The term “fog of unknowability” escaped me until Eric Boehlert mentioned it this morning. But while the term is unfamiliar, the tactic is not. Beohlert references a March 2017 essay at Vanity Fair that asks whether Donald Trump learned the tactic from the Russians:
Clint Watts, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who has studied Russian propaganda for years, sees major similarities between Putin’s and Trump’s approaches. “Create chaos in the system, such that you don’t know what is the truth or not the truth,” he says. The Kremlin does this by flooding television and digital media with biased coverage and wanton spin. The Trump administration has discovered something equally effective: lying to reporters and publicly attacking critics are like tossing grenades into the media eco-system. The press is constantly scrambling to respond to a never-ending river of slime, and the system is gradually overwhelmed.
Over time, this chaos creates what Pomerantsev describes as a “fog of unknowability.” Kellyanne Conway espouses “alternative facts” on NBC’s Meet the Press. President Trump continues to insist that millions voted illegally in the general election. The president’s relationships with government agencies like the C.I.A. are bitterly disputed. Objective reality splinters under the weight of falsehoods, conspiracies, and doubt, and the rules begin to change. “In that fog, norms and rational debate disappear, and all that matters is whoever’s faster, harder, more daring,” Pomerantsev says. “A different kind of calculus appears.”
As Boehlert notes, “the fog of unknowability” approach is “embraced by the Republican Party, Trump and Fox News.” The ability to define reality one way one day and another the next might have originated with the Ministry of Truth. By which Orwell alluded to Soviet control of information under Joseph Stalin. A Soviet joke well-known by the 1970s made fun of state-controlled newspapers Pravda (“truth”) and Izvestia (“news”): “There is no truth in Pravda and no news in Izvestia“.
Fox News is worse. When pressed, Fox may admit to being infotainment. Disinfotainment is more accurate.
Boehlert writes:
It’s a stunning collective that’s become more pronounced during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The evidence of that alliance was on display when Kremlin forces teamed up with Fox News and GOP players to push the obvious distraction about Ukraine being the home of secret, U.S.-funded bioweapons that target certain ethnicities, thereby producing some sort of justification for Russia’s land war.
It’s shocking to watch an American media outlet such as Fox routinely suggest the U.S. provoked the Ukraine invasion, side with Russia over America, and smear Ukrainians as being unworthy of U.S. support. Still, the anti-democratic, authoritarian bonds are becoming tighter as the Trump movement now turns to the Kremlin for its messaging cues. The overlap is undeniable, and the implications are grave.
Look at how the Washington Post recently described Putin-era propaganda: “Russian disinformation often begins with a speck of fact, which is then twisted into a full-blown conspiracy theory. The technique makes it easier to spread and take root among the country’s supporters.” Sound familiar? They’re describing the foundation of Fox News’ daily programming.
For some reason though, the D.C. media which so easily identifies Russian propaganda, refuse to apply the same term when the GOP engages in the exact same behavior.
Note that the Post piece suggested Fox News’ Tucker Carlson had “fallen” for Russian disinformation about a bioweapons program in Ukraine. Trust me, nobody at Fox News, in the right-wing media, or inside the GOP has “fallen” for the bioweapons story — no one got duped. They have knowingly embraced the campaign of lies. That’s why state-run Russia TV is encouraged to air clips of Carlson. The two validate each other.
“The real opposition is the media,” Trump adviser Steve Bannon told author Michael Lewis. “And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” Author Jonathan Rauch said of Bannon’s approach, “This is not about persuasion: This is about disorientation.”
Which raises the question of why an “American” former president, his advisers, right-wing pundits, and his favorite media outlet have adopted tactics not just from Putin but formalized by Stalin.
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