Potential “bait” stories should have people reconsidering the way they watch the news.
Republican politicians are trolling journalists with scandalous stories that end in a dud. Day after day, headline after headline, reporters covered the Nunes memo that, according to politicians, would unveil “alleged misdeeds” by the FBI and the Department of Justice. When the memo was finally released, it virtually said nothing. Journalists who hyped up the possible discoveries that the memo would bring were left empty handed.
Other “bombshells” such as a “secret society” that is said to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency, along with the FBI’s missing text messages, have been shown to have no credible truth to them.
Conservatives keep pushing these conspiracies to get news outlets and their viewers to overreact. Their influence over the media could result in detrimental consequences by inviting plausible suspicion over political issues and distracting broadcasters from serious reporting.
And these politicians do it by using a simple three-step tactic: bait the target by promising a huge revelation; receive the desired reaction from the target; and then reveal the truth. This trolling is used to lead the viewer to where they want them to be looking, and then show them nothing.
This Vox video tells us how we can become more wary of news stories by viewing them as potential bait.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.
Photo Credit: Live2Create / Shutterstock.com
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