Dear Editor,
I watched President Donald Trump’s speech at CPAC last week on YouTube. I expected Mr. Trump to start his speech by outlining a basic agenda for his new administration, but instead saw him launch into a tirade against veteran U.S. news media outlets, making insinuations about the “dishonest media” and “fake news,” calling the American news media the “enemy of the people.”
If you’re familiar with YouTube, you can imagine the turmoil in the comment section of the video. If not, try to imagine a very heated debate among a group of strangers that all have complete anonymity and no reason for restraint.
I became involved in an argument with an ardent Trump supporter, he supporting Trump’s attacks on the media, while I defended the necessity and veracity of American news outlets. Eventually the discussion devolved to him claiming that Americans don’t trust the media, and he linked an online news poll to prove his point. The poll stated that “Only 6% of Americans trust the media.” The source of his evidence was a news article published on the website rt.com. (www.rt.com/usa/340124-americans-trust-media-plummets/)
Later I was reading an article about Russian cyber-espionage. It mentioned a television network owned by the Russian government and controlled directly by the edicts of Vladimir Putin. The station is called, generically enough, Russian Television. What caught my eye was the mention that they also owned and operated a website. Rt.com. I recognized the website from my earlier online argument, and realized that the person I’d been arguing with, who had so staunchly defended President Trump’s attacks on American media, had used Russian Television’s website to provide supporting proof for his argument.
Now I’m concerned. I’m faced with the possibility that either I was arguing with a Russian cyber-agent, or far worse, a patriotic American doing his best to defend his President, but unwittingly using a Russian propaganda website to provide false proof for his argument. And it leads me to wonder, how many Americans are being led astray by deliberately false information? How many memes and website articles are written by pro-Russian propagandists, and how many devout online patriots are actually foreign dissenters in disguise?
Regardless of your political affiliation, I would urge everyone to pay attention, not only to the news media of your choice, but to the facts that they claim, and to the source of the information that they provide. Even the most reliable news company will occasionally make mistakes. Many present facts that are tempered by an obvious political slant. But some, some are provably false and malicious foreign propaganda. Check your sources, and know your enemy. The venerable news agencies of the United States may not be perfect, but they are a democratic necessity that has served us for generations. They are not my enemy.
—Tim Schulze