The Clinton presidential library has made public a 1995 memo where the White House explained how the right gets the media to cover their conspiracy theories, and it still explains how Republicans do it today.
Here is the explanation of how the right infects the national conversation with their conspiracy theories:
The memo was written before Fox News was born, and years before the Internet became the dominant force that it is today.
Not surprisingly, the basics of how the infestation works still hold up today. The conservative think tanks are still out there ginning up their conspiracy theories and ideological justifications. There are still conservative newspapers that happily reprint this stuff. International conservative tabloids still try to spread stories, and members of congress like Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) still try to give the conspiracies legitimacy through show hearings.
The difference, today, is that the Internet has replaced newspapers, and talk radio along with Fox News has replaced newsletters. Part of the purpose of Fox News is to take the right’s conspiracies and push them into the mainstream press. Advances in technology have made the process of smearing a Democratic president much faster, but the dynamic is basically the same.
The goal is to manipulate the media into treating bogus conspiracies like legitimate news stories. One of the most recent examples of this effort is the IRS scandal. Republicans took advantage of the laziness of the mainstream press to spread the conspiracy theory that was centered around President Obama using the IRS to target conservatives. The truth is that there is no evidence that Obama had anything to do what was going on at the IRS and that the agency itself targeted both liberals and conservatives.
This nearly 20 year old memo from the Clinton White House explains why Darrell Issa keeps holding so many hearings on the ACA, IRS, and Benghazi. Issa is trying to lift those conspiracies to the realm of legitimate news, and infect the rest of the country with bogus conspiracy theories, by giving them the congressional hearing treatment.
The game is the same as when Bill Clinton was president, and this memo provides some great insight into how Republicans take conspiracy theories and get the media to turn them into legitimate news.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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