Insurrectionists scale the walls of the Capitol Building from the West Front on Jan. 6, 2021. (Quinn Glabicki/PublicSource)
Dear Reader,
If the 2020 election taught us anything, it’s that misinformation can travel fast on the internet, and news organizations need to be prepared to keep up with its pace.
We at PublicSource are not waiting until autumn to get started. As PublicSource’s local government reporter, I have already begun investigating what is happening in our region around election administration and what’s coming next for some of the most prominent actors of 2020.
Reporting on disinformation is an evolving science. We met with Pitt’s Disinformation Lab in March to discuss the best approaches, including how to decide when to publicly expose a lie, and when doing so would give false theories more oxygen and do more harm than good. These are hard choices, but the discussion reinforced for me how important our role is, this year more than usual.
We’re committed to making sure our region has accurate, fact-checked information before, during and after this fall’s election — but we can’t do this work without support from readers like yourself. If this topic matters to you, please make a donation to PublicSource today and your gift will be fully matched by our generous match pool donors.
Sincerely,
Charlie Wolfson
Local government reporter
PublicSource
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