Still recklessly disregarding the truth

Smoke in the sky, Trump indicted -- and the realities those events underscore

Red sky in morning: We all should take warning (Photo by Micah Williams on Unsplash)

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You would think that Fox News might have been somewhat humbled after being forced to shell out $787.5 million for pushing lies about the 2020 election results. That expensive defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems could have made Fox — and the politicians and other media outlets in the right-wing propaganda loop — a bit more likely to avoid what the law calls “reckless disregard” for the truth.

Not so much, it seems, judging by reactions on the right to the two biggest news stories of recent days — the smoke-choked air across much of the eastern United States, and the federal indictment of Donald Trump.

There was Jeanine Pirro, the failed Republican candidate for New York attorney general who now is a Fox News anchor, complaining at midweek that the Canadian wildfires that turned New York’s skies a smokey red were inappropriately “pumping up climate hysteria,” while her colleague Jessie Watters mocked warnings to stay indoors that came from officials of both the state and the city — which recorded the worst air quality in the world that day. Fox featured an oil industry spokesman who insisted, “This is not a health event. This has nothing to do with climate.”¹

All of that is recklessly untrue. It’s reminiscent of the tobacco executives who assured Congress under oath in 1994 that nicotine wasn’t addictive and that cigarettes were safe — when, in fact, more people were dying from smoking each year than from murder, suicide, car crashes, AIDS, drugs and alcohol combined. The people who are today fighting our best efforts to reverse climate change may need to be reminded of what came next: Five weeks after that head-in-the-sand testimony, the first in what became a flood of anti-tobacco lawsuits was filed. The litigation eventually led to an admission by the cigarette makers that they knew for decades that they were pushing dangerous products, and then to an historic $206 billion judgment against Big Tobacco.²

But we’re talking here about lies now, not then. The evening after the oil industry flack reassured Fox viewers that they were perfectly safe to breathe the sooty air, it was another big night on cable news, as Donald Trump revealed that he had been indicted. Once again, the reaction conveyed more than a hint of recklessness.

Nobody had seen the charges, but that didn’t deter U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Upstate New Yorker who leads the House Republican Conference, from claiming they revealed nothing important about Trump, but rather “corrupt political weaponization of our federal government,” and accusing President Joe Biden of “illegal, egregious and treasonous corruption.” (Treason is a federal crime punishable by death. Stefanik has not clarified what the president did to warrant execution.) Most prominent Republican officials toed a similar line, if somewhat less flamboyantly than the morally unstable Stefanik. Fox host Sean Hannity called it “a dark day in America.” For hours after that, Fox aired guests who echoed the accusation that a Trump indictment clearly meant that America’s justice system is corrupt.³

The unhinged rhetoric of the media players doesn’t mean they don’t know that their response is reckless. Rather, it underscores the reality that the goal of right-leaning media is less public information than reinforcement of their audience’s biases. As to the players in public life who take their cues from the conservative media ecosystem, they’re only interested in the political benefits of standing up for Trump: Even the minority of Republican voters who say they prefer somebody else as their 2024 standard-bearer lap up attacks on the other side — including pooh-poohing the notion that climate change is a danger — since that’s a point made by Democrats, and the whole idea of politics is to own the libs, right?  

But what about facts? Let’s imagine, wildly, that Fox and its smaller competitors took a step back, and that the politicians who fill their airwaves somehow decided that it would be good for American society if they offered a more reasoned approach — that is, one that is more fact-based. Would that change anything?

Here, for example, are some facts that a responsible news organization or public official might cite: Scientists agree that carbon pollution exacerbates climate change, and it is giving us the hotter, drier weather that did, in fact, set up Canada for the worst wildfire season in its history — yielding a 1,400% increase so far in 2023 over the usual amount of land burned by this time of the year. Globally, wildfires are expected to increase in intensity by up to 57 percent by 2090, a United Nations climate report warned last year.⁴

More facts, this one on that other issue: Trump was accused by a grand jury of willfully retaining documents containing critical national defense secrets, in violation of the Espionage Act, and conspiring to cover up his stash even after he and his lawyers swore to federal officials that they had turned over everything that the law required.⁵ In this case and on other issues, Trump is under investigation by independent counsel Jack Smith, a career prosecutor from Upstate New York, whose previous work included overseeing the prosecution of New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat. Smith is not enrolled in a political party, and seems an unlikely candidate to tarnish his reputation by engaging in partisan “election interference,” as Trump quickly labeled the charges against him — or, as Trump repeatedly claims, “the greatest witch hunt of all time.”

