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                    "For years, critics of traditional media insisted that the future of journalism was the activist influencer: unbound by newsroom constraints, heedless of woke pieties, fearless and plain-spoken. But \u201cinfluencer\u201d journalism may finally have jumped the shark with the discrediting of a sloppy weekend story about Texas Democrat James Talarico\u2019s supposed stay at a psychiatric hospital.\nTalarico, the party\u2019s nominee for the US Senate in the Lone Star State, left the high-stakes campaign for about a fortnight. The stated reason was a case of the flu, which can be especially dangerous for a diabetic like Talarico unless carefully addressed, per his camp. Was it possible that his absence in fact owed to a mental breakdown requiring a stint of inpatient psychiatric treatment at an out-of-state facility, as a trio of MAGA influencers claimed? Sure. And Texas voters certainly have a right to know if a Senate nominee is of sound mind.\nBut the evidence provided for the claim \u2014 that Talarico was treated at the Lindner Center for Hope in Mason, Ohio \u2014 was simply laughable. To wit, on Sunday evening a Dallas-based influencer named Rhein Amacher claimed that Talarico had been discharged from the Lindner Center the previous evening. The claim was amplified by Amacher\u2019s ally and fellow MAGA influencer Nick Sortor, and soon electrified the wider online Right. Elon Musk, among others, responded to the story with his usual credulity for Right-wing slop, including a post consisting only of two exclamation marks.\nThe source of Amacher\u2019s and Sortor\u2019s scoop was a recorded phone call to the Lindner Center. At various points, an employee of the center asked for a passcode, which wasn\u2019t forthcoming until Amacher threw out what he claimed was a random four-digit number, at which point the employee revealed that a Talarico had been discharged that evening.\nOnline sleuths, including conservative journalists such as New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, immediately picked apart these claims. For starters, Talarico was seen at the Austin City Limits music festival during the evening in question, 9 October, as well as in Dallas the following day. The timeline didn\u2019t work, especially considering that inpatient psychiatric care is a process that takes days; it isn\u2019t a quickie allergy shot. The calls themselves were also released in dubiously edited and abridged batches. Once the full audio appeared, it became clear that the Lindner employee had repeatedly rebuffed the inquiring caller and struggled to locate a James Talarico in the patient rolls.\nYet the most glaring hole in the influencers\u2019 account had to do with the choice of the Lindner Center. Why would Talarico seek mental-health treatment in Ohio? Why not check into a similar center in his own state, of which there are many? Or better yet, why not have a mental-health specialist flown in to him?\nNow get ready for the hard-hitting journalism: the reason Amacher narrowed it down to the Lindner Center in Ohio is that, a few days earlier, \u201cTickle\u201d \u2014 a MAGA influencer with an AI-generated profile picture \u2014 had found a private flight departing from Austin and landing in Hamilton, Ohio, not far from the Lindner Center. That\u2019s it. The MAGA influencers didn\u2019t have access to the flight\u2019s manifest, as they conceded, or really any other information about it. It was simply enough that a private plane had flown from Texas to Ohio.\nThen came the coup de gr\u00e2ce from the Lindner Center itself, a Sunday evening post on X that stated unequivocally: \u201cRepresentative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.\u201d\nIt\u2019s all a reminder of why traditional newsrooms \u2014 with multiple layers for checking information, weighing claims and counterclaims, and judging the credibility of sources \u2014 remain indispensable. In recent years, such outlets have faced intense economic and technological pressure. But they\u2019ve also done damage to themselves with nakedly partisan reporting and editorial choices: from the Russiagate hoax to efforts to suppress the origins of Covid to hiding then-President Joe Biden\u2019s cognitive decline, the old-school media did much to earn mistrust.\nNow, as the influencers falter in the face of increased scrutiny, the traditional media has a chance to shore up what it does. But that can only happen with humility and a clear understanding of how it was that, for a large subset of the population, the likes of Sortor and Amacher appeared more trustworthy than the prestige press."
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