Friday, September 18, 2020

Recommended Documentary — After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News

I am again recommending this documentary as one of several excellent films which exposes the depth of dangerous and polarizing disinformation that we are chronically immersed. The cost to individuals and to us collectively of unknowingly being taken in by pervasive lies is horrifying and heartbreaking. Choosing to take a step back and view the expanse of propaganda that is tragically normalized in America offers the gift of empowering us to more clearly discern fact from fiction which is a critically important skill for each of us to courageously cultivate in an ongoing way. May truth and a higher good for us all prevail! — Molly

 After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News

This eye-opening documentary examines the rising phenomenon of “fake news” in the U.S. and the impact that disinformation, conspiracy theories and false news stories have on the average citizen in the age of social media. The infamous Pizzagate case, the disinformation campaigns of the 2016 presidential election and the Jade Helm conspiracy are among the stories featured. #Trump2020, Seth Rich, Comet Pizza, Fox News

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As America’s summer of discontent continues amidst a pandemic and civil rights protests, trusted information is more vital than ever.  Director and producer Andrew Rossi (IVORY TOWER, PAGE ONE: Inside The New York Times), explores the dark side of disinformation, or ‘fake news,’ in a new documentary executive produced by CNN’s Brian Stelter.  AFTER TRUTH: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News, an HBO Documentary Films presentation of an Abstract Production, will broadcast as a CNN Films Presents feature Saturday, Aug 29 at 10:00pm Eastern (7:00pm Pacific).

Through exclusive interviews with purveyors and victims of fake news, Rossi reveals the terrible human toll of false information, Russian troll farm-disseminated sentiment, and manipulated videos (so-called “deep fakes”), across partisan lines.  Consumers have come to know many of these conspiracy theories by their shorthand labels, “QAnon,” “Pizzagate,” “birtherism,” “Wikileaks,” and more.  In August 2019, nearly a year prior to the 2020 national election, the FBI determined these fringe theories to pose such a threat to democracy, they are classified as potential forms of domestic terrorism.

Interviewed for AFTER TRUTH are: James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong, the D.C pizza restaurant smeared by a near-deadly conspiracy theory fomented by political podcast and TV hosts; Keith Alexander, Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for The Washington Post; Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law professor (co-author, Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics, 2018); Jack Burkman, self-professed propagator of “fake news”; Jerome Corsi, author and conspiracy theorist; Oliver Darcy, CNN senior media reporter; Adam Goldman, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, The New York Times (co-author, Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and Bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America, 2013); Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania (Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President, 2018); disinformation expert, Molly McKew; Aaron Rich, brother of DNC staffer Seth Rich; Scott Shane, reporter for The New York Times (author, Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone, 2016); Will Sommer, tech reporter for The Daily Beast; Kara Swisher, technology business journalist, columnist, The New York Times; co-founder, Recode; Elizabeth Williamson, New York Times feature writer; and others.

https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2020/08/24/cnn-films-presents-andrew-rossi-directed-hbo-documentary-film-after-truth-disinformation-and-the-cost-of-fake-news-aug-29/

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