Latest news with #Persuadable
CNN
15-05-2025
- General
- CNN
Why We Believe Crazy S**t —And What We Can Do About It - The Assignment with Audie Cornish - Podcast on CNN Audio
Why We Believe Crazy S**t —And What We Can Do About It The Assignment with Audie Cornish 33 mins Conspiracy theories are not new. They're as old as time itself. But if you feel like they're everywhere right now, you're not alone. So, what do you do when somebody you love has fallen down a rabbit hole? CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has been covering the world of misinformation for more than a decade, but now he's less interested in what people believe than why they believe it. So, he's trying to find out. Listen to Persuadable and follow The Account from CNN here .
New York Post
05-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan pushes back on ‘annoying' liberals who criticize ‘humanizing' Trump supporters
CNN correspondent Donie O'Sullivan is pushing back against progressive critics who rip journalists for 'platforming' and 'humanizing' supporters of Donald Trump and believers in conspiracy theories. O'Sullivan said complaints from the left about humanizing such individuals miss the point and that he's grown tired of the backlash he receives from some liberal viewers. 'The thing I get a lot—a question that always normally comes from the left online—is, 'Why are you humanizing this person? Why are you humanizing this human being?'' O'Sullivan said during a wide-ranging conversation to promote his new podcast 'Persuadable.' 3 CNN correspondent Donie O'Sullivan is pushing back against progressive critics who accuse journalists of 'platforming' supporters of Donald Trump. CNN 'I find it so… just… really… annoying!' He also dismissed the idea that refusing to give air to false ideas has done anything to stop their spread. 'The platforming argument's just bogus because all this stuff is happening anyway,' he said. Joining the discussion was CNN correspondent Elle Reeve, who has also spent years covering fringe movements and disinformation. Reeve agreed with O'Sullivan's frustration over the 'platforming' debate and said the critique is both morally misguided and strategically flawed. 'I'm right there with you, dude! It's like, it's infuriating,' she said. 'Because one, it is wrong — obviously—on a top-level. We're all human beings. Dehumanization is bad. But two, it doesn't work. You lost. Look at the world. The idea that if you ignore it, it goes away has completely failed. The no-platforming concept has completely failed. It is totally bankrupt.' 3 O'Sullivan said complaints from the left about humanizing such individuals miss the point and that he's grown tired of the backlash he receives from some liberal viewers. CNN O'Sullivan said that approaching interviewees with a goal of changing their minds or proving them wrong is not only ineffective — it ends the conversation before it begins. 'If I want to have a constructive conversation… I just have to accept that they don't believe the 2020 election was fair. I have to accept that sometimes they think the COVID vaccine is a microchip going in under your skin,' he said. 'And if I get hung up on that, if I say, 'Well, no, you're wrong and here's why and I'm going to change your mind,' then that's the end of the conversation.' 3 O'Sullivan said that approaching interviewees with a goal of changing their minds or proving them wrong is ineffective. CNN Rather than confronting misinformation head-on in interviews, O'Sullivan said his approach is to understand the ecosystem that allows it to thrive. 'I've always been most interested in misinformation from a phenomena point of view — how it spreads, why people believe it, how people are making money off it,' he said. 'That's how I've approached it. I think so many of my colleagues in this space want to correct the record. It upsets them that people believe stuff that is false.' O'Sullivan's three-part podcast, 'Persuadable,' debuts this week and explores how people form — and sometimes change — their beliefs in an age of information chaos.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CNN's MAGA Expert Reveals ‘Craziest' Thing Trump Supporters Have Told Him
Donie O'Sullivan has heard all sorts of conspiracy theories as a senior correspondent for CNN, but only one takes the cake. In an episode of his Persuadable podcast, the misinformation reporter said the 'craziest thing' anyone has ever said to him had to do with former President Joe Biden. 'That when Biden was in the White House, that he wasn't really there. That, in fact, he was actually dead,' O'Sullivan said with a chuckle. 'Now that I'm hearing this back—kernel of truth in there,' he added jokingly. The conspiracy theory, O'Sullivan said, was that the White House was actually empty and everything from the Oval Office to the media briefing room was just a green screen. 