MSNBC's Hallie Jackson promoted the latest "misinformation" report from New York Times political reporter Maggie Astor, who claimed on Tuesday that Democrats are more truthful than Republicans and purported to have a study to prove it.
Jackson betrayed the tilt just by suggesting which subjects are most often the targets of the accused misinformers: Times reporters "watched as misinformation on immigration, education, President Biden’s agenda began to stream in."
Astor's study looked at e-mails sent out by 390 representatives and senators up for re-election in 2022 because according, to the study, e-mails are a way for politicians to evade fact-checkers, which Jackson summarized while taking a subtle shot at Fox, that "some networks" like MSNBC call out the liars, as if they were a perfect example of objective fact-checking:
So, aside from the hundreds I'm sure of unread messages in those inboxes, you talked about this in your article, right? That lawmakers that spread misinformation on social media or on TV, they'll get kind of, oftentimes on some networks, they'll give quick fact checks, right? They’ll get some flak for spreading stuff that's not true, but on e-mails, absolutely, can they escape this same level of critique, right?
Jackson moved to the results of the study, "Your investigation found that Republicans are responsible for more of this false information than Democrats are, right? Can you talk through some of the, the what you found and [the] rationale there?"
Astor responded by asserting, "I found was that roughly 15% of e-mails I received from Republicans contained false information and by that, I'm referring to you know, empirically false statements. Things that can be proven not to be true. I’m not talking about, you know, the standard political exaggerations and spin and what not, but actually empirically false statements were in about 15% of Republican e-mails compared with about 2% of Democratic e-mails, so it was a pretty striking difference."
EARLIER: Clay Waters on Maggie Astor's own bouts of misinformation
By excluding hyperbole it is almost certain that the 2% is too low given how the media uncritically accepts the Democratic framing on issues like "voting rights," "voter suppression," and the future of democracy. By not counting such examples it is hard to understand why we should take this study seriously. If this is typical media "study," you can't call a Democrat a "socialist," but you can suggest Republicans are "Jim Crow 2.0."
It's so tiresome that if liberal reporters aren't reading something, it must be creeping "misinformation." They sound like they're petrified that someone, somewhere is getting undiluted anti-liberal messaging.
Politicians have always lied. But the volume/brazenness of misinfo has increased, and not only—or even primarily—from the handful of officials who get national attention for it. And even if Twitter/FB vanished, it would still be flowing directly to voters. https://t.co/pl4IbSM52E
— Maggie Astor (@MaggieAstor) December 13, 2021
This segment was sponsored by Kraft.
Here is a transcript for the December 14 show:
MSNBC
Hallie Jackson Reports
3:52 PM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: Political misinformation. You know it's on your phone screen, it’s your TVs. It's now even coming to your e-mail addresses. It actually might have been for a little while out, but some new reporting from the New York Times taking a look at thousands of those campaign e-mails. Many of them littered with bad information. Reporters for the Times subscribed to nearly 400 campaign e-mail lists—RIP your inbox-- and they watched as misinformation on immigration, education, President Biden’s agenda began to stream in. I'm joined now by the journalist who reported out this story, the New York Times’ Maggie Astor. Maggie, thank you for being on the show. Good afternoon to you.
MAGGIE ASTOR: Thank you for having me
JACKSON: So, aside from the hundreds I'm sure of unread messages in those inboxes, you talked about this in your article, right? That lawmakers that spread misinformation on social media or on TV, they'll get kind of, oftentimes on some networks, they'll give quick fact checks, right? They’ll get some flak for spreading stuff that's not true, but on e-mails, absolutely, can they escape this same level of critique, right?
ASTOR: Yeah, there's definitely less scrutiny of e-mails. They, you know, obviously they go directly to the inboxes of millions of people and often times, you know, fact checkers, journalists are just not really looking at these e-mails. They're looking at other forums and so they don't get fact checked, fact checked in the same way.
JACKSON: Yeah. Your investigation found that Republicans are responsible for more of this false information than Democrats are, right? Can you talk through some of the, the what you found and rationale there?
ASTOR: Yeah, absolutely. So I, my goal going into this was to determine, you know, how common misinformation was in campaign e-mails. Fundraising e-mails specifically and whether, you know, there were partisan patterns in terms of who was doing it. And what I found was that roughly 15% of e-mails I received from Republicans contained false information and by that, I'm referring to you know, empirically false statements. Things that can be proven not to be true. I’m not talking about, you know, the standard political exaggerations…JACKSON: Right
ASTOR: … and spin and what not, but actually empirically false statements were in about 15% of Republican e-mails compared with about 2% of Democratic e-mails, so it was a pretty striking difference.
