The Disinformation Machine After a Murder

In the wake of the political assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, prominent right-wing figures moved quickly to assign blame. Utah Sen. Mike Lee pinned the killings on “Marxism.” Elon Musk pointed to the “far left.” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, said it “seems to be a leftist.”

But the facts quickly told a different story: The suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter is a Trump supporter who held radical anti-abortion views. 

“There’s an entire right-wing media machine aimed at pushing disinformation around breaking news events and specifically attributing violence to the left,” says Taylor Lorenz, independent journalist and author of “Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.” “You see this over and over and over again, no matter who is perpetrating the violence.” 

“The reality is that the vast overwhelming majority of political violence in recent years has come from the right,” adds Akela Lacy, The Intercept’s senior politics reporter. “It basically treats that fact as if it’s not real, as if it doesn’t exist,” she says — a dynamic that then fails to address the root causes.

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This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jordan Uhl talks with Lorenz and Lacy about how online disinformation is distorting public understanding of major events — from political violence to immigration to potential war with Iran. In this chaos-driven ecosystem, the right — and Trump especially — know how to thrive.

“There are these right-wing influencer networks that exist to amplify misinformation and shape narratives online,” says Lorenz. “A lot of them coordinate, literally directly coordinate through group chats,” she explains. “They receive messaging directly from leaders in the Republican Party that they immediately disseminate.”

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That messaging loop reinforces itself — seeping into mainstream culture, dominating social media, and driving Trump’s policies. Lacy points to a striking example: Democratic Sen. Tina Smith from Minnesota confronting Lee over his false claim that the shooter was a Marxist, and his apparent surprise at being held accountable. “ There’s no reason that a sitting U.S. senator is spreading these lies, should not expect to be confronted by his colleagues over something like this. And that says volumes about the environment on the Hill,” says Lacy. 

But this right-wing narrative war doesn’t work without help to boost their legitimacy. “These manufactured outrage campaigns are not successful unless they’re laundered by the traditional media,” says Lorenz. “If the New York Times or the BBC or NPR — which is one of the worst — don’t launder those campaigns and pick those campaigns up, they kind of don’t go anywhere.”

You can hear the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.