Fake News, Conspiracy Theories and InfoWars

Fake news and disinformation campaigns have been the focus of media attention in the USA since the 2016 Trump-Clinton presidential campaign.  In this interview a New York Times reporter, Adam B. Ellick talks about the use Vladimir Putin has made of disinformation campaigns, quoting the AIDS conspiracy theory in the 1980's, or the campaign against himself after publishing the story of the Pakistani girl education campaigner, Malala Yousafzai. He also discusses with Terry Gross President Trump's discredit of American media and the current division in American politics and society. Level: C2

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Adam B. Ellick is the Director and Producer of Opinion Video at the New York Times.  He has won Pulizer and Emmy News Video prizes for his work as a video journalist. You can watch the Opinion Video page of the New York Times here: The Seven Commandments of Fake News or The Worldwide War on Truth. The videos cover very similar content to the radio interview, but they do not have subtitles, so they may be more difficult to understand than the radio interview (with script) above.