Conspiracy Theory Of Pizzagate

The Hillary Clinton campaign for president in 2016 has been plagued by conspiracy theories that are used as attacks by Donald Trump supporters. For decades the Clinton family has been in the eyes of the public. Ever since some of the mysterious aspects of Bill Clinton’s presidency have come forward, the Clintons are never far from a conspiracy theory. Though some of these theories may be a little hard to believe, in most cases there is strong information to support these claims. There are different aspects of the Clinton’s lives that conspiracy theorists like to target. Some examples are the Clinton body counts, or the people supposedly killed by the Clinton’s, theories on the health of Hillary, and The Reptilian Elite. There are all kinds

In the op-ed “Truth is in the Ear of the Beholder”, columnist Gregory Rodriguez explores the ways rumors form in accordance to our beliefs and anxieties, in order to bring light to society’s hypocritical and biased acceptance or rejection of rumors and conspiracy theories. Rodriguez argues that rumors only thrive in the minds of people who are willing to believe them. He then goes on to state that those who start rumors rely on the current beliefs and biases of their intentional audience.

“Fake news,” like Pravda during Soviet Russia times, was used in the election to deliberately sway the political views of the voters and increase the support of one party’s side. During the election, “phony articles concerning candidates…emerged…this fake news boosted the image of…Donald Trump…” (“Fake News”). "Phony articles” or “fake news” on social media affected the candidates’ images, thus making voters more likely to vote for one candidate over the other. “Fake news” can be dangerous in spreading unreliable information and planting false accusations about a candidate in the minds of the voters. In 2016, a fake news story was leaked about Hillary Clinton that led to a shooting in a pizzeria,“Incidents such as this demonstrate how potentially dangerous fake news can be and how difficult it is to distinguish…”(“Fake News”). “Fake news” can cause people to abandon their initial beliefs about a person, like a political candidate, and align with the opposing side, destroying a person’s career over counterfeit media. "Fake news” is propaganda used to change people’s way of thinking, like both Pravda and Squealer’s role on The Farm. All of these methods of propaganda were substantial resources in changing people’s minds and feeding thoughts into their minds. They can be dangerous if they are not identified as being false or exaggerated, and can

Fake new became a popular topic in news regarding politically aligned news channels and outlets. For example, YourNewsWire is an online news outlet based in Los Angeles. Based on this website, Hillary Clinton’s victory in the popular vote was due to voter fraud of 25 million votes (Kosoff). YourNewsWire used evidence of an investigation the NPR, National Public Radio, conducted. Though the article’s claim of voter fraud seemed compelling, as evidence was to support the argument was supple. Yet the evidence was incorrectly used. The NPR was involved in this investigation of voter fraud, but only published the information as Pew Research Center conducted the analysis of credibility. Another piece of falsified data is that the investigation was not conducted as a means to discredit Hillary Clinton’s victory in the popular vote, as the investigation was completed in 2012, prior to Clinton and Trump’s campaign for office. This is only one example of skewed stories and biased articles. The creators of YourNewsWire, Sean Adl-tabatabai and husband, Sinclair Treadway, were politically aligned with Bernie Sanders for the 2016 election (Baum). The reputation that YourNewsWire has created for itself has plummeted. Google no longer supports this website with ad-sponsored money, and other accredited websites, such as Snopes, investigate the validity of news articles such as these and discredit their findings

“I am not going to give you a question. You are fake news.” This is the now infamous response from President Donald Trump during his first press conference since taking office when asked “Sir, can you give us a chance to ask a question?” by CNN reporter Jim Acosta (Johnson, 2017). President Trump’s dismissal of Accosta sparked the colloquial usage of the term “fake news,” a phrase the current president uses to lambaste media sources who report stories that do not present a favorable impression of his presidency. However, true “fake news,” has existed for far longer than Donald Trump’s presidency and includes three main types: satire, biased reporting, and deliberate misinformation. Fake news has grown in quantity and now Americans across the country are expressing concerns about not being able to trust media sources once considered honest and reputable, along with having trouble distinguishing between real and fake news.

In the article “Fake News Fools Millions!” written by Carl Stoffers published on january 9, 2017 Stoffers talks about how fake news spread on social media can actually influence real-world events.

Think. Think about the many hours you have ever spent trying to solve a puzzle or riddle. Think about how that conundrum challenged you, how it would burn in the back of your mind, until you finally solved and revealed the answer. But it is not the answer to the question that is most intriguing, it is the pieces of insight or information that led you there. In any significant historic event, such as the tragic terrorist attack on the Twin Towers or the even the moon landing, there is almost always a conspiracy theory, following not far behind. Individuals usually attempt to contemplate the “true” reasoning behind WHY or HOW each major historic American event occurred, much like that puzzling conundrum. But the key questions to solve the riddle still remain. What information led us to this solution? Can it be trusted? The “CNNPolitics” Website article titled, “The new birthers: Debunking the Hillary Clinton health conspiracy” by reporter Gregory Krieg, explores just that, the information. The article examines the unending debate about, Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton’s health that was alleged by her opponent Donald Trump. Before joining CNN in November 2015, Gregory Krieg was a senior political reporter at Mic.com, where he helped lead the site 's coverage of the 2014 midterm elections and the start of the 2016 presidential primary season. Prior to that, Krieg was a reporter and producer for ABC News for eight years, covering everything from the 2008 and 2012

