Trump supporters are heavy consumers of fake news

[demmiblue]

A new study from three academics breaks down the data.

Source: Think Progress

After authorities arrested a handful of Donald Trump supporters for plotting to car-bomb Somali immigrants in Kansas in 2016, the defense attorney for one pointed to a novel defense for his client: fake news. Per the attorney, Patrick Stein – whose Facebook was littered with both fake stories and support for then-candidate Trump – was motivated to plan his slaughter because he thought then-President Barack Obama was on the brink of declaring martial law, misinformation he picked up from fake news sites.

Stein’s plot, of course, was foiled, but his case helps sum not only the threats posed by the spawn of fake news sites over the past few years, but the propensity for Trump supporters to find themselves consuming fake news sites at far higher clips than other demographics in the U.S.

Indeed, a new paper from a trio of researchers illustrates just how popular fake news sites are for Trump supporters – and how ineffective fact-checking efforts aimed at combating these sites remain.

The new paper from Princeton’s Andrew Guess, Dartmouth’s Brendan Nyhan, and University of Exeter’s Jason Reifler illustrates how approximately 27 percent of American adults visited a fake news site in the lead-up to the 2016 election, as well as the election’s immediate aftermath. For the purpose of the study, the academics described fake news sites as those that “frequently publish false claims, distort genuine news reports, and copy or repurpose content from other outlets.” Sites identified included fake news outlets like BipartisanReport.com, IJR.com, and DailyWire.com, among dozens of others.

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-supporters-consumers-of-fake-news-c511ba18c1e0/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5a4cb7ba9ebbef0007968910&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

[underpants]

1. Wow they could have just checked out Facebook

I think it's actually a portal into the bizarre "Foxworld" otherworld

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Fake news is entertaining to them.

"Real" (fact-based) news is boring and hard to understand.

It's the media equivalent of eating chocolate cream pie and not touching the broccoli on the plate.

[WhiteTara]

5. Exactly. I was just thinking the very

same thing. Fake news is so juicy!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. Nice metaphor!

🎂 vs. 🥦

[doc03]

3. I go to a gym in West Virginia there are about 20 machines that have

their own TVs, if you look around you will see almost all tuned to Faux Noos. There are another
6 larger TVs on the floor and at least 3 of them are always on Faux. I have been working out
on a machine many times and someone will have the attendant to change the TV in front of me
to Faux. The last few months I just get off the machine and move someplace else and a few times
I have said I was watching whatever was on. One day a women on the machine next to me ask if
I would mind if she had the channel changed and I said I don't care as long as it I not Faux Noos.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. Now they want to assert a Trump political test for jurors.

They want jurors to be pulled from surrounding rural counties so they know some Trumpsters will be on the jury.

I guess they will request a whiteness test and "number of guns owned" test next.

See: http://ksn.com/2017/12/08/filing-men-accused-of-bomb-plot-want-trump-voters-on-jury/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=485630&relatedposts_position=0

Also, another article says the trial has been delayed until March.

..........

[WhiteTara]

6. you left out white male

they don't trust the women who may just get uppity and see the truth.

[Gothmog]

7. Trump supporters are racist ignorant deplorables