USA TODAY

The rise of social media characters dedicated to plying the malleable fringe of the electorate with dubious claims and disinformation has paced the onus on the news media and reputable sources to combat their efforts.

The left needs to take accountability, too

By CJ Pearson

We live in a time in which there is a war on truth. We live in a time in which the "truth" most comforting is the truth most acceptable. We live in a time in which the truth — most unfortunately — is discardable.

In January, the students of Covington Catholic High School traveled to our nation's capital unknowing of the debacle that would follow. In short order, their lives would be upended by a social media mob with no regard or concern for the truth.

Innocent teenage boys — whom I have since come to know quite well — would soon be labeled racists and bigots. They would be accused of disrespect and incivility. They would face death threats and doxxing. All due to one video clip, taken severely out of context, which took the internet by storm.

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I watched firsthand as my friends at Covington Catholic were crucified and marred by nameless online trolls whom they had never met. I watched firsthand as my friends at Covington had death wished upon them. I looked on as grown men and women — with little to any evidence — denigrated, defamed and slandered children. And I looked on as new evidence came to light that exonerated my friends but was ignored by some of the same left-wing actors that had sought to ruin their lives.

Evidence was ignored for one reason: to keep alive the baseless and salacious narrative that had been perpetuated. The narrative that all supporters of President Donald Trump — young and old — are racist and bigoted.

This is not the only instance in which those on the left have disregarded the truth in an effort to proliferate a lie.

Last week, actor Jussie Smollett was charged with doing just that: filing a false police report in connection to a hate crime that allegedly never even happened. Smollett alleged that while walking the streets of Chicago, he was attacked by two white men wearing Make America Great Again hats. He also claimed to have been verbally accosted with a barrage of homophobic and racial slurs. And that he was left bruised and badly beaten on a sidewalk near a Subway restaurant.

However, this is now in question. According to the Chicago Police Department, Smollett staged this attack, paying two actors $3,500 to carry it out. He allegedly did so because he was dissatisfied with his salary of as much as $125,000 per episode.

If he concocted this hoax, Smollett has defamed Trump's millions of supporters and did so unashamedly. If this is a hoax, Smollett did nothing more than confirm the prejudices held by those on the left toward those on the right.

Apparently, he not only sought to plant seeds of division, he also sought to profit from them — truth be damned.

CJ Pearson is a conservative political activist and commentator. You can follow him on Twitter: @thecjpearson.

What others are saying

Gordon Pennycook and David Rand, The New York Times: "Reasoning can exacerbate the problem, not provide the solution, when it comes to partisan disputes over facts. Further evidence cited in support of this of argument comes from a 2010 study by the political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler, who found that appending corrections to misleading claims in news articles can sometimes backfire: Not only did corrections fail to reduce misperceptions, but they also sometimes increased them. It seemed as if people who were ideologically inclined to believe a given falsehood worked so hard to come up with reasons that the correction was wrong that they came to believe the falsehood even more strongly."

Brett Bruen, CNN.com: "In many ways, information warfare is harder to detect than nuclear, chemical, or biological agents. Like a mythical creature, it is able to constantly change forms. Not having a group standing watch together creates gaps, delays and difficulty in developing a high-performing team. ... Facebook, Twitter, Google and the rest need to start working together to tackle this threat. I have yet to see them take steps to break down communications, coordination and collaboration barriers between the companies. Instead, they remain stuck in a competitive race where consumers continue to come a distant second."

Matthijs Tieleman, The Washington Post: "As in the 18th century, there are invisible forces that try to incite our passions, whether that is for geopolitical gain, ad income or even something as innocent as seeking our votes. If we want to keep the free society most of us cherish, it is our responsibility to be reasonable and not rush to judgment, to consume news from multiple perspectives and be open to changing our minds every now and then."

What our readers are saying

My dad taught us at a very young age, don't believe anything you read and only half of what you see. We are being manipulated by all sorts of information coming from all sides. We need to do better at not being so reactive and quick to make judgments without vetting the information.

— Courtney Jarrell

We have become so dependent and misinformed by Facebook and Twitter. We accept any information that appears semi-legitimate and are too lazy to research for ourselves!

— Todd Brown

I think there should be consequences for promoting lies about political candidates. I know there's free speech, but spreading lies to smear a good, viable candidate is just wrong.

— Maggie Gabriele

Why is the spread of misinformation even legal? Take the people who do this down. Ban them from Twitter and Facebook, already. The last thing we need is extremists filling social media with lies to stir up more hatred and division.

— Caroline Caldwell Alberstadt

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