Erin Hall
April 14, 2024
Andrew Rossi: After Truth
Andrew Rossi is a director and filmmaker. Some of the other pieces he has produced that he is most known for Page One: Inside the New York Times and Ivory Tower. Both of these pieces are somewhat political. Page One is about the lives of three writers at the New York Times and how the Internet has changed the print news papers. Ivory Tower explores the education crisis of Ivy league schools, community colleges, universities, and looks into how everything has been affected by it. Based upon reviews and the awards won from his films, he is trustworthy. He takes a deep dive into the issues and gets to know all the facts. He gets information from both sides and goes from there.
One of the main points of this documentary was that the term “fake news” came to be an everyday term during the 2016 election when Trump used it during a debate. It soon grew to be something he and his followers used whenever someone said anything that he viewed as negative, it was immediately called fake news. This term has grown more and more since then as the spread of false news and misinformation grew. Another main point that was brought up was how the engagement rates of fake news in the papers grew greatly right before elections. This would lead you to think and believe that many people who are eligible to vote were easily swayed by these. The third main point brought up was how misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories can ruin the lives of people, or complicate them, or put them in danger. When discussing PizzaGate, that was fake news and a conspiracy that almost ruined the owner of Comet Ping Pong. It almost ruined his business. The fake news led to a gunman entering this restaurant with intentions to hurt the owner, James Alefantis. At the time it was full of people who knew better than to listen to the online lies. After the gunman entered, found nothing, and then gave himself to the police, Alefantis was unsure if he wanted to reopen Comet Ping Pong because of the reputation he and his restaurant had been given by the people behind the PizzaGate Conspiracy. Luckily he had built a community who begged him to stay open and open back up immediately. This one story goes to show how much one small lie can spread and grow, and overall challenge a good person and create chaos and add harm to their life.