2023-10-08 08:20:48
From this space, warnings have been reiterated about the veracity or lack thereof in information or definitions from the media, journalists and candidates, with a growing increase in erroneous, biased or deliberately lying data as the day of the general elections approaches. . I return to the topic because PERFIL readers deserve it.
According to a survey carried out by The Washington Post shortly after the end of Donald Trump’s term in the presidency of the United States, the number of fake news or misleading information provided by Trump to the public can be rounded at 22,000. He went so far as to proclaim, without arguments to support his claims, that Joe Biden’s victory in the elections was a fraud.
Brazilians experienced something similar when Jair Bolsonaro became president or during his term, including false statements about the person who replaced him, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.
It is, in truth, a modus operandi that the ultras choose: lying to manipulate the electorate and benefit accordingly. Why is it important to take it into account in this final stretch of the Argentine pre-electoral process? Because we are observing repeated samples of falsehoods thrown into the ring by one of the candidates, characterized by his aggressive, insulting and, at times, threatening style. Javier Milei aspires to lead the country like his opponents, but both in the first debate held in Santiago del Estero and in subsequent statements he made unforced errors and false statements, as has been proven.
Regarding the debate, the records of the Chequeado organization indicate that it falsified information or gave it a questionable spin. Two examples: he stated that 13% of children do not finish their studies in a timely manner; It is exactly the other way around: 13% of students finished in 2022; Argentina was not the richest country in the world at the beginning of the 20th century: it ranked 14th out of 45 nations analyzed. Regarding his statements about the dictatorship, he insisted on denying that we still suffer disappearances, torture, murders, theft of babies and the existence of dozens of clandestine detention and extermination centers, equating State terrorism with the judicial actions of the groups. armed. He denied that there are 30,000 missing people, without taking into account that the figure is a symbolic and non-countable number.
But probably what he said about Patricia Bullrich in a subsequent interview elevates Milei’s recurrence to the use of fake news: he said that the JxC candidate planted bombs in kindergartens, a fallacy that not even the most recalcitrant defenders of the dictatorship have spread ever. The truth is that she was part of the Peronist Youth, without involvement in Montoneros or another paramilitary organization.
The risks of degrading democracy through false information have, in some countries, a limited scope and a lesser impact on the population. Finland, for example, has opted for education to prevent the population from falling into deception or manipulation. According to an interesting BBC Mundo article, “critical thinking and media literacy have been part of the Finnish curriculum for a long time.” The note adds that since 2016, reforms have been introduced in school programs in this direction.
By the way, there are no legal instruments in Argentina to punish those who lie or distort history. It is possible to take civil action when someone feels wronged, as is the Milei-Bullrich case.
However, there is a penalty for politicians who play the line between lies and truth: the vote.
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