Embedded Files
Landslide:
A note on the premise for this series:
I have been thinking about the issue of misinformation and the role of right-wing media for years. I remember in 2017, when a man drove from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., burst into a restaurant with a rifle (which he fired), because he believed prominent Democrats were using it for Satanic rituals involving children — a wild conspiracy theory he absorbed from the right-wing bubble. If it had been true, his actions would have been heroic.
Plenty of research has shown how right-wing media misinforms its consumers. The episode lists some of the major conspiracy theories that have circulated widely within right-wing media, including on climate change, vaccines, and the 2020 election.
In addition, a New York Times reporter tracked “news” on the right-wing social media app Rumble for a week. An IPSOS poll in 2024 found conservative media consumers were more likely to answer questions about crime, inflation, and immigration (prominent election issues) incorrectly. A TIME column traced how disinformation led to January 6th. The nonpartisan site Medias Bias Fact Check ranks Fox News as a “questionable source” because of its promotion of conspiracy theories, propaganda, and pseudoscience. As I write this, prominent Republicans are spreading a myth that the news outlet Politico was secretly funded by the federal department USAID.
Media historian Nicole Hemmer has a well-researched book that traces the rise of conservative media, called Messengers of the Right. She records how a researcher at the conservative Cato Institute warned in 2010 of “the construction of a full-blown alternative media ecosystem . . . worryingly untethered from reality as the impetus to satisfy the demand for red meat overtakes any motivation to report accurately.”
“Engines of Outrage” Part One:
Main Interviews:
Andie Tucher, Columbia Journalism School
A.J. Bauer, University of Georgia
Other Key Sources:
Nine out of 10 Americans say they trust evening news - NY Times, 1969
Falling trust in mass media - Gallup
TV became America’s most trusted news source in 1964 - Pew Research
Falling TV news viewership - Pew Research
New Right newsletters - examples taken from Thunder on the Right by Alan Crawford and letters from the National Conservative Political Action Committee from the Reagan Library collections.
William Safire hired by New York Times, NY Times, 1973
Safire author of ’nattering nabobs,’ NPR
Safire’s usage of “-gate” remembered - The Conversation
For biographical details of Rush Limbaugh, I relied primarily on Talk Radio’s America by Brian Rosenwald.
Other books I consulted involving Limbaugh and his role in politics include Storming the Gates by Daniel J. Balz and Ronald Brownstein, The Hollow Parties by political scientists Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld, and (including the detail of Bush carrying Limbaugh’s bag) Destiny and Power by Jon Meacham.
Newt Gingrich on Vince Foster, Scripps, 1995
Safire on Vince Foster and “Whitewatergate,” NY Times, 1994
Media I consumed about Fox included Breaking News, by Kathryn Brownell, Foxocracy by Tobin Smith, The Loudest Voice in the Room by Gabriel Sherman, the aforementioned Messengers of the Right, and the most recent season of the podcast Slow Burn, which is all about Fox and its effect on news, cable, and television more generally.
“Engines of Outrage” Part Two:
Main Interviews:
Kate Starbird, University of Washington
Hany Farid, University of California, Berkeley
Matt Gertz, Media Matters
Dannagal Young, University of Delaware
Other Key Sources:
Description of map of conspiracy theories after 2015 shootings, University of Washington
Number of active users at Facebook over the years, Associated Press
Fear inside Facebook, Financial Times
Facebook adding features - timeline, Washington Post
Google and recipe lengths, Mashable
Trump reviving birther conspiracy theory and belief in it, Politico
Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society study, Harvard
Fox as conservatives’ most-used source, Pew
FOX calls Arizona (and then fires key decision-makers in that call), Associated Press
Decline in news consumption, Pew
Poll of 2024 presidential race by media consumption, NBC
“Engines of Outrage” Part Three:
Main Interviews:
Hany Farid, University of California, Berkeley
Nina Jankowicz, American Sunlight Project
Matt Gertz, Media Matters
Kate Starbird, University of Washington
Mike Madrid, political consultant and author of "The Latino Century"
Other Key Sources:
Good for the World, New York Times
More on Good for the World, Slate
Russian disinformation in Crimea, CREST
Right-wing attacks derail Disinformation Governance Board, Washington Post
FEMA and hurricane misinformation, NPR
More on the board and Jankowicz resignation, Washington Post
Pizzagate, NPR
Jankowicz House testimony, U.S. Congress
Lawsuits against Stanford and other disinformation researh centers, Inside Higher Ed
Stanford Internet Observatory winds down, Washington Post
Local news losses, Local News Initiative, Northwestern University
Sinclair Media claims 185 stations, SEC
Sinclair orders stations to run right-wing segments, New York Times
Metric and pink slime, Columbia Journalism Review
More about Metric, New York Times
“Engines of Outrage” Part Four:
Main Interviews:
Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic
Matthew Pressman, Seaton Hall University
Nina Jankowicz, American Sunlight Project
Dannagal Young, University of Delaware
Other Key Sources:
MrBeast counts to 100,000, Youtube
Stories about the 1966 struggle over control of a civilian review board, New York Times
Pressman tells the story of the disgruntled New York Times editor in his book, On Press.
Reporter David Burnham broke the stories about NYPD corruption in 1970, New York Times
Knapp Commission Report, U.S. Department of Justice
For more about the erosion of local news, see our previous episode.
How a mole infiltrated the highest ranks of American militias, ProPublica
MeidasTouch, Youtube
Warzel’s story: The internet is worse than a brainwashing machine, The Atlantic
Poll on Jan 6 support from after the attack and in January 2025, CBS News
Webcomic: You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you, TheOatmeal
George Washington’s dentures were made from the teeth of human slaves, Mount Vernon
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