Joseph Bernstein, senior reporter at Buzzfeed and 2021 Nieman Fellow, joins Harper’s Magazine web editor Violet Lucca to discuss “Bad News,” the cover story of the September issue. Together they explore the misconceptions surrounding disinformation; the mythical power of digital advertising according to Big Tech; the idea that social media itself has the capability to slow the spread of fake news; and the role that preexisting social conditions play in which misinformation goes viral.

Read Bernstein’s article here: https://harpers.org/archive/2021/09/bad-news-selling-the-story-of-disinformation/

This episode was produced by Violet Lucca and Andrew Blevins.

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