Faced with the Trump phenomenon, the social media, Facebook, Google and others, have become gatekeepers to information. They stepped up during the election to curtail false or harmful information, for example that the election was stolen from Trump. (The New York Times, November 7, 2020, by Shira Ovide)
CNN’s Brian Stelter thinks that the news media’s hiring of fact-checkers is a good thing to help dispute the alternative realities generated by Trump. The emergence of right wing media like Fox News, a propaganda vehicle for Trump, is here to stay. It’s important says Stelter to continue presenting the stories of voters to the exclusion of what’s said at Trump rallies. (NPR, October 25, 2020, interview NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro of Brian Stelter)