Stephen Davis - Truthteller: An Investigative Reporters Journey Through the World of Truth Prevention, Fake News and Conspiracy Theories

Truthteller

An investigative reporters journey through the world of
truth prevention, fake news and conspiracy theories

STEPHEN DAVIS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen Davis has been on the frontlines of journalism for three decades as an investigative reporter in TV, magazines and newspapers and as a leading journalism educator, trying to uphold the ideals of the fourth estate, and to inspire his students to do the same. From the rainforests of Brazil to the icy wastes of Antarctica, from London to Los Angeles, from the Middle East to Australia and New Zealand, Davis has sought out the truth and sometimes found it. Along the way he has encountered lying politicians and corporate conmen, spies and special forces soldiers, secret policemen and scared scientists. Among those who have tried to dissuade him from reporting his stories: men with Kalashnikovs, government lawyers, corporate PRs in fancy suits, senior police officers, billionaires, and newspaper owners. Davis has worked for The Sunday Times in both London and Los Angeles, been a war and foreign correspondent, a TV producer for 60 Minutes and 20/20, a newspaper editor, a documentary filmmaker for the BBC and Discovery, and has taught journalism to thousands of students from all over the world. He has won multiple awards for his investigative reporting, including a silver medal at the New York film and television awards, and has designed and run journalism degree programs in London, Sydney and Melbourne. For more about Stephen, visit stephendaviswriter.com.

First published 2019

Exisle Publishing Pty Ltd

226 High Street, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand

PO Box 864, Chatswood, NSW 2057, Australia

www.exislepublishing.com

Copyright 2019 in text: Stephen Davis

Stephen Davis asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Except for short extracts for the purpose of review, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

A CiP record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN 978 1 925335 89 7

ePub ISBN 978 1 77559 407 9

Designed by Nada Backovic

Typeset in 12.5/17pt Perpetua

Disclaimer

This book is based on original investigations undertaken by the author, except where noted or where the work of other journalists has been quoted. All care has been taken in compiling the contents, and neither the author nor the publisher and their distributors can be held responsible for any loss, claim or action that may arise from reliance on the information contained in this book.

Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.

If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power,

because there is no basis on which to do so.

TIMOTHY SNYDER, HISTORIAN

Truth is relative. They may have a different version

of the truth than we do.

RUDY GIULIANI, DONALD TRUMPS LAWYER

Introduction:
A toolbox for lies and deception

The story began with a quote from an anonymous official from the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was reported by the Press Trust of India and then revealed to a wider audience by a Republican congresswoman speaking on CNN. A few hours later it spread all over the internet and the world learnt that President Barack Obamas trip to Asia was going to cost US taxpayers $200 million a day a staggering $2 billion dollars for the entire ten-day trip. The numbers were huge, and they grew in detail with every new version of the story.

He was taking 2000 people with him no, it was 3000. Hundreds of hotel rooms had been booked no, it was 870 and they were all in five-star hotels like the one at the Taj Mahal. Thirty-four US navy war ships were accompanying the President later, it was 10 per cent of the entire navy. It was an outrageous waste of government money.

There was just one problem it wasnt true. It wasnt close to being true, even for those who think there are shades of truth.

The Obama story is an example of the classic political lie: a fabrication spread by Tea Party congresswoman Michele Bachmann, right-wing talk show hosts and online sites. The $200-million-a-day figure was ludicrous the entire war in Afghanistan, with the deployment of thousands of troops, was costing less than that. Presidential trips do involve large entourages including a huge security presence but the cost was more like $5 million per day. The US Navy was going to be there for exercises with allies but not 34 ships and not 10 per cent of the navy.

While the true version of the story appeared on traditional media outlets, the false version reached many millions. It was an early example of what might now be called Trumpean falsehoods, after the serially mendacious President of the United States. Blatant lies helped to get him elected and persuaded millions of Americans to support his presidency. These attempts to distort the truth practised by politicians of all parties and nationalities, to a greater or lesser degree at least have the merit of being relatively easy to spot, and refute. They are put to the test and exposed by journalists asking the right questions. If you want to find out whether such a story is true, you can.

But there are other forms of government and corporate lying and deception that are harder to spot. There is a large and growing number of methods that the rich, the powerful and the elected use to prevent truth coming out to bury it, warp it, twist it to suit their purposes. This toolbox of deception is used not only to promote their interests or defeat opponents but to conceal blunders or crimes, to cover up corruption or hide things that are just plain embarrassing.

To show how these tools work, I have used direct examples from my own reporting in stories I have investigated as an award-winning reporter, editor, foreign correspondent, television producer, documentary filmmaker and journalism educator across three decades.

Each chapter begins with the original story, so readers can understand the human consequences of truth denial. In some of these stories there are still questions to be answered and mysteries to be solved, demonstrating how successfully the tools have been deployed. I have also used examples from other media, in case histories. Despite the best efforts of dedicated reporters, the remarkable array of tools used by those in the business of deception continues to be deployed and with great success.

I hope to inspire truth seekers of the future, because the battle between those seeking to expose the truth and those seeking to prevent it is an unequal struggle. Young journalists and other concerned citizens seeking to make informed decisions are up against a huge apparatus of truth denial and distortion.

Journalists, even when working for profitable media companies, have never had the resources of governments and corporations. It is an even more one-sided contest in present-day media, as serious reporting is constrained by finances and the very question of what constitutes journalism, of what is a story, is challenged by social media. We are all journalists now, declared one magazine, noting the spread of mobile phone cameras and Twitter accounts. Left unsaid was how anyone was going to verify any of the photos, videos and tweets. So you will also find here a guide to a journalists decision making the behind-the-scenes view that you dont often see.