Here's an easy (& timely) lesson for your kids tomorrow. Let's start with this tweet. What's the difference between mis- and disinformation? It's big. 1/11
"The media doesn't select the president," with the headline President Gore. As we know, there was no Pres. Gore--it was Pres. Bush (you'll have to fill in some context for kids). Then, you'll need to discuss a) who is Tim Murtaugh, & b) why would he want to push that message now?
Have kids search Tim Murtaugh and teach them to "hover" (a term from @holden's http://infodemic.blog ), putting their cursor by the person's name, 3/11
So, now we have it. This Murtaugh guy is the president's communication director--and if the media goofed up in 2000, who's to say they aren't goofing up now? 4/11
The only problem is something Murtaugh didn't expect. The Washington Times (generally favorable to Trump) set the record straight. 5/11
There never was a newspaper headline saying "President Gore" at the Washington Times. Here's the headline they actually ran. 6/11
His deceit uncovered, Murtaugh did this 7/11
Now, had your students come across Murtaugh's quote and, believing it true, passed it on to family & friends, well, they would have been "misinformed" and would've been spreading "misinformation." 9/11
But Murtaugh did something more pernicious: he used a fake headline in order to (with calculating forethought) deceive the public and cast doubt on 2020's election results. There's one word for that. 10/11
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