'Alternate reality': NYT experiment immerses reporter in far-right media

One common explanation for the outcome of the 2024 presidential election is that the far-right's vast social media ecosystem was able to reach more Americans than traditional media, influencing a decisive number of voters in key battleground states. One New York Times reporter decided to put himself in those Americans' shoes for a week and document the results.

In a Friday article, journalist Stuart A. Thompson — who covers right-wing media — dove head-first into Rumble, which is a preferred video news platform for the extreme right. As Thompson noted, Rumble began as a YouTube alternative that was known for cat videos until the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol. Once YouTube banned multiple accounts for their defense of insurrectionists, those content creators migrated their channels and audiences to Rumble.

As part of his research process, Thompson wrote that he watched approximately 47 hours of Rumble content for his report. For one week, Thompson deactivated all of his news apps, filtered out emails from news outlets and newsletters and exclusively watched Rumble content creators like Dan Bongino, Roseanne Barr, Candace Owens, Russell Brand and Clayton Morris, among others.

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These are just a few of the most popular Rumble commentators. Other top Rumble contributors include conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and misogynist influencer Andrew Tate. Another is Stew Peters — a former bounty hunter who has roughly 556,000 followers and has praised Adolf Hitler and called for shooting nonprofit workers who help undocumented immigrants.

"Just a few hours into the experiment, it was clear that I was falling into an alternate reality fueled almost entirely by outrage," Thompson wrote, noting that he could feel his worldview and perspectives shift the more he was exposed to far-right narratives.

"When I described to my wife what I was hearing on Rumble, she said I was right to feel uneasy because the world I was immersing myself in sounded genuinely awful," he continued. "Hour by hour, Rumble’s hosts stoked fears about nearly everything: culture wars, transgender Americans and even a potential World War III."

Thompson reported that while he expected blowback from Rumble contributors after his article went live on the Times' site, he was surprised to get public backlash before publication. He recalled one interaction in which Jake Pentland — Roseanne Barr's son, who co-hosts her podcast — posted an email inquiry he sent to X, which resulted in him getting doxxed and brigaded with hate from Rumble viewers.

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"Rumble’s chief executive reposted [Pentland's tweet], then Elon Musk reposted that to his more than 200 million followers," Thompson wrote. "My phone number was visible, and apparently seen more than 50 million times on the platform, so I was soon flooded with angry phone calls and texts calling my article (which hadn’t yet been published) a 'hit job' focused on World War III."

After the election, Pew Research found that roughly 37% of Americans under 30 — and approximately 20% of all American adults — get their news from "social media influencers" rather than from traditional news outlets. 63% of those influencers are men, and 77% of those influencers have no background or ties to any news organization. A majority of influencers lean conservative, and 85% of them have a presence on X. 50% of news influencers are active on Instagram, and 44% also have a YouTube presence.

"These Americans also say they get a variety of different types of information, from basic facts and opinions to funny posts and breaking news," Pew reported last month. "When it comes to opinions, most who see them say they are an even mix of opinions they agree and disagree with (61%), but far more say they mostly agree with what they see (30%) than mostly disagree (2%)."

Click here to read Thompson's report for the Times in its entirety (subscription required).

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