Yet even if those facts somehow miraculously made their way into right-wing talking points, it wouldn’t quickly sway voters on the right. Humans are powerfully motivated by the way our brains work to accept information as true only if it supports what we already want to believe. Social scientists call it “motivated reasoning,” and it’s a reality across the political spectrum. It’s the opposite of critical thinking, in which evidence is weighed with an open mind.

The easier choice, then, for those who want to please their friends is to skip all that hazardous truth-telling. There was no evidence of critical thinking in the reactions of Fox hosts to the smoke-darkened skies or of Elise Stefanik to the Trump indictment. They gave no indication of any interest in trying to restore the fading American belief in the rule of law and the primacy of science, both of which are under relentless attack on the right.

“These are wonderful times for motivated reasoners,” University of Queensland psychology professor Matthew Hornsey told a writer for the American Psychological Association a few years ago. “The internet provides an almost infinite number of sources of information from which to choose your preferred reality.”⁶

Fringe ideas once were less likely to rise to mainstream awareness because the sources of information tended to share standards of what constitutes factual information. But today’s polarized media landscape gives everyone access to a seemingly authoritative source for information that fits their biases.

That’s why ethical standards for information brokers — both in the media and in public life — are so important, and why America’s recovery from our current deep divisions will be so difficult. There is little motivation for either a politician or a media commentator to stick to reality if the excesses of each reinforce those of the other. And people will cling to what they hope is real until evidence so overwhelms their biases as to make it impossible to sustain belief in what’s untrue.

Those of us who are desperate for all Americans to grasp the threat of climate change can’t pin our hopes on legislation any more than those who warned for decades of tobacco’s dangers in the late 20th century could realistically expect Congress to act. Smokers and the industry that was killing them had the same sort of support in Congress three decades ago that we see today in the carbon extraction industries — oil and coal companies, and others that derive income from their products. Tobacco’s hold on the nation wasn’t broken until the massive court settlement (and, in some states, high cigarette taxes) funded a years-long advertising campaign about tobacco’s risks.

So before we abandon hope about today’s tainted political climate, we may want to consider whether we are near just such a point in confronting the blind spots of motivated reasoners on today’s critical topics. Experts say there’s strong potential that the choking smoke from Canada will settle in again over the United States in coming weeks, and the wildfire season hasn’t yet begun in the American West. That’s not good news, of course, but might the persistence of the smoke that clouded our eyes this week eventually open our vision to the danger that climate change poses?

And the federal indictment of Donald Trump this week is just a mid-stage step in the legal peril he faces. Beyond this case and the hush money charges that await trial in Manhattan, there are other grand juries hearing evidence against him, and details yet to emerge about what prosecutors say is criminal activity on several other fronts by the 45^th president. Might the sheer weight of evidence against Donald Trump eventually deter even the most ardent of his admirers? Might the courts in fact lead to a grudging acceptance by many that America’s stated standard of equal justice for all in fact applies to even a former president?

Those who are inclined to disbelieve the threat of climate change and to embrace Donald Trump will want to look away from any evidence that might conflict with their biases. That’s human nature, the brain scientists tell us. But that works only for so long. There’s a benefit to recognizing even hard-to-accept truths, as the great Japanese writer Haruki Nakamura noted in his book Kafka on the Shore. “Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything,” Nakamura wrote. “Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. In fact, things will be even worse the next time you open your eyes. … Only a coward closes his eyes.”

In the end, that is, there’s no benefit to reckless disregard for the truth.

1. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fox-news-dismisses-wildfire-smoke-harmless-climate-change-1234766334/

2. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/14/congress-hearing-oil-exxon-bp-shell-chevron

3. https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/media/trump-federal-indictment-media-reliable-sources-hnk-intl/index.html

4. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/canadas-wildfires-new-climate-reality-experts-officials-say

5. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/08/us/trump-indictment-documents

6. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/05/alternative-facts

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NEWSCLIPS FROM THE UPSTATES

Dispatches from our common ground *

Wherein each week we look around what we call the nation’s Upstates — those places just a bit removed from the center of things — to find illumLinating news and intriguing viewpoints, which you might not otherwise see.

