and ask this side of the room to tell me what they see and this side of the room what they see. and they will be looking at the same exact coin, but describing two very different realities. - calling it insurrection-- it wasn't. it was peaceful protest. - it's anarchists. breaking the glass of the united states capitol. - facts are indisputable. - ♪ i've got secrets - i think that's the problem that we have. more people need to be able to stand up and say, "that's crazy. "it's a quarter, and we can talk about what's on each side of the quarter, but let's not disagree about the fact that it is a quarter. [people shouting] - january 6th was predicated on propaganda, in the most terrifying way. - so much for those claims that voter fraud never happens. of course it happens. they knew it happened when they told us it would never happen, because they're liars. - we're at a crossroads today between the promise of truth and the peril of falsity. between the promise of democracy and the peril of authoritarianism. - if i needed alternative facts, like, i would go to a ouija board. - it is completely clear that the vaccines don't really work at all. - the news has never been more real, yet we are living through the fake news age. fake news. ♪ - every single indicator, from every political scientist that ever has looked at any country in the world, is saying the u.s. is in big trouble right now. - when you think about how we're approaching journalism, getting a quote from one perspective and then getting a quote from another perspective, you end up amplifying some of these talking points. and then people will interpret these talking points as the truth. - disinformation feeds polarization. - fake news has many consequences, and we've seen that in spades recently. ♪ - i follow the facts, and i follow information. - rampant election fraud has been happening. - no, no, no, no. - and there's so much evidence of it this year. - this is what i'm talking about. - you're saying it's a falsehood, and they're giving sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that. but the point remains-- - wait a minute. look, alternative facts are not facts. [glass cracking] [dramatic music] ♪ [indistinct chatter] - i was previously employed with the oath keepers, which is one of the largest militia organizations in the world. [engine rumbling] they're the ones that we saw heading up the stairs of the capitol building, in a stacked wedge formation. ♪ [people shouting] messaging and storytelling has the power to kind of disconnect our higher functions with decision-making and critical thinking. cognitive dissonance, if you will. - well, people like to get riled up now when they're consuming news and information. they almost want to be angry at the other side, and it works. controversy sells. - fuck antifa! [crowd chanting] fuck antifa! [shouting, grunting] - [screaming] - talk is cheap. talk excites, and agitates, and inflames. and talk binds you to a personality and often a point of view. - despite commie-crats gnashing their teeth about it for-- - we've now gone from partisan news to sort of hyper-partisan news. oan, breitbart. all these smaller and smaller silos where you get more and more of an insular political view. - you can go back decades and years to think that the role of news is simply to present x, y, and z, and let people make their own decisions. and that's fair, but that reflected a very different time in our country. - i'm a big fan of the "new york times," but i can also see when they're going off the rails. you know, at times, they become cheerleaders, and when media becomes part of the cheerleading squad, that's where you have a problem. - one of the challenges has been this tendency to "both sides" everything. there's always this desire to say, "let me try to understand what the other side is saying," and that is a noble, lofty goal. but does that mean you give equal time in trying to understand both arguments? ♪ - it takes so much power out of the hands of citizens when they don't know what to believe. - there's so much active misinformation, and it's packaged very well, and it looks the same when you see it on a facebook page. - disinformation is nothing new. what's different now is technology allows it to go much faster, and it takes on very, very different shapes. - you can't escape it. in fact, if you click on it, there's algorithms that are gonna make it even harder for you to escape. - your news? do you get it online? telegram? - no, i just saw on tiktok. - social media changed everything. suddenly, anyone with a keyboard could be a reporter or convey information, whether it was true or not. as steve bannon said, the zone was flooded, often with lies. - real made-up stories. - in some ways, internet media is bringing back the days when you could just set up with a printing press and put out a paper. ♪ it's been quite destructive for political dialogue, in that, immediately, the algorithms push you to people who think like you. - i think what social media did was it allowed people to find their tribe. this echo chamber of social media allows people to spread a kind of viral contagion of contempt. you know, you don't even need really sophisticated messaging. - we love conspiracies. - a just-released memo says soviet officials thought the assassination was a conspiracy on the part of the ultra-right. - my reality--my senses tell me that the earth is flat and stationary. - americans fucking love conspiracies. i love conspiracies. to this day, it's hard for me not to jump down rabbit holes. - if you believe you have encountered a sasquatch, raise your hand nice and high. - part of my job with the oath keepers was to go out to the news aggregates, first thing in the morning, and just see what were the trending stories. what were people getting worked up about? and then we would figure out a way to put a spin on that particular story that would further our messaging. you can see these same techniques on many commercials. like, the commercials don't make sense. - puppy monkey baby. - it doesn't matter, because they're getting an emotional reaction and connection associated with their product or logo. - discover the rainbow. taste the rainbow. - same sort of propagandas, techniques. they're infusing it with the conspiracies of the day, along with the seeds of truth coming from actual news and journalism, but then taking and putting a spin on it. - the social media age allows us to connect with one another