MSNBC Promotes NYT Claim That GOP Emails Are Often FALSE, Much Worse Than Dems

Hallie Johnson, MSNBC’s Hallie promoted the “misinformation” report. New York Times Maggie Astor was a political reporter who stated Tuesday that Democrats were more truthful than Republicans. She claimed to have conducted a study in support of this claim. 

Jackson betrayed the tilt just by suggesting which subjects are most often the targets of the accused misinformers: Times reporters “watched as misinformation on immigration, education, President Biden’s agenda began to stream in.”

Astor’s study looked at e-mails sent out by 390 representatives and senators up for re-election in 2022 because according, to the study, e-mails are a way for politicians to evade fact-checkers, which Jackson summarized while taking a subtle shot at Fox, that “some networks” like MSNBC call out the liars, as if they were a perfect example of objective fact-checking:

So, aside from the hundreds I’m sure of unread messages in those inboxes, you talked about this in your article, right? That lawmakers that spread misinformation on social media or on TV, they’ll get kind of, oftentimes on some networks, they’ll give quick fact checks, right? They’ll get some flak for spreading stuff that’s not true, but on e-mails, absolutely, can they escape this same level of critique, right?

Jackson moved to the results of the study, “Your investigation found that Republicans are responsible for more of this false information than Democrats are, right? Can you talk through some of the, the what you found and [the]There is logic there.”

Astor replied by stating, “I discovered that…” roughly 15% of e-mails I received from Republicans contained false information and by that, I’m referring to you know, empirically false statements. Things that can be proven not to be true. I’m not talking about, you know, the standard political exaggerations and spin and what not, but actually empirically false statements were in about 15% of Republican e-mails compared with about 2% of Democratic e-mails, so it was a pretty striking difference.”

EARLIER

By excluding hyperbole it is almost certain that the 2% is too low given how the media uncritically accepts the Democratic framing on issues like “voting rights,” “voter suppression,” and the future of democracy. It is difficult to see why this study should be taken seriously if we don’t count such instances. This is a typical media study. You can’t label a Democrat a socialist, but it can be said that Republicans are Jim Crow 2.0.

It is getting so tedious that liberal reporters don’t read anything, then it’s probably creeping misinformation. These people sound terrified that somebody, someplace is spreading undiluted antiliberal propaganda.

This segment was sponsored and produced by Kraft. 

The transcript of the show, December 14, is available here:

MSNBC

Hallie Jackson Reports

3.52 PM ET

HALLIE JACKSON – Political misinformation. You know it’s on your phone screen, it’s your TVs. It’s now even coming to your e-mail addresses. Although it was possible that this had been happening for some time, new reports from the New York Times taking a look at thousands of those campaign e-mails. Many of them littered with bad information.  Reporters Times subscribed to nearly 400 campaign e-mail lists—RIP your inbox– and they watched as misinformation on immigration, education, President Biden’s agenda began to stream in. The journalist that reported this story is now with me. New York Times’  Maggie Astor. Maggie, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for your time.

MAGGIE STOR: Thanks for being with me

JACKSON: So, aside from the hundreds I’m sure of unread messages in those inboxes, you talked about this in your article, right? That lawmakers that spread misinformation on social media or on TV, they’ll get kind of, oftentimes on some networks, they’ll give quick fact checks, right? They’ll get some flak for spreading stuff that’s not true, but on e-mails, absolutely, can they escape this same level of critique, right? 

ASTOR: Yeah, there’s definitely less scrutiny of e-mails. They, you know, obviously they go directly to the inboxes of millions of people and often times, you know, fact checkers, journalists are just not really looking at these e-mails. They’re looking at other forums and so they don’t get fact checked, fact checked in the same way. 

JACKSON: Yeah. Your investigation found that Republicans are responsible for more of this false information than Democrats are, right? Can you talk through some of the, the what you found and rationale there? 

ASTOR: Yeah, absolutely. So I, my goal going into this was to determine, you know, how common misinformation was in campaign e-mails. Fundraising e-mails specifically and whether, you know, there were partisan patterns in terms of who was doing it. And what I found was that roughly 15% of e-mails I received from Republicans contained false information and by that, I’m referring to you know, empirically false statements. Things that can be proven not to be true. I’m not talking about, you know, the standard political exaggerations…

JACKSON:

ASTOR: … and spin and what not, but actually empirically false statements were in about 15% of Republican e-mails compared with about 2% of Democratic e-mails, so it was a pretty striking difference.

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