如果你去看传统严肃媒体纽时(NYT)的火灾报道:会发现一来文章数量很多,二来有各种角度,灾情、援助、灾民生存状况等,最近7天就有45篇。
在一场灾难新闻报道里夹带私货并不是什么难事。
比如我们可以提取这样几件事实,轻易编造这样的阴谋论故事:
事实1)LA Times曾报道,10月8日当晚的应急广播通讯记录显示消防员被派遣至Sonoma郡多处地方解决电缆电火花和爆炸的变压设施。
事实2)PG&E拥有该处电力设备。而其发言人称目前仍在等待调查结果。
事实3)在Breitbart的”灾难跟踪报道“序列中,特意报道了在Gonzalez被捕后PG&E股票上升的新闻。
事实4)而按照LA Times的报道,PG&E的股票于周一(按新闻发布日期推算应为16日)大跌22%。
阴谋论:Breitbart特意报道非法移民故事,是为PG&E转移视线。这背后一定有不可告人的肮脏交易。
对于这样的阴谋论,大部分人很难证实,也很难证伪。ICE与警署的言论战,多多少少也是这个模式。围绕灾难进行政治角力,但争论的事情却与灾难无关。
截止到昨天加州消防局公布消息为止,还有超过3,000名消防员在与火灾战斗,还有上万人无家可归。在这个时候,一些人依然在借机传播谣言与仇恨。
From snopes:
This trend of blaming certain societal groups (in these examples, immigrants and Muslims) for disasters and tragedies — both natural and man-made — and seeking out evidence of their culpability, however spurious, is nothing new.
Throughout Europe in the 14th Century, Jews were scapegoated and blamed for causing the Black Death. They faced widespread and intensified persecution and violence as a result.
The televangelist Jerry Falwell blamed the 9/11 terrorist attacks on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians.” He later apologized.
In 2015, a Malaysian state government official blamed Western tourists for an earthquake, and over the years, the LGBT community has been the target of consistent scapegoating in the United States, particularly on behalf of Christian clergy. Most recently, a number of pastors and ministers blamed Hurricane Harvey on the LGBT community.