Swallowing the truth
Chose your own version of the truth: Kellyanne Conway
With the help of social media it could easily be possible to assemble an American majority who accept the “alternative facts”, writes Raymond Snoddy. So what can be done?
Former Prime Minister Harold Wilson was vilified for his cynicism when he declared more than 50 years ago that “a week is a long time in politics”.
With President Donald J Trump it’s come down to just a day, or even an afternoon. If you include Twitter – and we surely must – the political window collapses in on itself to be counted in mere seconds.
Let’s give ourselves a long horizon and try to work out what we have learned about Trump, the media and journalism on the roller-coaster ride since inauguration day.
We already knew that Trump has always been obsessed by the media, and loved the papers and the news channels while they were fawning over his business “triumphs.”
Now he is simply obsessed by how he is portrayed and the inconvenient Trump truths the media are now reporting.
How revealing about the man’s unhealthy vanity and sense of priorities that the first vicious attack on the media should come because they dared to report that more people, many more people, attended President Obama’s inauguration eight years ago than his.
Trump can’t even stop lying about the small things. God, no less, had held off the Washington rain until after his inauguration speech was over. No Donald. God didn’t. The rain started as you began your speech.
And never mind the pictures, official transport records prove that Obama was by far the bigger draw.
However, much larger problems loom for the media and journalism than the reporting of the size of the inauguration crowds and the willingness of President Trump to make things up and than have representatives lie on his behalf.
If last year was the year of “post-truth” and “fake news” then Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway has already, before January is out, produced what will turn out to be the Zeitgeist term of 2017 – “alternative facts”.
If you don’t like the Obama turnout facts then we have alternative ones, that the crowd last Friday was the largest for any presidential inauguration ever.
Assume, and I think we must, that the concept of alternative facts is not a one-off but a statement of intent for the Trump presidency. They will do it in the full knowledge that true Trump supporters will believe almost anything their man says and that an element of doubt will enter the minds of millions of others who do not follow the details of politics and public policy.
With the help of Facebook and Google it could easily be possible to assemble an American majority who accept the alternative facts rather than those peddled by the vilified traditional media.
The new world of post-truth, fake news and alternative facts is a problem not just for journalism but also for society. It is something absolutely new, at least for the Western democracies.
As Lenin asked in a different context in his 1901 pamphlet: “What Is To Be Done?”
The legendary American newsman Dan Rather has part of the answer, perhaps even a large part.
“What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation: ‘A lie, is a lie is a lie!'”
Those who know that that there is such a thing as truth must do everything in their power to diminish “the liar’s malignant reach into our society.”
Rather even proposes terminating interviews with senior Republicans if they equivocate and refuse to combat the lies from the White House.
The Trump phenomenon is extraordinary and truly exceptional and ultimately advanced democracies cannot function on a tissue of lies no matter however many times they are repeated on Facebook. Something will have to give.
There is a danger that the British will be too smug and believe that La La Land is solely an American manifestation.
No prizes for guessing the right answer but who said in April 2016: “We export more to Ireland than we do to China, almost twice as much Belgium as we do to India, and nearly three times as much to Sweden as we do to Brazil. It is not realistic to think we could just replace European trade with these new markets.”
The answer of course is the lady who is prepared to turn her back on the single market and the European Customs Union – Prime Minister Theresa May.
The UK too, it seems, has alternative facts, although not so risible as those emanating from the Trump administration.
Apart from standing up and being counted with Dan Rather there have been a few hopeful signs in recent weeks.
The BBC is assembling a team to fact check and counter misleading and false information. It is probably a response to criticisms that the BBC should have produced more analytical and robust journalism to combat the myths of the referendum campaign.
It seems modest and a little late. Channel 4 News has had a fact-checking team for years but at least, in current circumstances, it is a positive step in the right direction.
Facebook has also woken up, at least partially, to the reputational damage it could suffer from merely hosting echo-chambers for the transmission of lies, however high their origin.
Facebook said last month it would begin flagging up fake news stories relying on users and outside fact-checking organisations.
It seems like a very modest step in the right direction with the social media giant taking very little direct responsibility and no financial responsibility at all.
Readers will be able to draw Facebook’s attention to possible fake stories and they can then send them on to fact checking organisations such as ABC News, AP and FactCheck.org. These organisations will not be paid for their work and if a problem is encountered then Facebook will simply flag-up that the story is disputed by a third-party.
How many Trump true believers will go through that process – or even Brexiteers.
In the year of alternative facts the only hope for optimists is to do everything possible to ensure that in the brutal battle for the truth, ultimately only real facts will prevail.