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How does the internet work to polarize us on an individual level?

As tech and media companies, battle for online engagement, they feed their users — they feed us — content that will grab attention, elicit emotion, and confirm existing beliefs. In a way, it traps everyone in their own bespoke bubble, often without our realizing it.

After previous episodes analyzed the right-wing media ecosystem, Landslide: Engines of Outrage now turns to look outside of it, offering tools for all of us to diagnose our own information diets and fight back against the incentives of an internet built to polarize.

Created and hosted by Ben Bradford.

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Librarians in Ukraine. Rural newspapers. A tweak to social media algorithms. The infrastructure of a political campaign. All of these offer lessons about how to beat back misinformation and conspiracy theories. But are they enough to pierce the right-wing media bubble?

This episode looks at solutions — from the anodyne to the unsavory — to defuse the engines of outrage and ultimately bring Americans back to a shared reality.

Created and hosted by Ben Bradford.

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In the early 2000s, key tech companies made a series of choices that shaped the future of the internet. They "gave away"" their products "for free." From an initial tweak to Facebook's NewsFeed to conspiracy theories about permanent markers in the 2020 election, that decision — and the relentless hunt for engagement that followed — paved the way for outrage-fueled content, viral conspiracy theories, and polarizing misinformation. And it all supercharged a right-wing media bubble inflated by the same forces.

Part Two of "Landslide: Engines of Outrage" explores how the internet, profit motives, human psychology, and political benefit are fusing together to widen our political divide.

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Just a few decades ago most people used — and trusted — the same news sources. Now, Americans are siloed in separate ecosystems, consuming conflicting depictions of reality. Misinformation runs rampant. Conspiracy theories flourish. And extremism grows. What can bring us back to a shared, fact-based understanding?

A new miniseries from Landslide explores America's information divide — starting with a coordinated campaign in the early 1970s to undermine the press, and the alternate media ecosystem that followed.

Created and hosted by Ben Bradford.

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If the new Supreme Court decision, Trump v. U.S., had applied back in 1974, could President Richard Nixon have been prosecuted for Watergate? Or, would this decision shield Nixon from criminal charges? In this special bonus episode of Landslide, host Ben Bradford explores the scope of the new ruling by looking back at the case against Nixon, the charges he looked likely to face without a pardon, and whether his most brazen actions could today be admitted into a court. Has history proven Nixon correct when he said, "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal?" University of Chicago law professor and legal historian Alison LaCroix joins.

Show notes:

The interview references this 1974 article from The New York Times, describing the evidence against Nixon that led to articles of impeachment: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/09/archives/the-case-against-richard-nixon-a-catalogue-of-charges-and-his.html

A draft indictment crafted by the Department of Justice in early 1974 shows criminal charges Nixon may have faced if not for the pardon issued by his successor, President Gerald Ford: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/investigations/watergate/roadmap/docid-70105876.pdf-

Short Feed Episode Description: The new Supreme Court decision may have offered Nixon immunity for Watergate and his administration's most brazen actions.

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After Watergate, both parties cracked down on political spending with a new, strict campaign finance law. But instead of money in politics shrinking, it exploded. In this bonus episode, historian Marc C. Johnson joins Landslide host Ben Bradford to talk about what happened, the legal saga that threw open the doors to spending by outside groups, and how it radically changed not just presidential campaigns, but every race for federal office.

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Before Fox News, the grassroots conservative activists known as "the New Right" spent decades attempting — and failing — to launch their own television news channel. In this bonus episode, Purdue historian Kathryn Cramer Brownell chronicles the New Right's TV efforts, why they failed, and how it all ultimately culminated in a stunning success — the creation of today's media ecosystem. Other tidbits include Richard Nixon's news obsession, a conservative wine show, and a "fight for survival" at CBS.A production of NuanceTales, in partnership with WFAE, distributed by the NPR Network.NuanceTales: https://www.nuancetales.com/WFAE: https://www.wfae.org/landslideNPR: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510376/landslide

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Even in the years after Roe vs. Wade, the issue of abortion did not divide the political parties — or most Americans. But as Reagan, the New Right, and the Christian Right took control in the Republican Party, they saw its potential to galvanize voters. In this bonus episode, legal historian Mary Ziegler joins Landslide host Ben Bradford to trace how abortion transformed from a muted sectarian issue with blurry, sometimes bizarre battle lines into today's explosive, polarizing wedge issue.

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Four years later. Jimmy Carter is now an embattled president, unpopular and facing a tough primary challenge. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan storms to the Republican nomination, while wooing a powerful new bloc of voters into his conservative coalition — the Christian Right. Still, amid worries that Reagan is too extreme and too old, the 1980 general election remains tight until the very end. How did it lead to an ideological sea change in American politics?

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