Fiat News in the Fog of War
Rusty Guinn
October 18, 2023·24 comments·Media
When information is scarce and stakes are high, major news organizations face a choice: report what is known while working to verify details, or publish with false confidence. On October 17-18, 2023, nearly every major western news outlet made the same choice, and not the one their editorial standards promised.
- Western media outlets didn't pause to verify. AP, Reuters, AFP, the Washington Post, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal all rushed to republish Hamas health ministry claims about casualty numbers and causation as established fact, without the caveat that these were unconfirmed statements in an active conflict.
- Visual journalism became propaganda too. The LA Times and New York Times ran images from separate airstrikes, not the actual hospital explosion, because those images better matched the narrative their editors wanted readers to internalize than what actually occurred.
- Even analysis was weaponized. The BBC hosted on-air commentary presented as expert assessment to validate unsubstantiated claims, rather than acknowledging the limits of what could be known from available evidence.
- Speed created a narrative monopoly. One belligerent's claims saturated global coverage before alternative accounts or expert analysis could emerge. The media's race to publish first meant Hamas's framing became the default frame for billions of people.
- This wasn't just poor reporting. Peace negotiations were canceled. Regional tensions escalated. Hezbollah gained justification for retaliation. The question isn't whether media mistakes happened, but whether media outlets now respond to uncertainty by exercising less judgment instead of more.
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Comments
I completely agree, Rusty, on all aspects of this. The pressure to publish immediately is a terrible force.
Agree 100% Rusty. The western news media uncritical rush to judgment on this has/will contribute to further loss of life.
100% agree with this Rusty! It’s been one crazy week in narrative world.
I keep coming back to Lily Tomlin in my head: “No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.”
Yep.
Every outlet, journalist, it seems, wants needs to be first/most dramatic.
A news piece outlining the facts of an occurrence with the accompany questions and outline of the unknown doesn’t sell, get rewarded or lauded for the purity of its articulation.
And there is no need for journalists to admit to mistakes, outlets to retract a story…it’s done - move on, we got our kudos (eye balls at that moment - moved the metric needle - scoreboard).
That game is old and bad, i’ve no idea how to change it.
What’s equally disturbing are the paid for bureaucracies which don’t offer pause or clarity to the facts but jump to a conclusion - hello UN Ambassador from Palestine. Not sure how we can keep the word United in front of Nations when they simply conclude without all the available facts on the table.
One would think that the UN would have some adherence/policy to statements coming from it’s body. Proper due diligence, one statement by the UNITED body. If every country within the UN can launch an independent conclusion - what’s the point of having a UN?
NBC News disinformation reporter Ben Collins tweeted out what amounted to Hamas propaganda last night. It’s not his first (nor likely his last) foray into the world of misinforming people. He also won a Cronkite Award this year for his journalistic integrity.
That should tell you everything you need to know about the state of American corporate media. Last night and this morning it was major media outlets presenting false or misleading stories and random Twitter accounts disputing them with crowdsourced information, including pictures, video, geolocation data, and experts weighing in. Social media is indeed a place to spread misinformation, but the source of that is seemingly always the “responsible, trustworthy” mainstream press.
Ask yourself why that is. Then ask yourself why it is that we accept it so readily.
Disclaimer: Some folks around here have been bitching about this problem for years (They Really Seem Like the Enemy of the People) and nothing has changed.
Amongst some of the work that FABLE is looking to do in collaboration with Vanderbilt and their News Television Archive is to try and find a framework for evaluating whether “press release printing” has always been a feature of news reporting and if no, when and how did it come about…
Super excited about that work. Going to be trying similar research around “prescriptive” vs “descriptive” language.
Excellent essay.
I’m not a fan of media or our media as entertainment model.
I’m willing to learn how I can do my part to hold media accountable, while my household continues to be a skeptical consumer of “news”. We’ve been working to ask better questions as well.
To that end, Howard Lindzon posted an excellent video titled “What would I do?” I’ve watched it twice and find it thought provoking. Highly recommend. Will link if you like.
I don’t know much about Hamas, but if I flipped the script and asked what would I do if I had some momentum and sympathy, however morally wrong and misplaced, and needed to keep my sympathizers engaged and enraged? Claim an airstrike on a hospital fits…the timing is conveniently coincidental.
Zenzei - what is FABLE? I’d like to check it out.
One might argue that the inaccurate reporting on the hospital may end up costing the American taxpayers 100 million. I wonder if Biden promises that “humanitarian aid” to Gaza if the rocket hits its target in Israel?
I am sure that at some point it will be shown that we were funding both sides of this war
.
Please do post the link.
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