Media can dish up a ‘truth sandwich’ to deal with political lies

During CNN coverage of the federal jury’s $83 million dollar judgment against Donald Trump for libeling E. Jean Carroll, anchor Jake Tapper prepared to read Trump’s statement in reaction to the verdict. He said he was about to invoke a truth sandwich.

He explained he would say what’s true prior to reading Trump’s statement, read Trump’s statement filled with falsehoods, and then follow up again with the truth. Like a good server in your favorite restaurant, he then served up the truth sandwich.

Tapper explained that President Biden had nothing to do with the jury decision. He also explained that Americans have not had their First Amendment rights taken away. Then, he read Trump’s statement about the verdict, which Trump called “a Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party.” Trump added, “They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”

With a sigh, Tapper then added the last layer to the sandwich, explaining again that Biden was not involved in the libel lawsuit. He affirmed that Americans very much enjoy First Amendment rights, which have never allowed us to say whatever we want about someone regardless of the truth. And, this is very much America, where facts matter, where the rule of law matters, and where disputes ideally are settled in court rather than at gunpoint.

Fight misinformation

1.       Start with the truth.

2.       Indicate the lie.

3.       Return to the truth. Always repeat truths more than lies.

Live TV coverage is not so easy

Broadcast journalists have similarly been struggling with how much of Trump’s speeches to carry live. On the night of the Iowa caucuses, I noticed the local stations in Des Moines, as well as CNN, carried the first part of Trump’s remarks to followers, but after a while they cut away. MSNBC opted not to carry his live comments at all, with anchor Rachel Maddow telling viewers, “There is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things.”

After the New Hampshire primary, MSNBC started carrying Trump live but cut away after a while. CNN also cut away. Fox News, of course, carried all of Trump’s comments.

Building a truth sandwich around a texted social media statement is a lot easier than trying to sandwich truth around live broadcast comments. Fact checking in real time is almost impossible with live television coverage. So, journalists are left with poor choices. Either start to carry him live and cut away when the BS starts or record the comments and play them back later after carefully editing out the misinformation.

The cable TV networks thrive on live, breaking, immediate coverage and it’s not in their nature to delay bringing news to viewers. But we’ve never been faced with a leading politician like Trump who constantly spreads misinformation. Journalists must come up with innovative techniques to deal with this unprecedented problem.

Old-school journalism doesn’t cut it

That doesn’t cut it anymore because politicians are willing to say anything to remain in power. Entrance polling prior to the Iowa caucuses last month showed that two-thirds of Iowa Republicans who caucused believe Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020. Wow.

That is a sad commentary that misinformation works and that Americans who only watch Fox News are woefully ill-informed.

So grab the mayo and mustard and serve me up a tasty truth sandwich. The only problem is the vending machine in the Fox News lunchroom ran out of truth sandwiches years ago.