This week, we share reporting published here:

• Asbury Park, N.J. (Asbury Park Press, NorthJersey.com)

• Louisville, Ky. (Courier Journal, courier-journal.com)

• Jackson, Miss. (Clarion Ledger, clarionledger.com)

• Farmington, N.M. (Farmington Daily Times, currentargus.com)

NOTE: The complete “Newsclips from the Upstates” section, and The Upstate American Midweek Extra Edition, which is sent to email boxes most Wednesdays, are available only to paid subscribers. Thanks for your support!

NEW JERSEY

Tough tick season is at hand

Climate change and emerging species of ticks will present more of a threat to human health across more states this summer, according to reporting by Emma Ferschweiler in NorthJersey.com. The deer tick, the prime vector of Lyme disease, is moving further north, and the Asian longhorns tick, found for the first time in the United States six years ago, has now spread across the East Coast. So more people are likely to be at risk of tick-borne illnesses. New Jersey has a new law requiring all public schools from kindergarten through grade 12 to learn about Lyme disease and tick-borne illnesses. Ticks thrive in habitats with high temperature and humidity, and in grassy, woody areas. Milder winters and hotter summers have enabled ticks to spread into places where they once were rare.

KENTUCKY

When can you leave a child alone?

As the school year ends, Kentucky officials are reaching out to warn parents about leaving young children alone. Ana Rocio Alvarez-Brinez writes in the Louisville Courier Journal that while the law does not specify an age when kids can be left home alone, there are statutory standards defining child neglect. One bit of advice: act out with children scenarios for how to prepare them for situations like visitors and phone calls.

MISSISSIPPI

Is an Applebee’s a mark of civilization?

Big-time college baseball creates some special rivalries, apparently, and as the University of Tennessee and the University of Southern Mississippi meet for a regional NCAA championship, there are some put-downs in the air over one university town’s inability to support an Applebee’s — which apparently implies some sort of edge of civilization to one group of fans. Ross Reily reports in the Clarion Ledger that fans of the Tennessee Vols are trolling Southern Miss because an Applebee’s in Hattiesburg, where Southern Miss is located, closed during the pandemic. The teams are vying for a slot in the College World Series, which will be played in Omaha — where, Reily notes, there’s an Applebee’s about a 20-minute drive from the field. Guess fans can’t imagine life without their Applebee’s “Brew Pub Pretzels and Beer Cheese Dip.”

NEW MEXICO

Colorado River water plan still faces a long road

Officials have touted a voluntary conservation agreement for crucial Colorado River water that was announced by California, Arizona and Nevada — the so-called lower-basin states among the seven states that depend on the river’s water — but there’s still a long path before the plan can take effect, notes Mike Easterling in the Farmington Daily Times. The plan still must be analyzed by federal officials, go through a public comment period and gain the endorsement of the other four states that use the river and its tributaries — New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The federal government is offering $1.2 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act to the three states in exchange for reducing water use by cities, tribes and irrigation districts. While it was an historically wet winter and spring across the region, the long-term trend has seen dangerous drops in water levels that could imperil growth, even as population in the Southwest continues to grow.

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IF YOU’RE A READER who wants to hear more of Rex Smith’s views, check www.wamc.org for his weekly on-air commentary aired by Northeast Public Radio. Here’s a link to the latest essay. And if your interest is specific to American media, you can download the podcast of The Media Project, the 30-minute nationally-syndicated discussion that Rex leads each week on current issues in journalism.

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And one last note…

Thanks for reading The Upstate American, and for supporting my work exploring our common ground, this great land. Most weeks, paid subscribers will also receive the Midweek Extra Edition of The UPSTATE AMERICAN, exploring the writing of the essay. And if you’d like to learn how to write opinion essays — for newspapers, audio or digital platforms — check out the class offered by The Memoir Project by clicking below. There’s only one more class before our summer break.

-REX SMITH