Truthiness

Dear classmates,

I know this may come as a terrible shock to you, but sometimes Breitbart News plays fast and loose with the facts in order to construct a more compelling and politically convenient narrative.

*GASP*

It can of course be argued that all media sources construct a narrative that leaves out certain details that would muddle up the flow of the story being told, and I wouldn't disagree with that notion. But this week, I couldn't help but to pluck the low-hanging fruit of outrage news from the gnarled tree of Breitbart to illustrate a couple of different points about chronotopes.

To spare you the ordeal of reading this thing (although you can if you'd like just to be sure I'm not misrepresenting their reporting here), here is the synopsis of the event narratively delivered by Breitbart:

On New Year's Eve 2017, a horde of almost 1000 North African Muslim men shouted "Allahu Akhbar," praised Al-Qaeda, and launched explosives at bystanders and police, and committed arson against the country's "oldest church" in Dortmund, Germany. The article bases this story largely on the narration of events given by bystanders, by another news source's social media accounts, and by a handful of police officers.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2017/01/03/dortmund-mob-attack-police-church-alight/

Unfortunately, if you read down to the bottom of the article, there is an update which informs the reader that the German political establishment and the "legacy media" are attacking the substantive facts as presented by Breitbart. It seems implied rather bluntly that there is some sort of politically-motivated cover-up effort to protect immigrants and Muslims at the expense of the German people.

If you haven't gathered from my sardonic tone, the Breitbart article was widely debunked and decried as being total baloney. Several major news sources, including The Guardian, the Washington Post, and a German paper called The Local, all provided counter narratives to Breitbart's that claim that:

1.) There were roughly 1000 people in the area, but it was a crowd of many different people including women and children and folks of many different nationalities, not simply "young Muslim men" as was suggested

2.) The church was not burned down; one stray firework caught some construction netting alight and the fire was put out with no incident and no damage to the building; and the church is not even the oldest in the country

3.) The news source most heavily lifted-from denounced Breitbart and accused them of distorting their live reports for nefarious ends

4.) The police claim that Breitbart seems to have amalgamated and distorted several small, unrelated incidents that took place in order to make it seem like there was one large, terrible, chaotic event, and that it was an overall quiet New Year's Eve.

Despite all of this, regardless of the inaccuracies of fact that could easily be discovered and disproven, the article got thousands of clicks and shares. No doubt, despite the patchwork, hearsay nature of the writing, the narrative that is produced is a powerful one, one that is internally cohesive and affecting. Why is that?

I'd argue that some of that is due to the chronotope at play. The time is New Year's Eve in 2017. New Year's Eve is an emotive, nostalgic, bittersweet holiday that brings many people out into the streets, some of them singing old, traditional songs like Auld Lang Sine (which roughly translates to "old time's sake"), shooting off fireworks, and partying. At the end of 2016/beginning of 2017, Germany was still in the midst of a roiling debate over migrants and refugees from Syria (they are still struggling with this debate and the cultural anxiety that comes with it.) St. Reinold's church was built in the mid 1200's, a symbol of tradition and German religious tradition that has stood since the Middle Ages. The city square is an arena where all of the people of the city, as well as newcomers and travelers, meet and intermingle.

Put all of those elements of time and space together, and all one has to do is (forgive the pun) light a spark, and the whole thing sets ablaze. Narratives like this one are so compelling, so good at building anticipation and setting off latent anxieties at the climax, so masterful at including naysayers as proof of they're speaking-truth-to-power, that they can engage affective override in people. Readers, especially those already prone to viewing refugees and Muslims with fear and suspicion, are swept along by the narrative to the point where emotion is all that matters, much more than fact. Breitbart, you may notice, still "stands by" its reporting.


For a simultaneously amusing and informative breakdown of the reporting, its narrative, and the backlash it received, please check out this video by the wonderful Shaun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9qiCN7CcB8


Sources which refute Breitbart's narrative:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/07/german-police-quash-breitbart-story-of-mob-setting-fire-to-dortmund-church

https://www.thelocal.de/20170105/german-media-blasts-misleading-breitbart-reports-of-violence-on-new-years

https://www.thelocal.de/20170105/german-media-blasts-misleading-breitbart-reports-of-violence-on-new-years