By JOHN BOYLE, Asheville Watchdog
We live in the age of information.
And misinformation. And disinformation.
Often, more of the latter two get pumped out around the globe than the former — you know, the actual real information, once romantically called “the facts.”
We’re inundated with misinformation (false or incorrect information) and disinformation (false information that’s deliberately spread to mislead people) in our modern world, often facilitated by social media, which has essentially thrown in the towel on fact checking.
I bring this up because a local nonprofit sent us an email in late February asking: “We are interested to know if Answer Man or anyone else has seen a better count of the dead, over the official tally of 106 dead from Helene’s flooding?”
They were asking because they’d sent out their newsletter and gotten a response I’ll politely describe as “bonkers.” Here’s a taste:
“What sort of morons believe that only 106 lives were lost in the hurricane. There were over 10,000 lives lost!!!! Who the hell told you only 106 lives were lost!?! Are you insane?!?! Are you blind!?!? Are you shilling for the government to skew numbers and keep lies flowing???”
I spared you the all-caps version. This individual went on to note that the “militia” and search and rescue teams and churches were going out every day, counting body bags that were “lining up in piles — for miles!”
Oh, and it was all on video! The emailer closed with: “People who promote propaganda will burn in hell.”
I’ve said for years that ol’ Beelzebub is preparing the extra crispy wing in Hell for me, but now I know it’s true. Because, yes, the official death count from Helene stands at 106.
“Yes, there are 106 verified Hurricane Helene-related fatalities in North Carolina,” Hannah Jones, press assistant at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services communications office told me last week via email.
Buncombe County recorded 43 deaths, according to the state data.
Jones explained the process officials used to find and identify the deceased.
“Local Emergency Management, EMS, the N.C. Medical Examiner System and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner staff worked cooperatively with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team and western North Carolina hospital systems on fatality response,” Jones said. “Together, they worked to ensure the right procedures and plans were in place for casualties to be properly identified and cause of death determined to ensure that those lost to the storm were quickly reunited to families left behind.”
The decedent and family reunification team had more than 120 people supporting the response effort. That Disaster Mortuary team had more than 40 staffers who helped in “examination, transportation, identification and decedent support,” Jones said.
“Additionally, other resources were pulled from Wake County, FBI, SBI, North Carolina National Guard and other states to support fatality search and recovery capabilities.”
I list all of these acronyms and entities partly for this reason: If you think 10,000 people died in Helene, you’d have to believe hundreds if not thousands of state and local officials colluded on some giant ruse to mislead and lie to the public — and nobody has gone to the media to expose the sham.
Also, if there are videos of all these body bags, where are they? Why didn’t this person share them? I’ve heard them referenced dozens of times, but yet no one can produce one actual video, in an age where just about every human being carries a phone in their pocket that also records video and takes pictures.
Odd, huh?
Skepticism is useful, but it cuts both ways
To be clear, there were problems with official information about the death toll, in Buncombe and statewide. Early on, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office was issuing information about deaths, apparently including all deaths that occurred in the immediate aftermath as Helene-related, which greatly inflated the numbers.
And when the count was shifted to the state, the DHHS denied public records requests from the media, including Asheville Watchdog. When it finally released a list of storm-related fatalities in early January, it included “a woman who died of breast cancer and other inconsistencies that initially conflicted with the agency’s own records,” as my colleague Sally Kestin reported.
Whenever a vacuum of information exists, or inaccurate information is issued, misinformation and disinformation are going to propagate, like mushrooms after days of rain. Couple that with social media, which verifies almost nothing these days, and soon you’ve got a mushroom farm of misinformation blasting spores into the universe like drunken revelers firing off confetti cannons on New Year’s Eve.
I witnessed this myself in Fairview a few weeks after the storm when we went out to report on a couple who’d lost their home in the horrific landslides that claimed 13 lives. As we surveyed the damage, a guy stopped by and said there was no way all this destruction could have been caused by flooding, that it must’ve been tornadoes controlled by political forces.
At least 3,000 people died in the Craigtown area alone, he said. Fact check: the immediate area has about 75 residents, mostly members of the family.
I just changed the subject and moved on.
To be fair, officials had an enormous job in trying to find the deceased, catalog their deaths and inform families. The devastation was catastrophic, making communications and travel perilous at best.
So it was tough to even find victims, and sometimes even tougher to find relatives to notify.
“The list of names of people who died due to Hurricane Helene was not released until examinations were completed,” Jones told me. “The department also wanted to protect the privacy of the families and loved ones of storm victims as they navigated this extremely difficult time.”
Jones noted that the post-death examinations and autopsies needed to complete a death investigation vary by case. Every storm-related death handled by a medical examiner included an external physical examination, “and depending on case circumstances, a full autopsy may or may not have been needed to determine cause and manner of death,” Jones said.
I asked if they’ve been able to glean any information about why rumors persist about a much higher death toll.
