Viral Lies

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

News

4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From anti-vaxxers to QAnon, we look at how misinformation spreads online – and the lives it disrupts.

Reporter Stan Alcorn digs into the origins of “Stop the Steal.” In 2016, it was the name of a right-wing activist group that spread the idea that the United States’ democratic institutions were rigged against Donald Trump. In 2020, it re-emerged as a hashtag attached to baseless Republican claims of voter fraud, gained huge audiences on social media and became a rallying cry among the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

Next, reporter and guest host Ike Sriskandarajah looks into one reason people aren’t getting the COVID-19 vaccine: conspiracy theories. The World Health Organization calls it “an infodemic,” where dangerous medical misinformation sows chaos and mistrust. So how do conspiracy theories spread? Sriskandarajah unravels the history of the lie that there is a tiny microchip in each vial of the COVID-19 vaccine.

We close the show with a conversation between a mother and son who are divided over conspiracy theories. Lucy Concepcion is one of roughly 75 million Americans who believe the results of the 2020 presidential election were illegitimate. She also believes in QAnon. Her son, BuzzFeed reporter Albert Samaha, believes in facts. Samaha describes what it’s like when someone you love believes in an elaborate series of lies, and we listen in as he and his mom discuss their complicated and loving relationship.

This episode was originally broadcast June 5, 2021.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Alan. I hope 2022 has been a good year for you. But to be honest, it's been a tough one for us.
0:08.0	This year, Reveal was struck by a financial crisis that jeopardized our very existence.
0:14.0	But we've rallied, and all the while that was happening, our staff forged ahead to produce ambitious investigations
0:22.0	that exposed corruption and abuses that the powerful interests did not want revealed.
0:27.0	Because that's what we do. If we're going to keep telling these kind of stories though, we're going to need support from you.
0:34.0	To support fearless investigative nonprofit journalism, please donate by December 31st.
0:41.0	Just visit revealnews.org slash 2023. Again, to donate to the show and to support our work into the future.
0:48.0	Please visit revealnews.org slash 2023. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
1:00.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Ike Sriskandarajah, in for Al-Letson.
1:08.0	I want you to picture a scene. Hundreds of people standing on the granite steps of the Capitol building.
1:15.0	But it's the Capitol building of Colorado in April 2016.
1:24.0	Do you want your freedom back?
1:27.0	Yes!
1:28.0	Also worth noting, this crowd is angry at the Republican Party, and the steal they want to stop is the nomination of anyone other than Donald Trump for president.
1:39.0	This was the beginning of stop the steal. And it wasn't just a catchy chant.
1:46.0	So we've got these pamphlets here. Go to stopthesteele.org. And I think you'll you'll understand that this is a group that's going to be key to making sure Colorado's voices are heard.
1:56.0	From the start, stop the steal was a group of activists and a set of tactics.
2:02.0	In Colorado, it started at the caucus that Saturday, when Ted Cruz won all the states Republican delegates.
2:12.0	Donald Trump started complaining.
2:15.0	The bosses and the establishment and the people that shouldn't have this power took all of the power away from the voters.
2:23.0	Voters took it out on the local establishment boss, State GOP chairman Steve House.
2:30.0	Every single day when he would say something, my phone would ring with somebody else.
	...

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