There has been no more depressing spectacle this week than this: Large media outlets took a misleading, incorrect, propagandist birther column in a publication that no one reads any more, and they amplified it into a full Discourse about a Black woman's legitimacy to hold office. https://twitter.com/BGrueskin/status/1294094048723075078

It's really depressing to see the New York Times and NBC News and so many others show so little news judgment. They'll amplify any conspiracy theory, no matter how obviously false, without thinking of their responsibility to a wider audience.

None of these white reporters and editors of political sections understand what an incredible aggression it is to suggest that immigrants and Black people are not "real" Americans and how they re-enforce the white-supremacist idea that America is a white country.

What is especially galling to the practice of good journalism is how very small the bait has to be in order for white reporters and editors to talk about whether Black people are "real" Americans. That Newsweek piece was sloppy, incorrect, and had strong conflicts of interest.

This grotesque spectacle of casually discussing whether a Black woman, a child of immigrants, a citizen, a sitting Senator, is "legitimate" is how media coverage aids white-supremacist interests by attaching asterisks to any Black person's rise and making them look less-than.

I hope white reporters and editors covering politics take a few days to examine their complicity in playing along with white-supremacist goals of delegitimizing Black people in public life. It's time for some introspection in journalism.

I'm sure the (extremely weak) defense in these newsrooms is "well it's already out there." I would ask journalists to consider what "out there" means. False accusations in a little-read publication are not. Bei nd at a big outlet means understanding our power of amplification.

And also please ask what and who it serves to discuss the "legitimacy" of non-white Americans.

And think about how that reflects the tendency in a LOT of major newsrooms to treat BIPOC colleagues as "diversity hires" which undermines their right to be in this industry.

In addition to being explicitly racist to keep using journalistic platforms to amplify birthers (old and new) it is also the laziest journalism. It's the result of reporters letting Twitter nonsense set the agenda for news coverage. Look outside Twitter!

Recommended reading that shows why "fact-checking" is a weak cover for amplifying white supremacist lies in the guise of giving them credibility.

https://medium.com/@psychunseen/illusory-truth-lies-and-political-propaganda-6810953a6553

Please, PLEASE stop saying that stories that amplify Trump's lies are useful in the service of fact-checking.

Can we please remember that fact-checking exists to *keep incorrect information out of news publications*?

Don't use "fact-checking" as an excuse to *publish* lies.

The whole point of fact-checking a story is that the news media understood its incredible power to influence readers, and so we checked facts so that incorrect information was not passed on.

"Fact-checking" is not what happens when we publish lies. That's just publishing lies.

Political reporters should all be trained in understanding the techniques of propaganda and online influence. Right now there's way too much Boomer sensibility running political teams and Boomers love to engage conspiracies. Don't.

Good reading here.

https://twitter.com/fiorbhlasta/status/1294349356578070528?s=21 https://twitter.com/fiorbhlasta/status/1294349356578070528

This is a great piece that addresses the issues of birthright citizenship informatively and in the context of white supremacy, while de-amplifying the lies, which are allllll the way down (neither headline nor dek nor lede) and dismissed quickly.

https://twitter.com/adriennelaf/status/1294359776734978048?s=21 https://twitter.com/AdrienneLaF/status/1294359776734978048