Conspiracy theorists don’t back down when they’re proved wrong
Stuart A. Thompson
A podcaster said President Joe Biden was “dying or possibly already dead.” A host on Newsmax requested “proof of life.” And a former Republican member of Congress simply asked: “Anyone else think Biden is dead?”
When Biden appeared again late last month after a brief isolation from COVID19 — still very much alive — many didn’t backtrack or correct their false implications.
NewsGuard, a company that monitors online misinformation, identified 19 prominent accounts on the social platform X that in July shared the idea that Biden was potentially dead or close to death. The New York Times followed those accounts to see how they handled news that Biden was alive and found that most ignored it or stoked more conspiracy theories. Only a few admitted they had gotten it wrong.
The frenzied conversation over Biden’s health offered a glimpse, however brief, into how outlandish speculation and conspiracy theories can come and go in a flash — and how even those that are shown to be false are rarely recanted.
Conversation about Biden on X that featured the word “dead” or “died” received nearly half a million mentions and more than 4 million interactions over a oneweek period last month, according to NewsGuard. Two of the most popular posts advancing the conspiracy theory together received more than 85 million views.
The Times reached out to all 19 accounts for comment. Terrence K. Williams, a comedian on NewsGuard’s list, still believes that “Joe Biden is dying,” he said. Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer, said in an interview that “I stand by my reporting” and clarified that when she wrote that Biden was “terminally ill,” she meant he had “a year or less” to live.
A spokesperson for Charlie Kirk, a podcaster, said that Kirk’s post was based on police speculation and that “Charlie assumed he was very much alive.” Stew Peters, an influencer and radio host, said in a statement that Biden’s administration still had not provided “legitimate proof of life.” The other 15 people did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
10 accounts sowed additional doubts
Several of the 19 accounts continued to sow doubts about Biden even after his public appearances, suggesting that he was terminally ill or that his handlers were using a body double. Mentions of the term “body double” on X from July 23-25 jumped 74% from the two previous days, according to Sarah Komar and Jack Brewster, a reporter and an editor at NewsGuard, who produced the report.
Kirk, a right-wing personality whose podcast consistently ranks among the most popular in the United States, was among the first to popularize the idea on X that Biden was dead or dying after sharing a convoluted story in a post on July 22 viewed more than 24 million times.
After Biden’s national address on July 24, Kirk stoked some doubts again, suggesting that the president had left much unsaid and asked: “Why did Biden bow out?”
All the accounts tracked by the Times and NewsGuard increased their follower counts since July 22, with some generating large spikes after their posts went viral.
Kirk gained nearly 50,000 followers on X in the two days after he posted on July 22, an increase from an average of about 2,000 in the previous days, according to data from Social Blade, a company that monitors social media.
“These influencers don’t seem to lose influence when they get it blatantly wrong,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation. “It just shows that people like to believe false information — even when they find out it’s inaccurate — if it confirms their existing prejudices or their prior beliefs.”
4 accounts acknowledged the truth (more or less)
Breck Worsham, a supporter of former President Donald Trump and a conservative journalist, predicted on July 22 that Biden was on death’s door. But after he was seen boarding Air Force One on July 23, she made a correction, saying she fell for disinformation from trusted sources.
Her pivot was short-lived. In the same post on X, which was seen just 1,200 times, she suggested that the whole ordeal was actually a plot to distract from other news.
The sentiment was echoed by Bret Weinstein, an author and podcaster, who suggested on July 23 that a nefarious actor had somehow encouraged people like him to question Biden’s health so they would be embarrassed later when the president appeared again in public.
His post was seen 2.2 million times on X, and Weinstein gained more than 10,000 followers after the speculation began.
5 accounts ignored the news
Several accounts did not address the idea on X again after it was proved false, as of Monday. They moved onto attacking Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris, sometimes with dozens of posts each day, effectively burying their earlier theories.
“In this news cycle and this fractured media landscape, it’s much harder to hold people accountable for things they said in the past,” Brewster said.