Mainstream press covers disbelieved conspiracy theories, amplifying their spread
Evidence
On that balmy February day, Donald Trump has just been inaugurated and the runaway hot air balloon of his presidency is beginning to lift off the ground. Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory alleging that Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair is affiliated with a secret pedophile ring run out of a D.C. pizza parlor, is still burning up Twitter threads and message boards and leaking repeatedly into the mainstream press, where it’s disbelieved but still covered. The environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a famous vaccine “skeptic,” has announced that Trump asked him to chair a panel on vaccine safety. R.F.K., Jr. is pushing the debunked claim that mercury in vaccines causes autism, and he argues that the most prominent medical bodies in the nation are covering it all up, with help from a bought-off media. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 43
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the ‘shared epistemic style’ pattern claimed across the vault: conspiracy belief drawn in via authority-distrust (the medical establishment covering up), same mechanism as Christian-nationalist and authoritarian-prejudice claims. — connects to: Once-fringe conspiracies can enter mainstream political discourse en masse — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 44; Elite rhetoric substantially raises public conspiracy talk — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 679; A fabricated mosque statistic spread from far right into mainstream media
- SEED: Angle: the mainstream press ‘disbelieving but still covering’ conspiracy claims as a genuine amplification mechanism - how debunking coverage spreads the theory.
Broader Connections
- A fabricated mosque statistic spread from far right into mainstream media
#exemplifies(1.00) - Once-fringe conspiracies can enter mainstream political discourse en masse
#corroborates(0.75) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 44 - Elite rhetoric substantially raises public conspiracy talk
#corroborates(0.72) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 679