Halloween is behind us, but the scariest day of the year is yet to come. Tuesday is Election Day and I am terrified.
It is almost over, this presidential race that seems like the Cuban Missile Crisis of elections.
I don’t think my fear will be abated even if my chosen candidate wins — they both scare the heck out of me.
On the one hand, we’ve got a candidate who likely should be indicted for crimes against national security and who seems to want more of the same as what our current president delivered. On the other, you’ve got a despicable, ego-maniacal wild card.
It’s not looking great either way.
Regardless of the outcome Nov. 8, whether that outcome is contested or not, the biggest loser will be the American media.
The world is a mess and mistrust of everything government does or says, or the fact-based media says the government does or says has got to be at an all-time high.
Instead, people are reaching for alternative news sources and gulping the conspiratorial Kool-aid.
A study by BuzzFeed shows that social media engagement rises significantly the more false an article is for both liberal and conservative websites.
Engagement, meaning “likes,” shares, or comments on a post, more than doubles and for some outlets more than triples for posts that are “mostly false” or have “no factual content.”
For example, engagement by truthfulness for Right Wing News shows an engagement of 4,933 for posts with no factual content, 781 for mostly false, 429 for a mixture of true and false and 91 for mostly true.
On the other side, The Other 98 percent shows an engagement of 10,337 for posts with no factual content, 11,571 for mostly false, 4,749 for a mixture and 2,896 for mostly true.
People complain that the media lies, but they don’t want the truth. Confirmation bias is nothing new. Cable news and tabloids have been in business for a while.
But social media has managed to speed up the spread of misinformation and partisan news. I wonder how great a role that’s had in this election.
Talking to staunch supporters of either presidential candidate can often yield a heroic white wash of either of their sins and/or a deflection with a full account of their opponent’s.
No matter the outcome, I don’t believe the world is going to end in the near future, but ask me again in a few years.
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