instantly, and sometimes those connections fuel a radicalism. people have questions. people have heard something or misheard something. they want to get more information. people go on 4chan. they find qanon forums. they go on reddit, and they find places to fuel their belief in things that aren't credible. - joe biden eats children. so do the democrats. - i actually got into q the very beginning of this year. - q is everybody. we don't know who particularly q is. q is a movement, okay? it says, "think for yourself." - qanon is really sort of baffling. i still find it hard to believe that people really think the basic tenets of qanon are true. but apparently some people do, like that guy who showed up at the pizza place in washington. - edgar welch, 28, of salisbury, north carolina, has been arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. - police say welch was self-investigating a false news story that circulated online during the presidential campaign. - this case shows how fake news can lead to a dangerous situation. an utterly bogus story about child abuse promoted on the internet. - human beings, in general, and americans, in particular, have not necessarily been trained to have an enquiry around the truth. how to figure out whether what we're watching is true or not. - you know, it sounds totally alien to the normal person, but if you study history, elites are always seeking after the innocents obsessed with the sacrifice of human children. - it's the world of a-la-carte reality. the things that are true, you can just pick and choose among them with a splash of things that are completely untrue. but if that's how you want to create your worldview, perfectly acceptable. - we are christian, insofar as we believe in christ's principle of love your neighbor as yourself. and with that principle, i challenge every jew in this nation to tell me that he does not believe in it. [cheers and applause] - this goes way back. there was, you know, father coughlin in the 30s. the great radio demagogue. he's being listened to by about a quarter of america, and what he's saying are all these foul anti-semitic things that were really dangerous. - everyone recognizes the predominance of atheistic jews in the pattern of russian communism. evidence is so overwhelming to substantiate this statement that it is idle for any informed person to attempt disputing it. - then he starts to make up this disinformation where he's actually claiming that ships are secretly bringing people in at night to replace good christians in these jewish stores. - form your battalions! take up the shield of your defense, and carry on! [all chanting] jews will not replace us! jews will not replace us! [chanting] fuck antifa! fuck antifa! fuck antifa! fuck antifa! - it's how we start down the road to non-reality. the line for this era is voltaire, who said, "those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - [screams] - i mean, we had a moment where a capitol police officer was being beat almost to death with the flagpole that was flying a blue lives matter flag. - that cuts through the bullshit words. that cuts through the propaganda. like, just look at that image honestly. as americans, we just gotta get over this bullshit. - leave him alone! ♪ - let us unite in banishing fear. you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. - we used to operate from a common sense of what was true. now, we see that increasingly being frayed. - information now is bombarding us 24/7. - and i think we have to have a better understanding of the people who are putting things in front of us, and the biases of what other stories are being told, and which ones are not. - right now, we're in a disaster, and i think reporters are beginning to understand that democracy is on the ballot. we really don't want people to think of feeding food like ours is spoiling their dogs. good, real food is simple. it looks like food, it smells like food, it's what dogs are supposed to be eating. no living being should ever eat processed food for every single meal of their life. it's amazing to me how many people write in about their dogs changing for the better. the farmer's dog is just our way to help people take care of them. ♪ to finally lose 80 pounds and keep it off with golo is amazing. take care of them. i've been maintaining. the weight is gone and it's never coming back. with golo, i've not only kept off the weight but i'm happier, i'm healthier, and i have a new lease on life. golo is the only thing that will let you lose weight and keep it off. who loses 138 pounds in nine months? i did! golo's a lifestyle change and you make the change and it stays off. (soft music) you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ ronald wilson reagan, of california. a sports announcer, a film actor is our winner for the presidency. - ronald reagan is our first modern celebrity president. - ask 'em to go in there with all they've got. - he was a movie star. he had been in showbusiness all his life. - win just one for the gipper. - in 1987, during the reagan years, the fcc, the federal communications commission, repealed the fairness doctrine. - the fairness doctrine made sure that broadcasters reported multiple different points of view on controversial topics. - if you had, you know, an hour of pro-democrat stuff, you had to have an a hour of pro-republican. - let's recap very quickly what has happened here. - equal time, the fairness doctrine for broadcasting. - in the 1980s, the fcc began to feel pressure from broadcasters who felt the fairness doctrine was infringing on their first amendment rights. that they were being forced to say things that they did not want to say. congress attempted to codify the fairness doctrine with a law, and that was vetoed by ronald reagan. - today, we reaffirm our faith in the american people. our faith in their ability to distinguish between fact and fiction without any help from government. - without the fairness doctrine, television and radio can simply decide they are not going to report any controversial issue of public importance of their choice, or they can decide that they will only report one side of it. - and so you have a complete erosion of accountability around the facts. - this is a great day for all rich racists, liars, anti-semites, idealogues, and extremists. - and suddenly, a guy like rush limbaugh could flourish. - new york city. our next call. michael, hello. thanks for waiting. you're on-- - the rush limbaugh