'That one was definitely out there,' he said. Despite having to deal with people who push wild theories, O'Sullivan said he finds it 'really annoying' when he gets asked: 'Why are you humanizing this person?' Part of covering misinformation, he said, is accepting that his interviewees don't believe facts like the 2020 election was fair and the COVID-19 vaccine doesn't contain a microchip that tracks people. 'If I get hung up on that, like if I say, 'Well no, you're wrong, and here's why. And I'm going to convince you now. I'm going to change your mind.' Then that's the end of the conversation.' Last month, O'Sullivan spoke with three MAGA journalists who were granted access to the White House's media briefing room as part of the administration's push to promote 'new media.' O'Sullivan spoke with Brian Glenn of Real America's Voice, Cara Castronuova of LindellTV, and Natalie Winters of Bannon's War Room for a CNN segment. 'Do you consider yourself a journalist?' he asked the three bluntly. Winters said yes: 'I'm pretty sure the group of people in there spent, what was it, four years, covering for someone who was essentially dead—and that's being charitable in my description of him—a president by the name of Joe Biden. So to all those people who are apoplectic over having new media voices, you guys failed, and that's why we're here.'
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Why it's time we change how we talk about conspiracy theories
Programming note: Listen to the first episode of Persuadable, a new podcast hosted by Donie O'Sullivan here. 'How can you talk to those crazy people?' I get asked that question a lot. Over the last few years, I've spoken to hundreds — possibly thousands — of Americans whose lives have become consumed by conspiracy theories. It's easy, perhaps natural, for us to want to label them all as 'crazy.' But it's not true. The overwhelming majority of people I have spoken to are highly productive members of society. They are moms, dads, business owners — they're your next-door neighbor, your son, your daughter. They are disillusioned, disaffected, and in some cases they are desperate. But they are not crazy. They include the many Americans who don't believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as well as a group of people I once met who don't even believe JFK is dead. In fact, most of us hold some form of conspiracy theory or superstitious belief that others might consider absurd. This kind of thinking can give us a sense of security by providing easy answers to difficult questions — certainty in uncertain times. It can provide a sense of purpose and community, a kinship among those who understand the 'truth' or at least are on our side. An apparent antidote for an era of declining trust in institutions for an age when we are spending less time with each other and more time alone with our phones. Fear and isolation: It's why conspiracy theories flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. But for many families, the rabbit holes of 2020 are not a distant memory, they're an ongoing reality. A loved one coming to the kitchen table every night repeating bizarre claims about vaccines and cabals, becoming increasingly frustrated as their families fail to embrace their newfound 'truth.' Every time I do a story about these kinds of beliefs I receive emails, messages, and hear from people on the street about their brother, their mom, their friend who's stuck down the rabbit hole. Their question for me is always the same: 'How can I help them?' I never really had an answer. As a journalist on the misinformation beat, I viewed my job more as covering the phenomena of conspiracy theories, how they spread and how they affect people. Occasionally my editor at CNN, perhaps distraught by the seemingly infiniteness of the subject matter, would ask if there were any solutions we could include at the end of a story to make it 'less depressing.' There weren't. But in Persuadable, a new limited series podcast from CNN Audio, we try to start a productive conversation about solutions. Step One is empathy. After years of talking to people with irrational beliefs, I began to think about some of my own. I don't believe in QAnon or the cabal. But I've had no shortage of irrational thoughts and obsessions. I've long grappled with mental health issues — anxiety, depression, and a particular form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that prompts distressing intrusive thoughts. In my case, irrational beliefs pop up during times of personal uncertainty, stress, or change, and are normally rooted in a false sense of guilt and reasons why I ought to hate myself — thought patterns that are familiar to many who suffer from depression. If a family member gets sick, I can ruminate and convince myself that it is somehow my fault. It's clearly irrational but at times I can spend days or weeks obsessing about this and telling myself that it is true. It's important to point out here you needn't have mental health issues to hold irrational beliefs. I'm sure you can think of a time where you fell into a cycle of over-thinking something — maybe about a partner or an ex, or a situation at work, or something about your kid. You couldn't stop thinking about