Is it too much to ask that everyone do a little fact-checking before spreading deep fakes or other stuff on social media or the radio or anywhere else?
Apparently, it is, and I’m not bringing this up only about the JD Vance couch thing, which at least everyone seems to know started as a joke. Stuff like that happens all the time, and I’d like to think that we’re all at least savvy enough to recognize broad satire when we see it. And I’m not talking about the interpretation of candidates’ comments – reasonable minds may differ about practically everything Donald Trump says or does, maybe because he isn’t sure of what he means himself when he goes off-script. That’s all common, especially in election years and especially in recent years.
But what do you do with deep fake videos? How do you handle deceptively edited audio or video? Do you uncritically take one side’s word about its opposition? This is happening right now, and while it may be “fan service” – giving your partisan audience what it wants to hear – it’s dishonest and a black eye for the news media in general.
One example is from what has become the headquarters of misinformation, Twitter/X, where owner Elon Musk seems to be hell bent on destroying any semblance of utility by posting misleading or inaccurate memes and videos or approvingly commenting on them. The latest example is his lifting someone else’s deep fake video of Kamala Harris “saying” things she never really said in an attempt to discredit her, stripping away the credit, and posting it without labeling it fake or parody. People can plausibly watch the video and assume it’s real and true. It isn’t, but the user probably doesn’t know that. And you might see that, take notes, and then talk about it on the radio as true – hey, you saw and heard it with your own eyes and ears! – or report on it as fact or use it as background for other stories.
Don’t do that. Don’t do that for anything. Not trust-but-verify, but don’t-trust-and-do-verify. Especially in an election year, you, and your audience, will be bombarded with “news,” flooded with memes, fed stories that make someone look bad, and you, as a partisan yourself, might be tempted to just run with it, because, hey, it’s entertainment, right? Your listeners, viewers, and readers will eat it up, so what’s the problem?
The problem is credibility. The problem is adding to the avalanche of lies that passes for political discourse in 2024. Now, I don’t want to be the No-Fun League here, but there are plenty of colorful and entertaining issues on both sides to talk about without using questionable sources and fake stories. At the same time the Vance couch story took flight, there were actual, verifiable stories about him that were just as provocative, the cat lady comments and the dolphin thing. You didn’t need the couch gags, funny though many may have been.
It’s become a little tougher to fact check these days; even mainstream media has had its questionable moments. On the other hand, you should know which organizations are generally safe and which are not. ABC or CBS are one thing, Gateway Pundit is quite another. You do not want to use the latter to verify anything.
Yet you should make sure what you’re talking about or reporting on is true. You do not want to spend a lot of time or column inches (are we still doing that on the internet?) on something that turns out to be untrue. Again, you don’t have to be first on everything, but you do have to protect your reputation and be reliable yourself. There are plenty of people, inside and outside of the news media, who will be posing a problem by spreading trash. Be the solution.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