talk radio show was a right-wing talk show that premiered in 1988 and became the highest-rated talk show in the united states. - if you listen to this show every day, you never need to read another newspaper again. never read another magazine. i do it for you, and you get a bonus. i tell you what to think. - rush limbaugh was a constant source of misinformation. really, of disinformation. purposeful misinformation. - we just keep going, and going, and going-- - limbaugh championed opinions that were reflexively anti-regulation, anti-tax, but also reflexively partisan. - while serving humanity in new york, on the-- - i interviewed him at length. he said, "listen, i know what i'm doing. i want to attract the largest possible audience i can, so i can charge confiscatory rates to major advertisers. and i do that by being an entertainer." ♪ - the undisputed wwe-- - i grew up a big wwe fan, and i immediately recognized the showmanship. the theatrics that donald trump was trafficking in. - what's going on, over here? - donald trump is in a world he is not familiar with. - go watch two hours of "wwe raw" or "friday night smackdown," and it will all make sense to you how he just wiped the floor with everybody. [all chanting] we want trump! - he had personality. he had a watchable quality. - everybody's covering trump because it gets great ratings. - the ratings are up. it means you can't do without donald trump. - there's not much sense of, "let's step back. let's calm down," and the media doesn't have much interest in encouraging, "let's step back. let's calm down." - "60 minutes" with their stormy interview got record ratings. their highest ratings in ten years. - it may not be good for america, but it's damn good for cbs. that's all i gotta say. [laughter] the money's rolling in, and this is-- - the polls are open. - this is funny. i have never seen anything like this, and you know, this is gonna be a very good year for us. ♪ - when you've got news rooms that have been moved into the entertainment divisions of these massive media corporations the news becomes entertainment. and what is entertaining? well, drama and conflict sells. - this marriage between journalism and capitalism was always a bad match. - the difference with fox news is that, if hillary had won, our ratings would still be good. ♪ - i'd just like to say how delighted i am that we've now reached this moment when we can firmly announce the starting of a fox news channel. we've had tremendous success in entertainment programming and children's programming, sports programming, and now we have to move to making ourselves the best in news programming. - rupert murdoch came to this country, and it was a bank shot coming here. he had done business with american television companies. always had an eye on the american market. - some people say i'm a conservative. that's not really true. - now, he has described himself as a radical. he sees himself as a disruptor. - because i believe in change. - what makes fox unique, in some ways, is the way in which it's integrated to the political activities of a specific american party. - mr. ailes is here, and he might like to-- - roger ailes actually advised nixon in the white house, on communications matters, and ailes and murdoch sought to make fox's studios the replacement for the smoke-filled backrooms that the old party bosses used to have. [crowd cheering] the thing about trump-- like murdoch, like ailes--he was willing to steamroll a convention. - the united states is run by stupid people. we have stupid leadership. - he was willing to steamroll norms. - he's not a war hero. - he's a war hero. - he's a war hero 'cause he was captured. i like people that weren't captured, okay? i hate to-- - he didn't really care about playing by anybody else's rules, and many of the figures that trump was attacking were the figures that fox had been attacking. - i think it's very important that it wasn't just trump. it was trump and one of our two major political parties, and it was a whole media echo system that surrounds that party. - this defines reality. - we're in cold spring, which is part of philipstown. i was the supervisor of philipstown, so i generally call it philipstown, although i grew up calling it cold spring, 'cause i live right down by the river. i was born here, and my parents were born here. my son's the fifth generation to be born here. like every small town, you gotta find your slot to fit in. i always say i was born in a snow globe. i mean, seriously. this town was like a rockwell painting. - i think that my primary qualification for running a news channel is that i don't have a degree in journalism. ♪ - when i was running for supervisor, ailes came up to me and said, "you know, roger ailes. "i'm the owner of 'putnam county news.' "i'm not happy with this zoning initiative you're taking on. and if i'm not happy, you're not gonna be happy." [tense music] he went to town on me. he started running, you know, negative articles in the paper pretty much continuously about my performance on the town board. if we'd have a success with something, no coverage. any kind of, you know, hit and a failure, blown out of proportion. it was petty and vindictive, but if they didn't like somebody, if they singled you out, and you got in their crosshairs, you were in for a real thrashing in the local paper. which, in turn, meant local people started to see you in a different light. they would report on meetings that hadn't even happened. you know, how do you do this? how do you create your own reality? you know, they'd have quotes in there of things that didn't happen. he didn't care. i'd call up, and we'd argue on the phone, and he said, "look, if i want to, "i'll put a story about you, and that'll be true, "because what i say is true. i make the truth." ♪ ailes came to cold spring, obviously, with a mission. he started to shift the dynamic of the paper from a small-town paper to one that started covering national issues. guns, god, religion, abortion. roger ailes was pushing these issues and driving this wedge further and further into the community, until pretty soon people weren't even talking to each other. and the more it happened, the more you looked at it like, "this is really starting to echo what's going on out in the country." ♪ i said it was a snow globe, and he shook it until it broke, you know, essentially. it became a different place. ♪ i do appreciate the "putnam county news" now. once he was gone, once