Generally speaking, the purpose of a breaking news thread is to share information about an emerging event. Developments in a high-profile story can move quickly, so a breaking news thread acts as a sort of clearinghouse for facts as they become known, and corrections as needed where earlier reports are discovered to be inaccurate or incomplete. Some light punditry is tolerable, where analysis gives meaning and context to factual reports, but pure opinion is shifted to other, more appropriate venues.
The “Russia invades Ukraine” thread has been serving this function. News stories are posted where they shed light on various points, or the overall development of the invasion. When a speculative question arises and gets traction — such as the debate about what might trigger Russian use of nuclear weapons, and the potential impact — this is properly relegated to one of the opinion-oriented fora, allowing the thread to re-center itself on its news-sharing mission.
There is one participant in the thread who persistently shares counterfactual links and stories manufactured by the Russian government to advance its political and military interests. I will not name this person, because this is not a Pit thread, but we all know who I’m referring to. They have repeatedly introduced baldfaced propaganda with a straight face, and have been met with repeated pushback.
In response to this disruption, the following mod note was added.
I cannot object strongly enough to this instruction. News threads are supposed to be informative. Propaganda acts directly against this, creating confusion and muddying the discussion. Where it is unopposed, it substitutes a preferred narrative in the place of reality; but in an open conversation, its conscious aim is to make it seem difficult or impossible to get a handle on the facts. It is an ill-intentioned effort to push the discussion away from objectivity and toward unfettered subjectivity.
We have to be able to respond to this. Otherwise the whole purpose of a news thread is defeated. The propagandist can repeat their takeaway points — and ours certainly is — over and over again (“Part of Russia.” “Part of Russia.” “Part of Russia”), planting seeds of doubt and confusion and trying to bump the center of conceptual gravity in the desired direction. We must be able to point this out when it’s happening.
Yes, this is disruptive to the thread. That’s what a propagandist does — disrupt rational thought and discussion. If the disruption is unwelcome, the solution is not to prohibit the argument, the solution is to bar the source of the conflict. Otherwise the propagandist wins.
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