To combat misinformation, news outlets are developing plans to combat false election night stories

NEW YORK (AP) — As news outlets prepare for election night, they're not just focused on what's happening. They watch over what is not the case.

There are multiple plans in place across newsrooms to combat misinformation, which will follow the culmination of a hard-fought campaign on November 5th. The Associated Press and others will take special steps to explain what they are doing. The New York Times Assigns reporters to scour the Internet for early signs of new conspiracies. An NPR reporter will look for mischief caused by artificial intelligence. ABC News tried “pre-bunks” to prepare its viewers.

False stories that infected the political debate after Hurricane Helene this fall were a sobering reminder of how quickly things can spread.

“The biggest thing I'm more concerned about is the speed at which misinformation spreads and the lack of control that a news organization – any news organization – has over it,” said Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of The Associated Press.

“The only thing we can do is make sure we fill the space with fact-based information, as quickly and as accurately as possible, to ensure that as misinformation spreads, so does fact-based reporting,” said Pace.

The AP's special role on election night is to tabulate the results of hundreds of elections across the country and identify winners and losers, taking into account raw data, polls and trends from past elections. Throughout the election campaign, the media has written stories that show how this is happening, and on election night it will specifically explain why it called for individual states in the presidential race.

Other organizations are making similar promises, including making it clear to people when it is too early to draw conclusions. “My mantra on election night is radical transparency,” said Rick Klein, ABC News' Washington bureau chief.

Make sure news consumers are prepared

The New York Just will bring back to its website the most fear-inducing invention for election night reporting in some time – the needle that changes throughout the evening to measure the presidential candidates' likelihood of victory. This time there will be more detailed material explaining these movements, said Matthew Ericson, deputy editor.

The newspaper also assigns reporters to scour the Internet for conspiracy theories on election night, with the goal of debunking false reports as quickly as possible.

Disinformation efforts continued during the campaign, with news organizations reporting false allegations of abuse against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz that intelligence officials suspect came from Russia. After Helene in September, falsehoods mounted, including weather controls and withholding of funds in areas dominated by Republicans.

NBC News has a Vote Watch team that will monitor misinformation efforts on Election Day and has deployed 30 reporters as “county captains” to keep watch in areas where the election is expected to be particularly close. PBS is partnering with PolitiFact's fact-checking team on election night.

As they watch, journalists must consider whether a false theory is getting enough attention to be worth debunking, or whether bringing it up will only reinforce it. That's the most common concern Tim Richardson, program director for journalism and misinformation at PEN America, has when teaching reporters how to deal with false stories.

“If it’s something you only see on a fringe platform, leave it alone,” Richardson said. “But if it's something that rises to the point where a large portion of the public notices it and finds favor, then you should step in and expose it.”

Look for vulnerabilities after voting

Periods of uncertainty during close elections are weak points. “I worry that bad actors will fill the void,” Richardson said.

In 2020, news organizations did not declare Joe Biden the winner until the Saturday after Election Day. Klein said it's important for journalists to let people know that such delays in counting votes don't necessarily mean something nefarious is afoot. It may just take some time to get it right.

But back four years ago, former President Donald Trump's false narrative that he had been betrayed took hold. His speech in the early hours of election night, in which he accused fraud and claimed he had won states where he had failed, tested the television networks that showed his remarks live. If something similar happens this year, whether in public speaking or interviews, networks will have to weigh whether to omit or immediately fact-check.

This fall, ABC News launched a series called “Protecting Your Vote,” highlighting already-spread hoaxes that are expected to intensify near or on Election Day, including the “myth” that it There will be a flood of false news targeting non-citizen voters. Similarly, both Scott Pelley on CBS's “60 Minutes” and Laura Barron-Lopez on PBS's “NewsHour” have written in-depth articles addressing the spread of false voter fraud stories in Arizona.

“For us, it doesn’t begin and end with Election Day,” Klein said.

A disinformation team at NPR looked at the issue from a variety of angles, such as the role of artificial intelligence and the influence of other countries, and spent a lot of time debunking the theory that there will be a flood of non-citizen elections, said Eric Marrapodi, Vice President of News Programming. Although NPR broadcasts election night live from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Eastern time, the radio station traditionally reaches more listeners the next morning, he said.

“We need to make sure we really check everything,” Marrapodi said.

Prepare for new responsibilities

News outlets are feeling the weight of responsibility, especially as they have been dragged into the abyss as misinformation metastasizes.

“People are no longer sure what to believe because our information ecosystem is so polluted in many ways,” said Richardson, a former Washington Post Reporter.

“It’s one of the most important services we provide as a news organization,” said Carrie Budoff Brown, senior vice president of politics at NBC News. “Doing things right is the top priority. It's one of the biggest nights for people to follow us for factual information. We have to deliver that. We must not waver.”

Election night coverage has changed significantly since the counting and proper analysis took center stage. Richardson hopes news outlets are prepared for what's to come.

“I feel like we're in uncharted territory and I don't know what the outcome will be,” he said. “Hopefully the journalists are ready. I think they are.”

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