Viral Lies

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

News

4.7 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2021

⏱️ 51 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.

There are lots of reasons people give for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine – lack of access, personal choice or general distrust. Then there are the conspiracy theories, which have spiked during the pandemic. The World Health Organization calls it “an infodemic,” where dangerous medical misinformation sows chaos and mistrust. So how do conspiracy theories spread? Reporter and episode host Ike Sriskandarajah unravels the history of the lie that there is a tiny microchip in each vial of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Then 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 Jan. 6.

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 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.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal.
0:07.0	I'm Aik's Reza, filling in for Al Lettsin.
0:11.0	I started working at Reveal in 2015 back before this was a weekly radio show.
0:17.0	And I can count on my hands the number of times Al has stepped away from the mic.
0:21.6	So, you know, this is for a good reason.
0:24.6	You'll get to hear the new investigation he's reporting in a few months.
0:28.6	And in the meantime, I get to tell you a story.
0:31.6	Today, we're going to start back on October 2, 2020. President Trump just tested positive for the coronavirus.
0:42.0	The country is accelerating into its third wave, and vaccines are still months away.
0:49.4	But pandemic be damned, here in New York City, you still have to move your car for street sweeping.
0:55.8	So, early one morning, I walk out of my building with everyone else parked on the Friday side of our narrow street. I get in the car and I turn on my radio. Good morning, USA! To the breakfast club. Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, why don't we start our show that way. Shalame the God. Peace to the planet is Friday! The Breakfast Club is a popular radio show based in New York. It's syndicated across the country and gets 8 million listeners a month and millions more watch online.
1:32.9	One day it's Red Man promoting a 420 rap battle.
1:36.8	A day before that, it's Pete Buttigieg talking infrastructure.
1:40.7	And this morning, in October, Charlemagne the God, the most outspoken of the three hosts, is riffing on the president's positive test.
1:49.7	What, does Charlemagne think? I have a few thoughts. First of all, I'm not about to be happy that Trump and Melania got Corona.
1:55.9	I will never celebrate something happening to a person that I don't want to happen to me and mine.
2:01.1	And I'm listening along, kind of nodding my head. Like, I wonder what is going to happen to
2:06.1	the president. He's in his 70s. He's overweight. And as I'm thinking this, Charlemagne takes
2:13.5	the conversation in a direction I don't see coming. But the conspiracy theory is in me simply doesn't believe it. I really just feel like this is a ploy to change the headlines. It's a ploy to get y'all to line up to take that goddamn value menu vaccine that they're going to be rolling out because he's going to be the first person to act like he's taking it and be the hero. And next thing you know, all of y'all going to have microchips, y'all booties. Right in time for goddamn Thanksgiving.
2:36.7	Microchips in the vaccine.
2:39.0	Millions of people line up to get it.
2:40.6	And boom, microchip implants for all of y'all.
	...

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