Being trusted by millions of people is more than an honor or privilege, but rather it is a power of immense impact. It is a force that shapes the nation, for better or worse. As much good a journalism can create, it also used to deceive the masses and incite unrest. Recently, an article circle Facebook sites. The title was FBI Agent Found Dead in a Murder Suicide. It was published in an apparently-legitimate website. Truth is, it was a fake article published in a website meant to confuse readers. Many similar websites and articles had been created by the author Jestin Coler. At first, his motivations were heroic, trying to highlight the “failed” American government. During the 2016 elections, fake news about the candidates went rampant. Coler had 20 to 25 writers working for him publishing article after article of slander and propaganda for either party. Some of the articles published reached 1.5 million views in just ten days. Coler makes anywhere from $10 thousand to $30 thousand every month from ad revenue of people who visit his fake news sites. Despite his initial good intentions, Coler willingly deceived readers into believing outlandish claims simply because it was published in a “news

On September 10th, Katie Sanders from PunditFact and former writer from Politifact Florida gave a speech at the Bob Graham Center titled Pants on Fire: Misinformation in American Politics. The talk and subsequent Q&A centered on the perpetuation of misinformation that is experienced in contemporary American politics as well as what journalists and common people alike can do to combat it. Though these were the focal points, three related tangents were my main takeaway from the experience.

There are newspapers (such as the “National Enquirer”) renowned for their fictitious (although admittedly attention-grabbing) headlines, yet we hardly hesitate to assume the information is fabricated. On the other hand, when our trusted news sources present their stories, many automatically assume the information is true, which is why “[e]rroneous reporting by established organizations is a bigger threat than

For instance, only weeks before election day, it was reported that Clinton was part of a child sex trafficking ring run out of a Washington D.C. pizza restaurant. This became known as “Pizzagate” on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Quickly, the story moved from social media to mainstream television and print media, especially when Clinton was required to respond to questions regarding the story. According to Angie Holand in an article entitled “PolitiFact’s 2016 Lie of the Year: Fake News,” Clinton “emboldened her detractors and turned off undecided voters with a lawyerly parsing of facts that left many feeling that she was lying.” Pizzagate is only one example of a story not based on fact that Clinton was called to address. While the story was clearly fiction, it gave people who were already suspicious of her another reason to doubt her character to be president of the United States.

In his discussion utilizing the infamous political scandal of ‘pizzagate’, Jim Kline’s journal article titled, “C. G. Jung and Norman Cohn Explain Pizzagate: The Archetypal Dimension of a Conspiracy Theory,” attempts to provide an explanation as to why people are enthralled by certain conspiracy notions involving satanic rituals, cannibalism, and human degradation. During the 2016 presidential elections, online websites circulated a very convoluted conspiracy involving then presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and husband Bill. They tied the power couple to a small, local Washington D.C. pizza parlor that was allegedly used as a front for horrific satanic rituals and deviant acts of pedophilia. The stories and the attached conspiracy all began

Conspiracy Theories are defined as “a belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event.” An uprising problem in American culture is the spread of the perpetuation of misinformation through many online sources and social media platforms. A part of this issue is the publishing of fake news and conspiracy theories, mainly by authors and editors who are seeking compensation for their “information”. Crazy storylines are created or more is added to a previous story and are shared with the internet to get the attention of the population. The publishers are aware that they are spreading false information, but are doing for their own advantage.

In the article “Radio Conspiracy Theorist Claims Ear Of Trump, Pushes 'Pizzagate' Fictions,” author David Folkenflik attempts to illustrate that Alex Jones uses his influence on the public through media platforms to promote extreme conspiracy theories, and suggests that Jones’s theories elicit negative reaction in the public. Jones, founder of InfoWars, is a well-known conspiracy theorist, and has an extremely popular radio and YouTube format. Among the theories Jones has promoted, Folkenflik draws attention to the “Pizzagate” scandal, a burgeoning theory spread by Jones that lists a top Hillary associate as a pedophilic sex trafficker. Folkenflik implies that Jones’s support of pizzagate sparked a fanatic to open fire in the pizza shop that

The recent surge in popularity of social media comes with a price: fake news. Fake news is defined as news or media that has been altered or modified. Journalists have begun to analyze why that fake news exists and why it continues exist. Two authors, Eoin O’Carroll and Kevin D. Williamson, both have written articles about fake news. Eoin O’Carroll’s article “How Information Overload Helps Spread Fake News,” discusses how the media has bombarded us with news stories, blurring the distinct lines between real and fake news. Kevin D. Williamson, a journalist for the National Review, writes in his article “‘Fake News, Media and Voters: Shared Reality Must Be Acknowledged” that the news is not fake; it just does not align with one’s personal beliefs. Both authors successfully appeal to their audiences’ emotions and feelings, but O’Carroll is more likely to succeed than Williamson in persuading his audience to try and combat fake news because the writer presents himself as someone the intended readers will more readily identify with and offers evidence that his readers will find more compelling.