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To combat disinformation, news outlets implement plans to combat election night fake stories
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To combat disinformation, news outlets implement plans to combat election night fake stories

NEW YORK — As news outlets prepare for election night, they’re not just focusing on what’s happening. They watch over what they don’t.

More plans to combat disinformation are in place in upcoming newsrooms the culmination of a painful campaign on November 5. The Associated Press and others will take special measures to explain what they are doing. The New York Times assigns reporters to scour the Internet for the first sign of new conspiracies. An NPR reporter will look for the evil created by artificial intelligence. ABC News tried “pre-bunks” to prepare its viewers.

Fake stories that infected the political debate after Hurricane Helene this fall were a stark reminder of how quickly things can spread.

“The biggest thing I tend to worry about is the speed at which misinformation travels and the lack of control that a news organization — any news organization — has over it,” said Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of The Associated Press. .

“The only thing we can do is make sure we fill the space with factual information that is as quick and as accurate as humanly possible to try to make sure that as misinformation circulates , fact-based reporting is just as well. ” said Pace.

The AP’s special role on election night includes tabulating the results of hundreds of elections across the country and calling winners and losers that takes into account raw data, polls and trends from past races. Throughout the campaign, the outlet has written stories that show how it’s done, and on election night, he’ll detail specifically why he’s made state-by-state calls in the presidential race.

Other organizations are making similar promises, including making it clear to people when it’s too early to jump to conclusions. “My mantra on election night is radical transparency,” said ABC News Washington bureau chief Rick Klein.

The Times will bring back to its website the most anxiety-inducing invention for election night coverage in some time — the Needle, which changes throughout the evening to measure the likelihood of victory for the presidential candidates. This time, it will be accompanied by more granular material explaining those moves, said Matthew Ericson, assistant managing editor.

The paper also assigns election night reporters to scour the Internet for conspiracy theories with the goal of debunking fake stories as quickly as possible.

Tracking disinformation efforts were ongoing during the campaign, as organizations reporting on false allegations of abuse against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, whom intelligence officials suspect is from Russia. Fakes abounded in the wake of Helene in September, involving weather control and withholding of money in Republican-dominated areas.

NBC News has a vote watch team that will work on Election Day to monitor disinformation efforts and has assigned 30 reporters to be “county captains” to watch in areas where elections are expected to be particularly close . PBS is working with the PolitiFact fact-checking team on election night.

As they watch, journalists will have to weigh whether a false theory is getting enough attention that it’s worth debunking, or whether bringing it up simply amplifies it. This is the most common concern that Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at PEN America, receives when training reporters on how to deal with fake stories.

“If it’s something you only see on a fringe platform, let it rest,” Richardson said. “But if it’s something that rises to the level where a large part of the public notices it and gets traction, then I should step in and debunk it.”

Periods of uncertainty in close elections are vulnerable points. “My fear is that bad actors are coming in to fill the void,” Richardson said.

In 2020, no news organizations declared Joe Biden the winner until the Saturday after election day. Klein said it’s important for journalists to let people know that such delays during vote counting don’t necessarily mean something nefarious is going on. It may just take time to get right.

But that time four years ago is when former President Donald Trump’s false narrative that he was cheated on took root. His speech in the small hours since election night alleging fraud and claiming he won states where he didn’t provide a severe test for the television networks showing his remarks live. If anything similar happens this year, either in public speaking or during interviews, the networks will have to weigh cuts or be ready with fact checks immediately.