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You’ve put your finger squarely on what’s so annoying about this whole situation. A news organization that was really committed to living up to its formal and informal obligations to readers/viewers would hire enough fact checkers to do exactly this.
Even some version of that simple needle/dial graphic used by Politifact would dramatically point out right on the spot how much fertilizer was being spread.
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Your Gorgon reference definitely deserves more likes.
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I agree with most of what you’ve said, especially in terms of the value of not repeating/reinforcing their message…but there’s so much to be learned from body language (which includes the voice) that I think it’s worth people seeing/hearing the delivery, beyond simply being told what the words of the factual lie were.
From seeing and hearing you might, e.g., get some sense of whether or not the speaker themself believes what they’re saying, e.g., if their body language is or isn’t congruent with the words being spoken, and if it isn’t, in what ways it isn’t.
When I read the words that Conway had said about “alternative facts”, I immediately found myself looking for a video clip so I could see for myself what she had really said—because the words alone don’t contain all of the information involved in communication.
Here’s just one take on the body language that Conway displayed while she spoke the now-famous “alternative facts” line:
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Is Arnold still in the party? I never expected to see him as (by comparison) an elder statesman – nor that he’d be in a position to lecture someone else about groping women.
As the new Apprentice host, Arnold works for Trump, so he’s not likely to bite the hand that feeds him. I’ve already seen at least one interview with Arnold defending his new boss.
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Hillary’s going to run again in 2020?
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Body language and tone are important, but people like Conway are confidence artists who use them and other subtle cues naturally to strengthen their message as the article you posted discusses: “I’m going to do/say/think what I want and I don’t care what you think” and projecting the idea that “they’re DETERMINED and THEY BELIEVE in what they’re saying” only helps them deliver their message.
The article’s breakdown is on-point, but people watching interviews like this need to know how to analyse these things themselves and do it as a matter of course – most people don’t. Better to completely deny Conway and her ilk that weapon and reduce as much as possible of what they say to the printed word. Without a sense of determination and belief on the part of the speaker, the term “alternate facts” looks as ridiculous as it should.
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Good one!
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What if night is day?
Unfortunately in the US we have the Electoral College and voter suppression to ensure that this model fails, and in the recent election had the FBI and a foreign power interfering to fully undermine it.
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Yeah, though he was pretty critical before the election…
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The moderate right is roughly 5 notches left of the center of the democratic party, at this point. The crazies have dragged the Overton window far into scary territory.
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This is just so important and needs to be repeated over and over again.
I’m seeing this real sense of helplessness and despair among progressives in the US, a sense that nothing can be done and they will just get away with their bullshit so there’s no point fighting it.
I disagree with that view so strongly. The majority of Americans are NOT buying what they are selling. Shine a bright light on it 24 x 7.
Anything could happen. These clowns are running such an irredeemable shitshow he could be impeached in four weeks. He hasn’t divested, is there theoretically enough there to impeach him already, from day one?
Shit, if they can prove he colluded with the Soviets to sway the election, that’s treason.
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You mean Clinton? He already won that one.
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I tend to think that body language is pretty obvious, and that most of us pick up on when someone isn’t sincere etc, but we just can’t put our finger on why we know it, and we don’t know how to explain why we know it—whereas the experts have the ability to explain it. I can only actually speak for myself of course though, and I may be giving other people too much credit 
I think that perhaps having an unconscious awareness of others’ body language is a big part of what people may call a “gut feeling” about someone or some situation.
But anyway, by bringing it up I don’t mean to distract or take away from @Grant_Robertson’s very good and important (I think) point about the value of reporting the lies, showing the truth, and not reinforcing the lies with media rubbernecking.
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We pick up on body language, but if we’re not actively analysing it then that “gut feeling” is all we’re left with. Since most people don’t do the former, the less video and audio airtime these proven liars and BSers get, the better.
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Is anyone else really kinda sorta totally fucking unnverved that a basic function of the free press is now considered partisan?
Where are these alternative fact pushers who call themselves journalists coming from? What school of journalism/broadcasting is teaching that gaslighting part of a modern correspondent’s skill set?
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