By Charles Rein
Remember when BREAKING news meant someone breaking bad-riots, assassination attempts or OJ hogging the 504 freeway?
Then we grew accustomed to 24 hour BREAKING news. In that same direction, yet one step further, may shackle us to misinformation on our media devices. Similar to ourselves becoming 21st century slaves can only be described by me as FBN= FAKE BREAKING News.
Have you seen the Trump arrest photos?" you may have been asked. "But wait!" you say, "He hasn't been in indicted, right?"
Yet in the digital world Trump has been photographed running from New York officers, arrested, serving time (including pics of him lifting weights) breaking out of prison and even seen ordering in a fast food restaurant, looking surprisingly like McDonald's. These fake arrest photos look surprising realistic and went viral!
Who's behind it? Wikipedia writes that 'Eliot Higgins, who is a British author and founder of Bellingcat, previously wrote under the pseudonym Brown Moses, is a citizen journalist/former blogger. He's known for using open sources and social media for investigations.'
In this digital world age we've grown accustomed to seeing realistic looking dinosaurs on the big screen (Jurassic Park/World). you'd think we would be as prepared as a prepper the night before the 2024 presidential election. But we're not.
I read a Washington Post article: Fake images of Trump arrest show ‘giant step’ for AI’s (Artificial Intelligence) disruptive power by Isaac Stanley-Becker and Naomi Nix.
In the Washington Post article, Higgins is quoted saying, "I was just mucking about. I thought maybe five people would retweet it.”
The article continues that, 'two days later, his posts depicting an event that never happened have been viewed nearly 5 million times, creating a case study in the increasing sophistication of AI-generated images, the ease with which they can be deployed and their potential to create confusion in volatile news environments...'
“It’s the first visual collateral of Trump getting arrested, even if he’s not,” said Angelo Carusone, the president of Media Matters for America, the left-leaning watchdog group (who was interviewed for the Washington Post's article). Carusone adds, “This is going to be the image that a lot of people have in their minds even if Trump doesn’t end up getting indicted — let alone arrested."
Fortune, Facebook, KMTV 3 News Now, FOX 10 Phoenix among others all share in the AP (Associated Press) and reprint the exact same words:
'Misinformation experts warn the images are harbingers of a new reality: waves of fake photos and videos flooding social media after major news events and further muddying fact and fiction at crucial times for society.'
https://www.kmvt.com/2023/03/23/trump-arrested-putin-jailed-fake-ai-images-spread-online/
I've created a series of interconnected stories for the Grant County Beat. My genre- What IF type stories. Other writers of the same vein have published: What if John F. Kennedy had survived? What if the Nazis had won WW2 or what if the NY Twin Towers hadn't come down?"
My chapters from my story with help from the Grant County Beat, 'The Old Order Falls' are not real. Instead they are 'What If' historical fiction. I hope you'll consider checking them out.
As I close, I was watching an action packed Arnold movie from 1987, called, 'The Running Man.' which could be thought of as dystopian fiction. If you haven't seen it, spoiler alert ⚠️ this movie portrays a future totalitarian state run in part by network TV executives. This movie has Ben Richards played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's a captured 'criminal' who becomes a convicted runner, unable to be killed after multiple tries on an extremely popular tv program of the same name.
Upcoming spoiler alert ⚠️
Their solution to kill Arnie? Take him out (and not for dinner and drinks) digital style. By failing time and again, in real time, the network executives decide to use sophisticated software. Richard's face is digitally replaced via computer enhanced images (our future A.I.) perhaps? The result fools the viewing audience who sees Richards 'die'.
Returning to the 21st century, with some of the digital Trump arrest pics, I ask were some of us were nearly duped, too?
I try to be honest in my writings and am especially grateful to Grant County. Beat, as well. They allow me to describe in my story, 'The Old Order Falls' - my work of riots and pandemonium heading toward a dystopian future; yes, a work of fiction. Yet, can you imagine a possible future where those in charge are not as transparent nor as kind as the Grant County Beat?
As the network executive says near the end of the movie, 'The Running Man.' "It's not about people it's about ratings."