I'm thinking of one journalist I interviewed in my Oxygen of Amplification report. Reflecting on how amplification of far right views normalized & incentivized those views, they said, "At this point we have built the world that they told us existed." We must not do that now. https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1325938815417151488

And this isn't to say that reporting magically conjured a MAGA army/created the ideology from nothing. It was already there. But when you set the table for them, they will come to eat. Setting the table for bullshit claims about nonexistent voter fraud carries the same risk

So: the directive is pretty simple. Tell the fucking truth. Foreground the reality, and when the fantasy enters the narrative, make sure it's framed as such, not as the other side of a two-sided debate. Set the table for pro-democracy forces, not cynical authoritarian ones

The call here isn't to say NOTHING about false voter fraud claims. When we must, the goal is to respond as strategically as possible, with particular care not to frame falsehoods as the gravitational center of the discussion. Because life has a tendency to imitate amplification.

One strategy is to highlight how long Trump and co. have been cooking up this defense. He/his high-profile surrogates have been seeding it for MONTHS, tethering it to the Deep State conspiracy theory megaplex that posits a nefarious Democrat THEM out to destroy the pro-Trump US.

(This was always why QAnon was scary- not bc of the Satanist claims, but bc it fed into a worldview in which the Deep State Democrats + journalists were in cahoots to destroy Trump, efforts that allegedly included overhyping Covid, slowing down a vaccine, & RIGGING THE ELECTION)

The question to counter with is, how could MAGA world have divined these specific voting irregularities before a single vote had been cast, unless that was already a foregone conclusion? Either they're psychic, or this was always the playbook: to corrode trust in democracy.

Another Q is, if the Ds really rigged the election, why didn't they rig the races they lost & why didn't they secure the next-biggest prize, the Senate? If they tried & failed, there goes their all-powerful nefariousness. If they didn't try, what the hell kind of rigging was it?

The fact-check response, "But they didn't" is unlikely to convince someone already sure the election was rigged (a certainty based on the fact that they've been told it was rigged for months now). It's also more likely to amplify the underlying Dems-rigged-the-election frame

Highlighting gaps in that narrative, on the other hand, doesn't just restate the conspiratorial frame. It challenges the frame & has a better chance of seeding doubt in the frame. Of course it's better to have a full-grown tree than a seed; but a seed is better than nothing.

We're in trouble. But we're not helpless. Whatever our profession/visibility, our actions will shape what narrative emerges. We might not be able to change MAGA minds in the next months, but we can minimize the pollution that spreads-- & give democracy that much more of a chance

As an update, here are some additional tips for covering false accusations of voter fraud, which also apply to everyday social media users. (Journalists have vast amplification power, but polluted info doesn't care who spreads it; anyone can be part of the amplification chain)

1) Minimize the "what are these Republicans thinking!" speculation. Their motives matter less than the consequences: to frame Biden as illegitimate. We've watched this play out before w Tea Party/Birtherism & it has ugly long term implications (one of which is a President Trump)

...not to mention the catastrophic consequences for Covid if a significant % of citizens think they can --or as their patriotic duty SHOULD-- reject Biden's federal pandemic response plan because to them, he's not the "real" president (basically: a YOU'RE NOT MY DAD response)

2) Be careful with the "it's a coup" talk, not b/c it's necessarily inaccurate but b/c it suggests that the threat hinges on whether or not they succeed. Even if they fail, the damage will persist. So focus on the long-term threats to democracy/public trust (& public health).

3) Avoid focusing solely on the mere *existence* of the various Facebook groups and influencers pushing the theories. Just saying the groups/influencers exist doesn't tell readers very much, and risks centering & helping normalize the claims (which = backdoor both sides-ism).

Instead, situate the groups/beliefs historically in the broader long-con context of the deep state megaplex (this might help  https://you-are-here.pubpub.org/pub/2fh6pdi8/release/1), and technologically in the context of platform dynamics + moderation issues (or lack thereof) + disinfo attention economy

4) When possible, include tips for readers about talking to friends & relatives, since these claims can't be countered by journalists alone- esp. given that those inclined to believe the claims will likely also be inclined to believe that the news media is part of the "rigging."

Echoing an earlier point, the basic idea is to remember that merely fact checking something (also yelling/mocking) isn't likely to work. Instead, you have to identify what deep memetic frames someone is standing behind, notably who the "us" & the "them" of their worldviews are.

(Deep memetic frames--a concept central to the latest book--are sense-making apparatuses that people feel deep in their bones. They're what influence what people see in the world, what they feel compelled to do in response & are a fundamental component/driver of identity)

...From there you can identify what inconsistencies might be present & what kinds of alternative explanations might get them thinking differently (like the idea that accusations of voter fraud were part of Trump's reelect strategy and long predate a single ballot being cast).

Again, the specific threats posed by the pro-Trump apparatus are real & must not be amplified into existence. But the stakes are higher than Trump's immediate schemes-- they speak to profound fracture w/i the electorate that pro-democracy forces need to take care not to worsen.

(None of which is a call to hold MAGA hands or forgive Mitch McConnell of his sins. It's to make sure we don't accidentally contribute to the narrative that it's not clear who won the election since that could generate a gravitational pull well outside the diehard MAGA orbit)