it and the more you thought about it the more stressed you became. Then it turned out to be nothing. Looking back, you can see the thought was irrational in the first place — but it was probably fueled by a genuine fear or insecurity. Indeed, psychologists I spoke to for this podcast explained how humans are wired to have irrational beliefs and that believing in conspiracy theories doesn't mean someone has a mental illness. I bring up my mental health experience because for me it is a way to unlock my own empathy for people who are mired in a world of conspiracy theories. I've spoken through the years to a few people who've gone down the QAnon rabbit hole and come back out. They describe the fear, uncertainty, and struggles in their own lives that drove them to seek meaning and purpose in the first place. The brief relief they felt when they first thought they'd found a truth that made sense to them — before eventually realizing they'd need to go deeper and deeper into the lies to maintain that false sense of security, spiraling to a point where they thought they could never come back. Most of us have hit similar lows in our lives — they just aren't framed by QAnon and the belief our country is ruled by an evil cabal. The people who've been able to get back out of the pit of despair and disinformation have all described one thing that was critical to allowing them to do so: a friend. Having someone in their life who was willing to give them the space to come back with dignity and not be treated as a fool for the views they once espoused. That can be extremely difficult because oftentimes that someone is the person who had to sit and listen to the former believer's nonsensical QAnon talking points for months or years on end. Without creating that space, however, we risk giving our loved ones nowhere else to go but further into the conspiracy theory — where there is a community, albeit one built around a lie. There are so many things that make it difficult or impossible to reach empathy here. Not least, many rabbit holes are lined with hate, racism, antisemitism, and homophobia. How can you have empathy for someone who buys into a conspiracy theory that threatens a community of which you are a member? There are no straightforward answers — but this is my attempt to try to at least start a solution-oriented conversation about an issue that affects an untold number of families in the United States and all around the world. I am not a perfect messenger. There are plenty of times through the years I wish I had approached a believer in a conspiracy theory differently. Television news is not necessarily the best medium to unpack the sometimes-complicated reasons someone has arrived at their belief in a lie. Trust in the so-called 'mainstream media,' of which I am a part, is at an all-time low. Some of that is due to relentless attacks on the press, often from people acting in bad faith. But some of it is also rooted in fair criticism about how we cover and how we talk about people who believe things that are wrong. I hope you listen to our podcast where we can talk about this a lot more.
CNN
03-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Why it's time we change how we talk about conspiracy theories
'How can you talk to those crazy people?' I get asked that question a lot. Over the last few years, I've spoken to hundreds — possibly thousands — of Americans whose lives have become consumed by conspiracy theories. It's easy, perhaps natural, for us to want to label them all as 'crazy.' But it's not true. The overwhelming majority of people I have spoken to are highly productive members of society. They are moms, dads, business owners — they're your next-door neighbor, your son, your daughter. They are disillusioned, disaffected, and in some cases they are desperate. But they are not crazy. They include the many Americans who don't believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as well as a group of people I once met who don't even believe JFK is dead. In fact, most of us hold some form of conspiracy theory or superstitious belief that others might consider absurd. This kind of thinking can give us a sense of security by providing easy answers to difficult questions — certainty in uncertain times. It can provide a sense of purpose and community, a kinship among those who understand the 'truth' or at least are on our side. An apparent antidote for an era of declining trust in institutions for an age when we are spending less time with each other and more time alone with our phones. Fear and isolation: It's why conspiracy theories flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. But for many families, the rabbit holes of 2020 are not a distant memory, they're an ongoing reality. A loved one coming to the kitchen table every night repeating bizarre claims about vaccines and cabals, becoming increasingly frustrated as their families fail to embrace their newfound 'truth.' Every time I do a story about these kinds of beliefs I receive emails, messages, and hear from people on the street about their brother, their mom, their friend who's stuck down the rabbit hole. Their question for me is always the same: 'How can I help them?' I never really had an answer. As a journalist on the misinformation beat, I viewed my job more as covering the phenomena of conspiracy theories, how they spread and how they affect people. Occasionally my editor at CNN, perhaps distraught by the seemingly infiniteness of the subject matter, would ask if there were any solutions we could include at the end of a story to make it 'less depressing.' There weren't. ...Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS iHeart Radio TuneIn Amazon Pandora But in Persuadable, a new limited series podcast from CNN Audio, we try to start a productive conversation about solutions. Step One is empathy. After years of talking to people with irrational beliefs, I began to think about some of my own. I don't believe in QAnon or the cabal. But I've had no shortage of irrational thoughts and obsessions. I've long grappled with mental health issues — anxiety, depression, and a particular form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that prompts distressing intrusive thoughts. In my case, irrational beliefs pop up during times of personal uncertainty, stress, or change, and are normally rooted in a false sense of guilt and reasons why I ought to hate myself — thought patterns that are familiar to many who suffer from depression. If a family member gets sick, I can ruminate and convince myself that it is somehow my fault. It's clearly irrational but at times I can spend days or weeks obsessing about this and telling myself that it is true. It's important to point out here you needn't have mental health issues to hold irrational beliefs. I'm sure you can think of a time where you fell into a cycle of over-thinking something — maybe about a partner or an ex, or a situation at work, or something about your kid. You couldn't stop thinking about it and the more you thought about it the more stressed you became. Then it turned out to be nothing. Looking back, you can see the thought was irrational in the first place — but it was probably fueled by a genuine fear or insecurity. Indeed, psychologists I spoke to for this podcast explained how humans are wired to have irrational beliefs and that believing in conspiracy theories doesn't mean someone has a mental illness. I bring up my mental health experience because for me it is a way to unlock my own empathy for people who are mired in a world of conspiracy theories. I've spoken through the years to a few people who've gone down the QAnon rabbit hole and come back out. They describe the fear, uncertainty, and struggles in their own lives that drove them to seek meaning and purpose in the first place. The brief relief they felt when they first thought they'd found a truth that made sense to them — before eventually realizing they'd need to go deeper and deeper into the lies to maintain that false sense of security, spiraling to a point where they thought they could never come back. Most of us have hit similar lows in our lives — they just aren't framed by QAnon and the belief our country is ruled by an evil cabal. The people who've been able to get back out of the pit of despair and disinformation have all described one thing that was critical to allowing them to do so: a friend. Having someone in their life who was willing to give them the space to come back with dignity and not be treated as a fool for the views they once espoused. That can be extremely difficult because oftentimes that someone is the person who had to sit and listen to the former believer's nonsensical QAnon talking points for months or years on end. Without creating that space, however, we risk giving our loved ones nowhere else to go but further into the conspiracy theory — where there is a community, albeit one built around a lie. There are so many things that make it difficult or impossible to reach empathy here. Not least, many rabbit holes are lined with hate, racism, antisemitism, and homophobia. How can you have empathy for someone who buys into a conspiracy theory that threatens a community of which you are a member? There are no straightforward answers — but this is my attempt to try to at least start a solution-oriented conversation about an issue that affects an untold number of families in the United States and all around the world. I am not a perfect messenger. There are plenty of times through the years I wish I had approached a believer in a conspiracy theory differently. Television news is not necessarily the best medium to unpack the sometimes-complicated reasons someone has arrived at their belief in a lie. Trust in the so-called 'mainstream media,' of which I am a part, is at an all-time low. Some of that is due to relentless attacks on the press, often from people acting in bad faith. But some of it is also rooted in fair criticism about how we cover and how we talk about people who believe things that are wrong. I hope you listen to our podcast where we can talk about this a lot more.
