Recently a video showed protestors in Portland burning a stack of Bibles. As the fire burned, they threw in American flags. Within hours the video went viral. The New York Post ran a story about it. Ted Cruz saw the video and released a statement, “This is who they are.”
The problem is that the whole video was produced by Russians doing their best to ensure Trump’s re-election. The video was made by a Kremlin financed news agency RT. The Russians also produce videos to enflame racial tensions and spread fear.
I don’t know how you tell the difference between real and fake videos. We don’t have independent checks on this sort of thing. Reliable newspapers are going bankrupt or being bought by hedge funds that don’t care for accuracy. Fox News certainly won’t investigate.
We will be inundated with videos and stories produced by countries and individuals who have an interest in wrecking this country. They are having amazing success.
See Matthew Rosenberg and Julian E. Barnes, “Bible Burning Video Goes Viral, A Win for Russia Disinformation,” New York Times, (Aug. 12, 2020), p. A1, A22.
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