Abstract
Television presenter
Davis, the presenter of BBC’s late-night programme Newsnight and the TV show Dragon’s Den, is less worried about the rise of the lie than some of his journalist colleagues are, because he thinks that, over time, it becomes clear to the public what is untrue.
“I think the public are less gullible than people think. I think often people get away with a lie, [but] I think consistent liars get caught out,” Davis told Index.
He also believes the shout-out “fake news” culture so beloved of US President Donald Trump and others, where politicians call out journalism they don’t agree with as fake, is partly a reaction to highly professionalised spinning that people have become tired of.
The “political class had become way too good at spinning, and they had debased the language of politics, because they had become too professional at managing the message. In the end everyone grows tired of it, and it doesn’t work any more,” he argued.
“Communication has become inauthentic and formulaic and click-baity rather than a sensible discussion.”
His discussion of the strength, and weakness, of the lie comes as part of a wider debate over the new world of politics and journalism in the wake of the election of Trump, the UK Brexit referendum and political culture globally. It has been argued by many that there is more lying and deliberate misinformation going on, and that this tactic is more powerful than in previous eras.
Davis also thinks people believe what they want to believe – not because they are presented with facts but because it ties in with their gut feelings, their world view and their social group or clan.
“If we are presented with a picture of the world that ties [in] with what we want to believe, then many people just go with that, and emotionally don’t question it because, basically, they want it to be true, and so they are willing to dismiss anyone or anything that conflicts with that desire,” he said.
“If a lie seems to be catching on, given my working assumption that people by and large are sensible, you have to ask what is the underlying thing here that makes that lie really appealing or really powerful.”
According to research carried out at Indiana University and Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana, people lie differently online and offline. It found people were most likely to lie more on dating sites and places where they thought others would lie. It also found that people’s expectations of honesty from others impacted their own willingness to lie.
In Davis’ book, Post Truth: Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It, he discusses why he thinks people believe lies, and what the media’s role is in covering a story and finding out the facts. “Obviously, where facts are centre stage, sensible media outlets can’t fall for the relativism of any political or corporate interest that tries to suggest ‘alternative facts’ are equally valid,” he said.
Overall, though, he believes that the public generally doesn’t always worry about checking facts. “I think we are keen to park our critical faculties and use our emotions (I think of it more as instinctive). The reason why we are more open to lies at the moment is because we are very divided tribes.”
The journalist and author Evan Davis
CREDIT: Chris Floyd
He argues that at times of national divide or economic difficulty, people believe what they want to believe, whether it is bullshit or not.
“2016 [when the UK’s Brexit referendum was held] was just one of those troubled periods. There had been a long spell of stagnant living standards. There was an unusual amount of public anger,” he said.
And he believes manipulation of public opinion has more chance of success in periods such as these, adding: “But to me it feels much more intensely tribal than it ever has. And I think social media has accentuated that sense of tribalism.
“For me, the diagnosis is too little empathy. They are shouting at each other and not having very constructive discussions. And [there is] a tendency to believe their own bullshit. That has always been there. People have always read newspapers that support their world view.”
He adds that journalism is not just getting facts out of a massive encyclopedia and relaying them to the public, saying: “My model is Davis there are judgments, they are not written down in an encyclopedia with massive truth ticks next to them, and most of the time we are trying to improve our judgments and which judgments turn out to be right and which wrong.
“It is a process of discovery. Constantly, information is coming in and you are updating your view. The share price of Apple is a process of discovery rather than a god-given declaration of this is what Apple is worth.”
But, conversely, he thinks that there are complications caused by lots of voices raised, all with equal power, on social media. “People who believe in free speech should be worried about the level of noise in public discourse. Because if I can’t tell the good speech from the bad speech then we are in a bad place.”
The £350 million figure on the Vote Leave battle bus was widely disputed
CREDIT: Andrew Parsons/Rex
Extreme opinions are sought after and rewarded in this new world – with likes and shares on Facebook – and this can be seductive. Another British political journalist, Robert Peston, has written of his worries that the media is being pushed to write more extreme commentary rather than doing balanced reporting. Davis agrees there is an element of that.
But he does see a place for anger and comment, saying: “We have to make sure that the ecosystem of the media includes funny and serious, and heavy and light. We want the ecosystem to be very, very mixed.”
At the end of the day, his optimism prevails. But he says there is always a question about how long it takes before it becomes obvious that something is wrong or stupid, and how much damage can be done in that time.
