{"id":46609,"date":"2021-09-06T22:22:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T02:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=46609"},"modified":"2021-09-06T22:25:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T02:25:44","slug":"join-me-for-truth-tuesday-abortion-rights-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/join-me-for-truth-tuesday-abortion-rights-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Join Me for Truth Tuesday, Abortion-Rights Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m part of a group of activists holding a weekly Truth Tuesdays<\/a> protest at the Fox News building in New York City, in order to push back against Fox’s constant lies. We’re there every Tuesday at 9 a.m. and tomorrow we’re focusing on abortion rights, due to the oppressive Texas legislation and Fox’s Tucker Carlson nonsensical equating of pandemic mask-wearing with forced birth. If you’re in New York City, I’d love to have you join us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABORTION-RIGHTS RALLY
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2021
9 AM
FOX NEWS HEADQUARTERS
1211 6TH AVE (47TH\/48TH STS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re encouraging people outside of NYC to start their own protests at their local Fox affiliates, on whatever day and whatever time works for them. Our website is still a work in progress, but we do have some downloadable art for signs and fliers you can use right here<\/a>. (Shout out to sponsoring activist group Rise and Resist<\/a> for making these materials possible.) If you take a look at the flier about Tucker Carlson, you’ll see an example of a “truth sandwich,” which is an important technique<\/a> to prevent the inadvertent promotion of disinformation by the people trying to fight it. The truth sandwich recipe<\/a> comes from retired UC Berkeley professor of linguistics George Lakoff, an expert on strategic language and the framing of civic arguments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Start with the truth. The first frame gets the advantage.<\/li>
  2. Indicate the lie. Avoid amplifying the specific language if possible.<\/li>
  3. Return to the truth. Always repeat truths more than lies.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Here’s how it works on our flier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    The media has always focused on the extreme, scary, and absurd, because that’s what grabs people’s attention. The “If it bleeds, it leads<\/a>” priorities of print newspapers and television news was the original version of today’s clickbait. That tendency became especially dangerous for our democracy as soon as the former guy<\/a> started his presidential campaign in 2015. It was better for business for journalists to cover the outrageous statements<\/a> of a shameless conman playing to the cameras than it was to cover policy<\/a>. Former CBS chief Les Moonves put it bluntly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a>
    Click to read the Hollywood Reporter story.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Honestly, the entire media environment created the monster, but Fox gets extra blame because it was designed to be a right-wing propaganda machine masquerading as a news organization<\/a>. You don’t have to take my word for it: Read the original memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a>
    Click to read the original memo that led to Fox News.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    I’ve become extremely sensitive to the poor performance and biases of the news industry — the industry I used to love! — in covering everything from politics to pandemics to police murders<\/a> of Black people. I can look or listen to any story and point out the bad framing. But I admit that avoiding the trap takes a lot of work, as I found out when I was working on the Truth Tuesdays fliers. It’s definitely easier to be a stenographer and write down the exciting-sounding bullshit spewed by the liar of the day, and then debunk it. Too bad it’s also easier for the reader or viewer to remember the lie you’ve headlined rather than the debunking! Hence the truth sandwich. Here’s the one I did for Laura Ingraham’s statements about the January insurrection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n