State-adjacent leaks elevate fringe figures and erode public epistemic trust

Evidence

Further, it became clear in 2017 that people serving in the Trump administration were feeding information to far-right news outlets. People such as once-marginal figure Mike Cernovich suddenly broke news that could have been acquired only via someone in the White House. The effect is twofold: a fringe figure becomes more credible, and, more fundamentally, uncertainty proliferates about what is true, who is trustworthy, who should be listened to. That uncertainty benefits the reigning power structure and serves to deepen distrust of all blogs, newspapers, and TV stations—the mainstream media the administration so vocally detests. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 120

Categorization

• XREF: Shares epistemic machinery with the vault’s claims about Christian-nationalist and authoritarian prejudice: systematic production of distrust in shared truth sources. — connects to: Distrust, immobility, and fear of outsiders conspiratorialize American politics — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 59
• SEED: Article angle: the two-sided payoff of state-to-fringe leaks — credibility laundering for the fringe plus manufactured uncertainty for the public — as a mechanism of epistemic corrosion.

Broader Connections

• Distrust, immobility, and fear of outsiders conspiratorialize American politics #complicates (0.75) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 59