October 11, 2020 – With the presidential election less than a month away, the director of the News Literacy Institute warned voters on Sunday to be more vigilant in researching the accuracy of the information they consume.

Appearing on the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields, Howard Schneider of Stonybrook University in Long Island, NY, urged readers to thoroughly question the accuracy of the information they receive.

“Much of what is spread is not spread by Russian trolls or malevolent people,” Schneider said. “It’s you and me...we basically need to slow down.”

“We are the solution to this problem, not the technology and not the journalists,” said Schneider, the former editor for the Newsday newspaper, added. “We have to learn how to do this.”

Schneider discussed two egregious misinformation examples from the 2016 election when word falsely spread that Pope Francis endorsed President Donald Trump in the election. The claim went to over 800,000 people on social media before being refuted with only 30,000 people receiving the denial.

Lies also spread that Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton was running a child pedophilia ring from a Washington, D.C. pizzeria that resulted in a man going to the shop with an assault rifle and firing it in a closet. Readers need to check such information with legitimate news sources, Schneider said.

“This is a life skill for the 21st century,” Schneider said. “How are we going to have a discussion about the future of this country if we don’t have an informed citizenship?”

Schneider has petitioned the New York Board of Regents to make News Literary a mandatory class for high school graduates. Schneider stated that 69 percent of 12-year-olds now have smartphones, where they can get their news.

Trump has tried to undermine the American press since being elected, creating the term “fake news” whenever he dislikes news accounts, critics say. Trump, however, only capitalized on a growing decline of trust in the American media, Schneider said, which dropped from 54 percent in 2003 to 32 percent during the election four years ago, the rising lack of media confidence driven mostly by Republicans.

            “He really exploited what was already going on,” Schneider said. “He really accelerated that.”

            Stonybrook is offering a free News Literary course online for those seeking to learn how to discern the truth about what they read. The website is centerfornewsliteracy.org.

Retail Politics Podcast can be heard at retailpoliticspodcast.com and on Apple and Spotify.

Gerry Shields is the former Washington correspondent for the New York Post and Baton Rouge Advocate and author of the new book, The Front Row: My Jagged Journey Recording American History from Reagan to Trump.”

For more information, contact: 917-721-8562 or gerardshields7@gmail.com