Crypto runs with fake Kamala Harris-Gary Gensler news
Bitcoin Magazine, Wendy O, Mario Nawfal, Wayne Vaughan, and other influencers revealed the disturbing extent of crypto’s pro-Donald Trump bias by brazenly publishing fake news about US Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The news was a supposed scoop that Harris would, if elected President, nominate Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler as US Treasury Secretary.
However, she has never said that. Indeed, multiple members of Congress familiar with Harris’ shortlist of treasury secretary candidates have pointed out that her supposed selection of Gary Gensler was false.
But, undeterred by fact checks, the influencers in question refused to remove their debunked posts. Crypto fans retweeted the fake news thousands of times, clicked the Like button over 2,600 times on Bitcoin Magazine’s tweet alone, and amplified the lie to millions of additional views.
It’s not difficult to believe that Bitcoiners and many others in the wider crypto community chose to believe the fake scoop because of their predisposition against both Harris and Gensler.
Indeed, Harris’ rival Donald Trump is the only presidential candidate to have spoken at a Bitcoin conference or host a crypto gala. Moreover, while speaking at that conference, Trump received the loudest applause when he promised to fire Gensler — a promise so immediately popular that he repeated it to even louder applause.
Read more: How often does the SEC lose crypto lawsuits?
Reblogging a reblogged blog
Lazily, Bitcoin Magazine reporters didn’t originate this scoop but rather reblogged an article by Matthew Foldi, a Republican candidate for Congress and ex-National Republican Congressional Committee communications worker.
Worse, the publication obscured this fact, citing only “Senate sources” and making debunking the claim prohibitively difficult for the average reader.
Foldi claims to be an investigative journalist, yet his publication history reveals exclusively one-sided propaganda pieces at the Washington Free Beacon. Foldi’s only job there was apparently bashing Democrats.
The origin of the story looks to be a July 23 tweet by Republican Tom Emmer, House Majority Whip. On that date four weeks ago, Emmer tweeted his personal and unsubstantiated opinion, “Many people are concerned that Kamala Harris would appoint Elizabeth Warren or Gary Gensler to be her Treasury Secretary.”
Six days later, Foldi transformed this innocuous speculation into a July 29 article for the Washington Reporter, another pro-Republican publication. At this step of the fake news circuit, Emmer’s July 23 tweet had transformed into a ‘published’ interview between Foldi and Emmer in which Emmer simply repeated his personal speculation that Harris might nominate Gary Gensler or Elizabeth Warren to serve as US Treasury Secretary.
Finally, on August 19, Foldi published a second article, citing his July 29 article, claiming that that ‘citation’ proved that Emmer “warned that Harris may pick Gensler… to serve as her Treasury Secretary.”
As a rhetorical capstone, Foldi titled his article ‘Scoop: Kamala Harris likely to nominate Gary Gensler as Treasury Secretary if elected: Senate sources.’
As far as fake news cycles, it could not be more straightforward. A daisy-chain of citations leads to no factual basis except to fatigue average readers into simply reading and believing the final headline.
Read more: Donald Trump’s tweets moved crypto markets, now he’s back
Anti-Gary Gensler confirmation bias
Foldi’s propaganda worked — not because it was particularly clever, but because of confirmation bias — the psychological tendency to more readily believe information that conforms to one’s preexisting beliefs.
In crypto, it’s popular to dislike Gary Gensler and his work at the SEC. Similarly, Trump has campaigned on a pro-crypto platform, even though he often uses wordplay to deliver non-committal claptrap for his fans.
Combining those two preexisting biases — Trump as the supposedly pro-crypto and anti-Gensler presidential candidate — it was easy for a Republication communications professional to tap into confirmation bias with a fake news story.
Of course, Foldi wrote misleadingly, Harris would obviously be the presidential candidate to make an anti-crypto, pro-Gensler nomination choice if she were to win the race to the White House.
The idea aligns with preexisting Bitcoin and crypto confirmation biases perfectly. It also never happened.
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