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How documentary-style films prop up conspiracy theories : NPR


Fence surrounds the Maricopa County Voting and Tabulating Center (MCTEC) in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 25, 2022, to help prevent breakdowns and pressure on voters at the polling station.

Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images


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Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images


Fence surrounds the Maricopa County Voting and Tabulating Center (MCTEC) in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 25, 2022, to help prevent breakdowns and pressure on voters at the polling station.

Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images

In Georgia this summer, a fake wanted poster Misidentifying a woman as a mule is called voting.

In Arizona, voters complained about take photos and videosin some cases by weapon bearer.

The incidents seem to be inspired by a movie, “2,000 mules,” that revolves around a myth about how the 2020 election supposedly stole away from Donald Trump. At the heart of it is a conspiracy theory that claims that Democratic groups are colluding with paid agents – “mule” – to stuff ballot boxes with fraudulent votes.

Have no proof for any of this. The film, directed by right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza and based on data and analysis from controversial election group True the Vote, has been thoroughly and repeatedly made, reveal via fact checker and waste via executive.

But the film is the latest in a long series of films that use the trivia and notation of documentary film to gain credibility. In recent years, documentary-style films about Election 2020the Pandemic caused by covid-19 and Vaccine spread conspiracy theories and recycled lies.

Documentaries have been used for decades to try to make the bad guys and people who are trying to promote conspiracies or push misinformation or promote a particular political program look professional. more, looks glamorous, looks like something you can believe,” said Jiore Craig. head of elections and digital integrity at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an agency that monitors online extremism.

Debunked and hugged

One of the people identified as a mule in the “2,000 mules” is sue the creators of the movie for defamation. Yes, the leaders of the Vote were jail this week for contempt of court in a separate matter.

Despite all that, many Republicans embraced the film.

Local Republican groups around the country held screenings of the film. Trump himself organized a premiere at Mar-a-Lago. Its statement was promoted by elected officials in Texas and Michigan and candidates for governor and secretary of state in Arizona.

And now, some are campaigning around its false claims – raising concerns about voter intimidation in the final days before the midterm elections.

“What we’re seeing now is a tendency to control other people’s voting behavior,” said Emma Steiner, a disinformation analyst at the nonpartisan group Common Cause. “It’s basically an endless pattern of taking a picture of someone or taking a video and saying, ‘Oh, really what they’re doing here is criminal and you can trust me on this, and we I need to find this person and report them to the authorities.'”

Yes, Vote passed questions about “2,000 mules” to D’Souza, who did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Jell-O mold’ to shape a lie

Matthew Sheffield, a former conservative activist who is now a reporter for the progressive news network TYT News, said “2,000 Mules” didn’t make up the big lie that Trump won the 2020 election, but it did. has a coherent shape for voter fraud claims.

“They took all these ingredients and put them in a Jell-O mold and served Jell-O,” says Sheffield.

But while the film doesn’t actually offer any evidence to support its core claim that people cast ballots at multiple drop boxes, Sheffield argues, that’s next to the point.

“It’s a story,” he said. “It’s creating sentence structure for what were just scattered sensations.”

In “2,000 mules,” slick graphics illustrate True the Vote’s claim that it has cell phone location data showing mules moving between offices of nonprofits description and drop box.

But, as it turns out, the maps don’t really correspond to the alleged data. In one case, a map that was supposed to show Atlanta was actually a Moscow photo gallery.

This is not standard practice for documentary filmmakers.

Director Brian Knappenberger, whose latest project is a documentary series about online hoaxes that lead to real-world harms, said: “And even if we know it’s true, but we can’t back it up, we don’t do it.”

But while mainstream documentaries like Knappenberger aim to bring a true story to a wider audience, Common Cause’s Steiner says “2,000 Mules” serves a different purpose. It gives those who have bought into the election fraud fantasy a satisfying story – and a way to get involved.

“People feel that I can do my part by watching this movie, keeping an eye on these ballot mules and trying to make sure these people don’t vote where I’m voting.” , she said.

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