How does a piece of viral misinformation get its wings? Sometimes it’s malice—a doctored video, a fabricated quote. Sometimes it’s ignorance—a misreading of a graph or piece of data. Other times, however, the trouble starts with an institutional failing; a bureaucratic attempt to make things tidier than they are, a sloppy piece of mainstream journalism.
Andrew Egger is White House correspondent for The Bulwark. He previously covered politics for The Dispatch and The Weekly Standard.
