As part of reading up on the JD Vance speech I stumbled over an outrageously arrogant attempt of reader manipulation in the New York Times.
Vance Tells Europeans to Stop Shunning Parties Deemed Extreme (archived) – NY Times, Feb 14 2025
As it didn’t fit elsewhere this now gets its own thread. The quote in question:
[Vance] poured scorn on the decision in “remote Romania,” as he called it, to cancel a presidential election because of clear evidence of Russian manipulation of the political campaign.
The phrase “because of clear evidence of Russian manipulation” caught my interest because I was sure that there had been no evidence at all for this.
But the authors seem to be sure and provide a link to their source. It is, not astonishingly, another NYT piece but from a different author:
A Canceled Vote in Romania Hands Russia a Propaganda Coup (archived) – NY Times, Dec 23 2024
So what is the “clear evidence” presented therein?
The constitutional court justified its surprising decision to restart Romania’s election from scratch largely on the basis of declassified intelligence reports pointing to possible meddling by Russia and evidence that a flood of TikTok videos supporting Mr. Georgescu, the ultranationalist candidate, “could have been coordinated by a state actor.”
…
The intelligence documents released publicly by Romania provided no evidence of a Russian role, only the observation that “Russia has a history of interfering in the electoral processes of other states” and vague claims that what happened in Romania was “similar” to well-documented Russian election interference in neighboring Moldova.Questions over whether Russia really had played a significant role intensified last week after a respected investigative news outlet reported that a TikTok campaign that ended up helping the ultranationalist candidate had initially been paid for by a centrist party, possibly in order to take votes away from another far-right candidate.
The authors of yesterday’s piece who claim that there was “clear evidence of Russian manipulation” in Romania point, as proof for their claims, to a piece that says the exact opposite. That there was no evidence at all of anything Russian in that advertisement purchase on TicToc but that there was evidence that a then ruling Romanian party had paid for it.
Yesterday’s “news” piece in question is thereby not a report. It is not even editorialized or manipulative writing. It is outright lying. Stupid lying moreover as it links to a source that is clearly debunking the claim.
Do they really wonder why trust in the media sticks around a record low?
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Aside from that is there any evidence that social media advertisement, be it on TicToc of Facebook, can influence elections? I very much doubt that. If it does work why couldn’t Kamala Harris, who spent $300 million more than Trump did, win the election?