To end political rumors, look to the messenger and not the message

The lyrics from a catchy ’80s tune have been running through my head for the past week.

“Stop spreading those rumors around. Stop spreading those lies.”

Calling to mind this 1986 song by Timex Social Club was the lighthearted way I dealt with heavy emotions about the impact recent political rumors have had on the country.

All week long, I read dispatches from Springfield, Ohio, recounting the school closures, bomb threats, deployment of state troopers and fear of some residents thanks to the rumors promulgated by Donald Trump during the presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month.

Trump repeated a rumor that migrants from Haiti were eating the pets of Springfield residents. It’s alarming that anyone could speak such drivel, particularly a presidential candidate, but this is the bar we’ve set.

Community members and faith leaders gathered over the weekend at several events in Springfield designed to bring residents together. At these events, locals expressed support for the Haitian community amid the ill will that has been thrown their way for two weeks.

Some residents helped raise money for the migrants or patronized Haitian-owned businesses in solidarity. But at the same time, the rumor continues to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment nationwide.

On Monday, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue’s voice quivered with emotion as he discussed the threats his own family has received. He expressed concern, if not surprise, that Republican leaders, particularly vice presidential candidate JD Vance, have continued to promote the rumor.

Rue told MSNBC that he and city staff are “asking that leaders at the national stage speak well of our city and understand the weight of their words and the impact that it has had on our city.”

It was a polite way of telling Vance and Trump to knock it off, but maybe it’s time to stop being nice.

We all have likely been the subject of rumors, perhaps more often than we know since every rumor about us doesn’t always get back to us. I’ve felt the weight of rumor personally in the past year, and while I would normally confront the source, for now I’ve had to settle for accepting that anyone who really knows me knows that the rumor isn’t true.

It is a natural impulse for the target of a rumor to want to debunk the lie and defend themselves. But rumors are stubborn — according to Cass Sunstein, a legal scholar at Harvard University — and some of the most damaging rumors resist correction.

News stories over the past week have focused on the impact this rumor has had on the Haitian community, highlighting the fear they have for their lives and their livelihoods. Some stories have documented their efforts to work hard and gain a foothold in America while escaping instability in their country. The stories are meant to engender feelings of empathy and reflect a community that has embraced American values, but these stories won’t do much to change the viewpoints of people who believe the rumors they are hearing.

Adam Berinsky, a political scientist from MIT and author of “Political Rumors,” said more political elites than ever before are using rumors as weapons. And while it isn’t easy to combat the problem, he said, we can start thinking about the solution in a different way. When trying to debunk political rumors we should focus on the messenger and not the message, he said in an interview with MIT News.

Getting to the truth involves more than providing accurate information from neutral, trusted sources, Berinsky found in his research. It requires someone to step up and tell the truth even when the truth doesn’t serve their own perceived self-interest.

I was encouraged when I spied a recent op-ed in The New York Times from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. His words extolled the virtues of his hometown, noted that the Haitian migrants arrived legally and want to work and he shared insights gained during his numerous travels to Haiti.

He also described some of the very real issues the city has faced as it tries to absorb thousands of immigrants. But only one sentence was devoted to calling out Vance and Trump for their bad behavior, and it was a softball. DeWine said he was saddened by “how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield.”

Politicians play an important role in shaping public beliefs, and when they aren’t behaving responsibly they should be held accountable, especially by their peers. It’s not enough for DeWine and Rue to politely ask Trump and Vance to stop reinforcing the rumor. The Ohio government officials have a clear self-interest in preserving order in their state and city, respectively.

To quash this rumor, political leaders who have something to lose need to step up and speak up. Because right now, an ’80s R&B song is offering more direction to the country than the elected officials we look to for guidance.

Nedra Rhone is a lifestyle columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where she has been a reporter since 2006.