They’re not even trying anymore. CBS Washington Correspondent Major Garrett has a new book out in which he employs “speculative fiction” to imagine election violence next year: A Texas Republican shoots a voter at the polls. CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil used this dishonesty Wednesday as a way of warning of America’s coming “civil war.”
Garrett’s new book is called The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of the Big Lie. Co-author Garrett explained how “speculative fiction” gives him license to make stuff up in his journalistic reporting:
So, to make it clear to everyone, this is speculative fiction. It's a nonfiction book that opens with a chapter of speculative fiction. We're imagining something that could happen. All right. Texas changed its laws after 2020 making already restrictive laws even more restrictive.
Garrett promoted his made-up scenario for the events of 2023:
Texas changed its laws after 2020 making already restrictive laws even more restrictive. And there are concerns – and they've manifested themselves in the March primary there, that voters of color might have more difficulty complying with those. So, we paint a scenario where also under Texas law you can open carry and poll observers, election watchers have been given more powers to move around and contest things. So, there's an argument. The argument escalates. And nobody knows how or why. But a gunshot goes off, and a voter dies.
And Democrats looking at this nationally say, “Oh, my God, this is now a death in a polling place. And this looks like an assault on democracy that is now riddled with blood on the floor, literally in a voting precinct.” And they say, “Look, these tensions are so intense, we've reached our breaking point in terms of tolerance.” And the Speaker of the House in this speculative fiction story, we say, doesn't seat the entire Texas delegation, Republicans and Democrats, as a protest over what's going on in Texas. And because it's a close election, that delegation decides who controls the House. So now who controls the House of Representatives is up for grabs.
One might say to Garrett, if you want to write fiction, write fiction. But don’t insert it into a non-fiction analysis of American politics. Of course, the speculative scenario is exactly what’s needed for journalists to push the idea that the country is spiraling out of control. Dokoupil introduced the segment this way: “A CBS News poll finds a majority of Americans believe that, for future generations, the U.S. will be less of a democracy than it is right now.”
Now where could they get that impression? Dokoupil noted that the book claims “our nation [is] at risk for, in fact, a civil war.” Speaking of Garrett and co-author David Becker, the host reiterated, “And I hear both of you say civil war is stalking us.”
Speculative fiction isn’t new in the liberal journalistic and entertainment world. In 1999, Edmund Morris wrote a biography of Ronald Reagan in which, as the New York Times observed, “the author inserted himself as a fictional narrator, a device that baffled and angered some historians.” Even Times writer David Stout in 2019 called the bizarre decision “a device that baffled and angered some historians.”
In 2006, Hollywood made a fake documentary — what Major Garrett might call “speculative fiction” — imagining the future assassination of George W. Bush. CNN and other outlets promoted the ugly, faux documentary.
Back on CBS, Wednesday, Dokoupil responded to Garrett’s weaving of fiction and future predictions by marveling, “And so we have to save the country.” Journalists, always the heroes in their own minds.
The fiction dressed up as "speculative fiction" was sponsored by Progressive insurance. Click on the link to let them know what you think.
A transcript of the segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS Mornings
9/21/2022
8:18AM ETTONY DOKOUPIL: The 2022 midterms are approaching, and a new book is out now aiming to debunk some of the false claims made about the 2020 election. The timing is good because it comes as a CBS News poll finds a majority of Americans believe that for future generations the U.S. will be less of a democracy than it is right now. That's a majority belief. This is fueled in part, of course, by the false claims of former President Trump that the election was stolen from him in 2020. The book is called The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of the Big Lie. It argues the 2020 election was actually a triumph of democracy. It says election denial now puts our nation at risk for, in fact, a civil war. It's co-written by Major Garrett, CBS News' Chief Washington correspondent, and David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. Gentlemen, good morning to both of you.
MAJOR GARRETT: Good morning, Tony.
DAVID BECKER: Good morning, Tony.
DOKOUPIL: The book is co-written, but I hear each of your voices at different times. I think that there's a very interesting contrast at the center of this book. On the one hand, you have what was a tremendous accomplishment, the 2020 election, one of the smoothest, most successful of all time. I hear your voice in that. And yet, we have this astounding denial of it that imperils us. And I hear both of you say civil war is stalking us. Those are the stakes, and that's the contradiction. Let's take them in part. Start with you David. How was the 2020 election one of the most successful in American history?
BECKER: If you look at the objective facts that we know from 2020, we had more verifiable paper ballots than ever before. These are ballots that you can go back to and audit and recount. Ninety five percent of all voters in the United States cast ballots on paper in 2020, the most ever. It was only about 75 percent in 2016. Every battleground state had paper ballots. In all of those states, the ballots were audited. We confirmed that the machines that counted the ballots did so accurately.
We had more pre-election litigation than ever before clarifying the results, every candidate, every campaign knew the rules on election day. They might not have liked them all. Both sides liked some and didn't like some, but they knew the rules. Post election we famously had more litigation than ever before. Sixty courts looked at the evidence, confirmed that the results were accurate. Even Trump-appointed judges did that. So the result was a great triumph of American democracy. The highest turnout we'd ever seen. 20 million more voters than we'd ever seen in any election managed during a global pandemic, all verified.
GARRETT: When we had say triumph of democracy we don't mean you have to be satisfied with the result. Lots of people are unhappy that President Biden won. Fine. Some people missed the Trump presidency. Fine. But disenthrall yourself from the idea that because you're unhappy that entitles you or gives you license to condemn something that was actually an example of American cooperation, collaboration, innovation, and a positive result for the furtherance of our democratic experiment.
DOKOUPIL: You imagine a January, 2023, as going very, very badly. If you could, sketch briefly that very bad outcome and what we can do to prevent it.
GARRETT: So, to make it clear to everyone, this is speculative fiction. It's a nonfiction book that opens with a chapter of speculative fiction. We're imagining something that could happen. All right. Texas changed its laws after 2020 making already restrictive laws even more restrictive. And there are concerns – and they've manifested themselves in the March primary there, that voters of color might have more difficulty complying with those. So, we paint a scenario where also under Texas law you can open carry and poll observers, election watchers have been given more powers to move around and contest things. So, there's an argument. The argument escalates. And nobody knows how or why. But a gunshot goes off, and a voter dies.
And Democrats looking at this nationally say, “Oh, my God, this is now a death in a polling place. And this looks like an assault on democracy that is now riddled with blood on the floor, literally in a voting precinct.” And they say, “Look, these tensions are so intense, we've reached our breaking point in terms of tolerance.” And the Speaker of the House in this speculative fiction story, we say, doesn't seat the entire Texas delegation, Republicans and Democrats, as a protest over what's going on in Texas. And because it's a close election, that delegation decides who controls the House. So now who controls the House of Representatives is up for grabs.
DOKOUPIL: And so we have to save the country. The Big Lie is era. The Big Truth is the book. It will be good conversation at Thanksgiving. On sale now. We’ll be right back.
