Remember way back in 2017, when it felt sort of quaint for Kellyanne Conway, then special adviser to President Donald Trump, to introduce the term “alternative facts” as a euphemism for the lying that characterized Trump and those around him?
Most of us couldn’t imagine that view of the world would gain traction, and in fact we felt like it was repudiated when Trump lost the election in 2020 and we thought America might return to a world where truth matters. And especially after January 6, when Trump was exposed as the liar and instigator of evil that he is.
It seemed then like the tens of thousands of lies he told in the White House — lies his followers easily overlooked — might finally have caught up with him. And with the various legal actions against Trump, we hoped truth and justice would prevail.
Mark Wingfield
But that is not the case. A slim majority of Americans have chosen to put the liar in chief back in the White House. And in obeisance to that coming event, important people already are bowing down at the altar of lies to facilitate more lies. The latest of these, of course, is Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, now known corporately as Meta. We learned today that Facebook is eliminating its fact checking.
Now, if you think back to 2016 and the first time Trump was elected president, there was significant evidence that Russia and other third-party actors used Facebook and other social media platforms to sow disinformation that put Trump in office. To what extent this led to Trump’s election we probably never will know. But it wasn’t zero. And in response to that, Facebook doubled down on trying to moderate outright lies and disinformation and deception on its site.
As a publisher of news, I will tell you this system has been imperfect. Zuckerberg was right today when he said their fact checkers have sometimes been overzealous. We have seen this with our own content, where Facebook dings us for things that merely mention controversial words. The algorithms used to censor content on Facebook have knocked out legitimate discussion about things like Trump and his lies. And so that is a true statement that cuts both ways.
“Zuckerberg was right today when he said their fact checkers have sometimes been overzealous.”
But rather than attack that with surgical precision, which could be done, Zuckerberg has — two weeks prior to Trump returning to the White House — showed us where his true colors lie. The statements he made today are on their face outrageous. And they are absolutely political.
Echoing a favorite talking point of Trump and his minions, Zuckerburg said: “The fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the U.S.”
Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College and longtime Meta observer, told NPR it is distressing seeing business leaders “showing performative fealty” to the incoming administration: “Meta clearly perceives a great deal of political risk of being targeted. And the way Zuckerberg presented the announcements, and the timing, was obviously intended to play to a Republican audience.”
And remember this, as NPR reminded us: “Trump has accused Zuckerberg personally of election interference and threatened him with life in prison.”
Ann Telnaes says the rough version of the cartoon she drew for the Washington Post, shown here, was rejected by the paper’s editorial page editor. It shows Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman bringing Trump sacks of cash and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong bearing a tube of lipstick.
This, of course, comes on the heels of Jeff Bezos, another multi-billionaire, who refused to let the Washington Post, which he owns, endorse Kamala Harris against Trump in the presidential election. That drew immediate backlash from staffers at the Post and from hundreds of thousands of readers who canceled their subscriptions. But it didn’t matter. Bezos still did what he wanted to do.
Unlike Trump’s first term in office, we are seeing an accumulation of millionaires and billionaires gathering around him, ditching truth in order to maintain favor and to avoid being bullied by Trump.
To understand what’s going on, just imagine the worst bully you’ve ever known in your life, whether on a school playground or in a workplace, being put in charge of everything. Imagine the bully winning and being able to manipulate people to do his will. That’s what’s happening in the United States of America today. Donald Trump is the ultimate bully, and he is threatening people with jail and prosecution — even journalists — for opposing him.
“Truth cannot die, but acknowledgement of truth can die.”
We now live in an era where regard for the truth is approaching imminent death. Truth cannot die, but acknowledgement of truth can die.
As I previously noted in another column, Trump’s threat to prosecute legitimate journalistic enterprises for not telling a story the way he wants it told, the way that favors his false narrative, is absolutely one of the most dangerous things that ever has happened to American democracy.
And what is most disastrous is that this betrayal of truth was facilitated and encouraged by evangelical Christians. There is no way to overrate or overstate the fact that it is the very people who claim to know the truth, the very people who four presidential administrations ago said they were absolutely concerned about “absolute truth,” who have capitulated entirely. And why? To feel like they’re still in control as the world changes around them.
They have abandoned every shred of believing in truth. And now we all are going to pay the price for that — from reduced safety regulations to environmental catastrophe to limits on health care and government interference in religion.
The irony of Facebook’s about-face in the very week former President Jimmy Carter is lying in state at the U.S. Capitol is staggering. Recall that Carter, a former Southern Baptist, won the presidency in 1976 because of the Watergate scandal and the lies of Richard Nixon and those around him. It was Carter who promised, “I will never lie to you.” And indeed he did not.
And it was the Washington Post — now owned by Bezos — that exposed the lie that unraveled Nixon’s presidency and led to Carter’s election.
“Lying about a third-rate burglary? That’s nothing these days.”
Again, that all seems so quaint now. Lying about a third-rate burglary? That’s nothing these days.
Once again, we are installing in that sacred office of the White House the greatest liar ever to walk the planet — someone who makes Nixon look like a Boy Scout. There is no comparison to Donald Trump’s lies; he is the antithesis of Jimmy Carter in truth telling. And yet we have reached the moment where this is what a slim majority of the American people want — not only want but celebrate.
We are entering the Wild West of truth right now, and we must have someone who will stand up to tell it like it really is. If it’s not going to be media organizations, who will it be?
How about you?
We need politicians and preachers and leaders in civic and religious life everywhere to stand up to this bullying and not follow the example of Bezos and Zuckerberg and other wealthy barons who are more concerned about keeping their wealth than telling the truth. We need a Truth Brigade that will flood Facebook and X and every platform with the kind of fact checking they so want to avoid.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality. His latest book is Troubling the Truth and Other Tales from the News.
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