ally Fox News. Each time, he seems to bounce back, barely shedding any supporters.

What This All Means To Me

I recognize that it’s easy to vilify your political opponents in this increasingly polarized climate. It’s easy and even a little satisfying to fall into a pattern of simply trying to score points on the other side, and I admit I’ve been guilty of that on occasion (see @theothersean on Twitter).

That said, my relationship with Donald Trump’s assault on truth is not just one of mere disagreement. I am not blogging about the man because I didn’t vote for him or because I disagree with him on, well, just about everything.

I’m shining a light on him particularly because as a journalist, it is literally my job to clean up his mess.

The post Donald Trump Tried To Break the Media with “Fake News,” And Someone’s Got To Fix It appeared first on Sean McMillan's blog.