Why the White House is pushing a doctored video

The “fake news” wars have reached a new peak. While the president continues to accuse journalists and his opponents of spreading “fake news,” evidence mounts of extensive right-wing disinformation efforts, many aimed at boosting President Doanld Trump and sowing discord among his opponents. The result: Those who cry “fake news” the loudest remain the ones most responsible for circulating it. President Trump and his supporters have dominated the conversation on “fake news” by repackaging a political tactic as old as American democracy itself. But in addition to hurling charges of a misleading press, the right is also generating actual fake news, forcing the left to fight an unprecedented two-pronged war against disinformation. The strategy behind Trump's words remains familiar: neutralize criticism, sow distrust of political opponents, and position himself as the final arbiter of fact and fiction. With a historically unpopular leader, the Republicans have much to gain from an approach designed to increase polarization and solidify party loyalty. 

But while the right comfortably executes a time-tested strategy, the left faces a fresh set of challenges. In addition to fending off accusations of “fake news,” it has to counter something that, paradoxically, has never really been at issue in all of the previous rhetorical wars over misinformation: actual fake news. While politicians and the media have not always been truthful, the scale of this disinformation campaign is unprecedented in the history of the United States. And therein lies the problem. Democrats must adapt an old tool to a new purpose and convince the public that their accusations of deception are not just partisan maneuvering. 

[Shira Lurie is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Virginia. She is completing a dissertation on political protest in the early United States]