Editor’s note: This column was updated to clarify that X identified 200 Chinese bot accounts that were potentially manipulating legitimate online debate about AI and energy policy.

It is hard for voters to get accurate information anymore. Many traditional news sources are guilty of having a strong editorial bias, and some cross the line into dishonesty. Last week we saw three examples of how untruthful techniques are being used to shape public opinion to achieve a political objective.

The first example relates to the public narrative about AI data centers. Last Friday I published a story showing the pros and cons of building data centers on the North Slope to help fund the state budget. On the same day, X announced that a bot farm of 200,000 Chinese bot accounts were identified on the social media platform. Of these, 200 accounts were posting in a manner that could “manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy,” X announced.

Evidently, China is seeking a technological advantage in this emerging technology and is using fake social media posts to slow its adoption in this country.

If you aren’t familiar with what a bot farm is, it is a large group of automated accounts or devices that work together to fake online activity. The bots pretend to be real people, liking posts, making comments, etc. They are used to boost traffic on a site and give the illusion that there is more interest or support for an idea than there really is. If you frequent social media and are friends with someone like Uncle_Billy_1977, whom you have never met in person, just be aware that he might not be real. He might be a bot trying to influence what political views you should have or which politicians you should support.

Politicians, social media, and mainstream media organizations are not giving you the complete truth. They are feeding you deceptive information, trying to shape your opinions to support their objectives

Anyway, Elon Musk just caught 200,000 of them, supported by the Chinese government, who were on X, pushing the narrative of how bad the AI data centers are. Musk had the accounts banned from X.

If you oppose AI data centers in Alaska, ask yourself where you got the information that made you think that way. If you don’t know the source, you might have been influenced by a bot without knowing it.

The second way the public is influenced is when politicians or the media tell outright lies to support a false narrative. This is what Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro did last week. In a press conference he held about measles deaths in his state. He said that two unvaccinated people had died from measles and implied it was because of vaccine hesitancy caused by the Trump administration and mentioned HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy by name. Shapiro’s statements were a falsehood.

The coroner for the county where this happened said this was not correct. He said that there was only one fatality that was measles-related. A newborn infant did die in a home birth from a lacerated spleen that occurred during delivery. The autopsy showed the infant tested positive for measles antibodies; however, the coroner concluded that the infant did not die from measles and that Governor Shapiro was being intentionally deceptive in saying so. One important point the coroner made is that newborns are not eligible to get the measles vaccination until they are 12 months of age. The MMR vaccination would not have saved this child, whose death was not caused by vaccine hesitancy.

When Governor Shapiro told this falsehood, he was sharing a story that fits the preconceived beliefs of the political left. This lie was more about getting Democrat support for Shapiro’s planned presidential run in 2028 than it is about promoting public safety.

The last example of liberal propaganda is when the media committed a lie of omission by not covering stories damaging to Senator Murkowski. Alaska’s little Princess has publicly opposed the SAVE America Act requiring photo ID and proof of citizenship to vote. Murkowski justified her opposition in a speech on the Senate floor about how this legislation would be a hardship for Alaskans in rural villages. Last week, independent journalist James O’Keefe traveled to Alaska to confirm the accuracy of her claims. O’Keefe was able to disprove many of the facts Murkowski cited and documented his findings on his news site.

The problem with this isn’t the falsehoods Murkowski told. The issue is that none of the mainstream media in Alaska covered O’Keefe’s story about them. This should have been big political news in Alaska, but it wasn’t covered in the Anchorage Daily News, on Alaska Public Media, KTUU, KTOO, or any other major news sources in Alaska. It was left to alternative news sites like the Alaska Watchman and a few talk radio shows to give the small amount of coverage this story received. The liberal Mainstream is trying to protect Lisa Murkowski. When they don’t cover this story, it doesn’t change the facts of the matter; it just hides them from the voters.

The upshot from all of this is to understand that in the run-up to the November election, you and every other voter in Alaska are a target of the propagandists. Politicians, social media, and mainstream media organizations are not giving you the complete truth. They are feeding you deceptive information, trying to shape your opinions to support their objectives. You might consider yourself to be a discerning individual immune to this kind of influence, but you should remember the famous words attributed to Mark Twain: “It is easier to fool a man than to convince him that he has been fooled.”

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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