Echoes of Misinformation: The 'Big Lie' and Democracy

The Washington Roundtable discusses the avalanche of disinformation that has taken over the 2024 election cycle, including an A.I. video meant to slander Tim Walz and claims that the votes are rigged before they’re even counted. Will this torrent of lies tip the election in favor of Donald Trump? Is there a way out of this morass of untruth? “I think the lies are clearly winning,” the staff writer Evan Osnos says. “But I would also say that that doesn’t mean that we should abandon the tools that are available.” Osnos notes recent defamation rulings against Rudy Giuliani and Fox News over false statements about the 2020 election as cases in point. 

This week’s reading:

• “Donald Trump and the F-Word,” by Susan B. Glasser
• “Can Older Americans Swing the Election for Harris?,” by Bill McKibben
• “What’s the Matter with Young Male Voters?,” by Jay Caspian Kang
• “Door-Knocking in Door County,” by Emily Witt
• “What Would Donald Trump Do to the Economy?,” by John Cassidy
• “The Tight-Knit World of Kamala Harris’s Sorority,” by Jazmine Hughes

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