“Regarding claims that the number of people who died during Hurricane Helene is much higher, we have no information to prove that to be true,” Jones said.
I also asked Buncombe County spokesperson Lillian Govus about these exaggerated claims, about allegations of a large-scale government coverup.
“We absolutely would not be able to cover something like that up, and the reason no evidence has surfaced is because it’s not true,” Govus said.
Buncombe also had dozens of rescuers and search teams on hand, including 10 swiftwater rescue teams and eight urban search and rescue teams. They conducted 3,133 resident assists, 200 rescues, 183 resident evacuations, and 35 pet evacuations, Govus said.
So again, if you think thousands of people died and there’s a coverup going on, you’re saying thousands of rescue workers and governmental officials all lied about this, and no one has spilled the beans.
I’m not saying that the government has never lied to us. After Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Wanda Greene, Bobby Medford and a thousand other local, state and federal scandals, you’d have to be a fool to believe everything the government tells you.
But all of those lies and illegal shenanigans eventually came to light. Someone blew the whistle, dropped a thumb drive in the mail to a reporter, coughed up information to the FBI.
I’ve been a journalist for three decades, and I can tell you that I’ve never met a journalist who would not vigorously pursue a story about egregious government wrongdoing or a coverup. It’s what we’re here for, and we really hate it when people lie to us.
The psychology of misinformation, and how to detect it
Maybe it’s just human nature to believe wackadoodle conspiracy theories, to assume the worst about others, to always suspect the most complicated, labyrinthine schemes are plausible instead of embracing the “Occam’s razor” principle that the simplest solution is probably right.
In an article titled, “How and why does misinformation spread?” the American Psychological Association states, “People are more likely to share misinformation when it aligns with personal identity or social norms, when it is novel, and when it elicits strong emotions.”
Or as that great philosopher Tom Petty once sang, “You believe what you want to believe.”
The ubiquity of social media also plays a role, as the lies are so easily spread and repeated, without being challenged.
“According to behavioral models, exposure to misinformation increases the odds that people will believe it, which in turn increases the odds that they will spread it,” the APA article states. “At the same time, people do not necessarily need to believe misinformation in order to spread it; people may share information they know is false to signal their political affiliation, disparage perceived opponents, or accrue social rewards.”
The article noted that misinformation spreads differently on social media than it does via legacy media such as television, radio and newspapers.
“Mainstream news outlets tend to have robust safeguards in place to prevent and correct false claims, but several unique features of social media encourage viral content with low oversight,” the APA states. “Rapid publication and peer-to-peer sharing allow ordinary users to distribute information quickly to large audiences, so misinformation can be policed only after the fact (if at all).”
Allow me to translate: If I knowingly spread falsehoods, my organization will correct the mistakes — and then fire me.
Of course, conspiracy theorists have zero trust in legacy media and disparage such outlets as “the lamestream media.”
Fairly often, I have people ask me how I try to avoid spreading misinformation, or how I detect it in the first place. I try to read a variety of outlets on the political spectrum, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, NPR, the BBC and yes, Fox News. For entertainment, I also occasionally check out the right-wing New York Post and Breitbart News.
One solid tip I can give is to check to see if your news source corrects mistakes. Ones that seldom or never do are suspect at best. Ones that do so promptly have journalistic ethics.
Also, if you read something that sounds outlandish or seems incredible, vet it on Snopes.com or via Politifact.com.
Ask people for the source of their information. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a wild rumor — like thousands of body bags being piled up after Helene — and asked someone where they heard that, only to hear it was from a friend of a friend, or someone’s cousin’s brother-in-law. But if you try to track it down, the source never emerges, and neither does the video.
If the material comes from some official source, go find it. Generally, university or governmental websites (.edu or .gov) are going to be more reliable than a .com
Be wary of social media
Be wary of social media. Facebook and X have basically stopped vetting posts, so misinformation and disinformation thrive there, with almost no checks and balances anymore.
The University of Southern California published a story in January 2023 about a study it conducted of more than 2,400 Facebook users. It states:
“USC researchers may have found the biggest influencer in the spread of fake news: social platforms’ structure of rewarding users for habitually sharing information.”
Yep, the researchers found that misinformation spreads not so much because people lack critical thinking skills but because they get a strong reaction to what they share.
“Just 15 percent of the most habitual news sharers in the research were responsible for spreading about 30 to 40 percent of the fake news,” the article states. It continues:
“As it turns out, much like any video game, social media has a rewards system that encourages users to stay on their accounts and keep posting and sharing. Users who post and share frequently, especially sensational, eye-catching information, are likely to attract attention.”
Suggesting that 10,000 people died in Helene would catch a lot of eyes, I imagine.
Be skeptical. An old journalism saw says, “If your mom says she loves you, check it out.”
It’s good advice. No offense to the moms out there.
Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page. Please submit your comments there. As a reminder, even on Facebook we encourage readers to follow our comments policies.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at [email protected]. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email [email protected]. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/donate.
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