On Twitter, local media fail to challenge Trump’s voter fraud delusion
The Twitter accounts of The Kansas City Star and two local television stations mishandled Donald Trump’s outburst on Sunday.
Apparently agitated about efforts to recount the vote in Wisconsin and other states, Trump promoted a dumb conspiracy theory that he’d lost the popular vote because of massive fraud. The president-elect made a baseless claim on Twitter that he would have won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
The Twitter accounts of the Star, KMBC Channel 9, and KCTV Channel 5 described Trump’s statement about millions voting illegally as a “claim,” which didn’t capture the full of weight of its preposterousness.
%{[ data-embed-type=”oembed” data-embed-id=”https://twitter.com/KCStar/status/802990892118376450″ data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%%{[ data-embed-type=”oembed” data-embed-id=”https://twitter.com/KCTV5/status/802995561930465280″ data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%%{[ data-embed-type=”oembed” data-embed-id=”https://twitter.com/KCStar/status/802990892118376450″ data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%Some national media outlets made the same mistake. CBS News issued a clarification after its Twitter account initially presented Trump’s rant without challenge.
The Star and KMBC handled yesterday’s news with more success on other platforms. The Star‘s website accurately framed Trump’s spasm of misinformation (“Trump falsely claims he only lost popular vote because ‘millions’ voted illegally”), while KMBC offered more context on its Facebook page.
