The New Yorker digs into the archives (from 2009-2017) for some of the magazine’s most notable work on misinformation & disinformation, as well as the politics surrounding it.
These days, Americans are divided—and nothing reflects our division more than the rise of “fake news.” Whether it’s generated by Russian trolls or American ones, the spread of false news stories is sowing distrust, empowering the fringes, and poisoning our democracy. This week, we’re journeying into the chaos. In “The Things People Say,” Elizabeth Kolbert chronicles the creation of the birther movement and explores how disinformation goes viral; in “Trolls for Trump,” Andrew Marantz profiles Mike Cernovich, the “meme mastermind of the alt-right.” Dana Priest provides an overview of European anti-fake-news efforts in “Lessons from Europe’s Fight Against Russian Disinformation,” and Peter Hessler discovers how the President’s contempt for the media is rubbing off on ordinary people in “Follow the Leader.” Emily Nussbaum examines how humor was used to cloak disturbing elements of racism and xenophobia during the 2016 campaign season in “Tragedy Plus Time.” Finally, in “The Fake-News Fallacy,” Adrian Chen looks back to a previous era of media disruption—the advent of radio—to find out how we’ve dealt with fake news in the past. Together, these pieces provide a map to our fractured media moment.