USA Today and Suffolk U conducted a poll of 1,000 Trump voters, identified through 2020 polls, last week. The results reaffirm that Donald Trump’s big lies are now part of the Republican Party base. Riot denial, for example:
“Most Trump voters embrace a version of the events on January 6 that was unmasked by independent fact checkers and law enforcement agencies,” wrote USA Today’s Susan Page on Sunday. “Asked to describe what happened during the attack on the Capitol, 58% of Trump voters call it ‘mainly an antifa-inspired attack that involved only a few Trump supporters.’ This is more than double the 28% that they call ‘a meeting of Trump supporters, some of whom attacked the Capitol.’ Four percent call it ‘an attempted coup inspired by President Trump.’ “
Trump sometimes told the public not to believe his eyes and ears – and some of his fans evidently agreed. The day of the MAGA terror on the Capitol was thrown into the memory hole by Trump’s base. “Only 4% say that the impeachment trial made them less favorable to Trump; 42% say it made them more favorable, ”wrote Page. “Fifty-four percent say it did not affect their support.”
The Big Lie about Trump winning the election and Biden “stealing it” largely lives on because some people want to believe it and because a constellation of Trump propaganda sources injects a diet of dishonest information that supports it. But it is also important to see how the Big Lie is still being rinsed and repeated on respectable TV shows.
Matt Negrin, a longtime critic of public relations programs,
called ABC’s hiring of deputy Steve Scalise on Sunday: “He was rewarded with 10 minutes of airtime and pushed the lie again,” wrote Negrin. “The networks are actively helping Republicans to spread that lie.”
Negrin too
pointed that lawmakers who deny the elections have been well received on other TV shows in recent weeks, and said that “the only Sunday program that does not register these Big Liars is ‘SOTU'” on CNN.
ABC representatives would say that Scalise was repeatedly challenged by presenter Jon Karl. They would say that viewers saw how Scalise avoided the questions and saw how Karl held him responsible. They would say that
Monday’s “GMA” is broadcasting an exclusive interview with a police officer who defended the Capitol on 1/6. They would say that all of this is part of the mission of a medium. But are these defenses persuasive to you when democracy is at stake?
The new “lost cause”
>> Garry Kasparov
wrote in reaction to Negrin: “This is like giving air time to people who sell bleach as a miracle cure, only even more dangerous.” He said that “denying the integrity of the 2020 elections is the new lost cause” and “the media will be partially responsible if they take root”.
>> “Somehow”, Jim Sciutto of CNN
observed, “recognizing the truth today – on January 6 and the election – has become an atypical position in the Republican Party and beyond.”
>> Do you agree or disagree? “The greatest threat of disinformation and disinformation is domestic, currently headed by leaders of a political party and disseminated daily by media pressured to ‘both sides’ through decades of bad faith pressure,” Jared Holt of Right Wing Watch
wrote…A “classic disinfo campaign”
Researcher Kate Starbird
wrote Sunday: “The ‘big lie’ (alleging massive electoral fraud in the 2020 election) has several characteristics of a classic disinformation campaign, including: designed to sow doubts (instead of convincing a single explanation), pushes multiple narratives (even conflicting), functions to undermine democracy. “
“This is not about finding a coherent narrative,” wrote Starbird. “It is about creating doubts by throwing electoral fraud spaghetti against the wall. And, unsurprisingly, the next step is to use those same false and misleading narratives for suppressing voters in the future, making it more difficult for people to vote next time. . ” CNN’s Zach Wolf recently wrote about it …
Tale of two GOPs
On Saturday night at “Judge Jeanine”, Lara Trump said her father-in-law “is the head of the Republican Party. He is really the person everyone will continue to turn to to help them cross the line – if we are talking about 2022 or beyond. “
Sunday morning at Meet the Press, Chuck Todd asked Congressman Will Hurd: “What role should ex-President Trump play in the future of the Republican Party? Or should he not have a role?” Hurd said, “I think very little, if not really.”
Another lesson from the new poll …
“In a USA TODAY / Suffolk poll in October 2016, 58% of Trump voters said Fox was the most reliable news source. In the new poll, that drops to 34%,” reported Susan Page. “Confidence has increased in two relatively new channels that have gained a reputation for defending Trump. Newsmax is the most reliable among 17% of Trump voters, followed by 9% for” One America News.
>> Here’s what David Paleologos, from Suffolk, said: The findings may reflect a “seismic shift in the landscape of reliable news sources for conservatives …”
