BROOKINGS – Social media, fake news, Russian meddling in and the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election were among the topics covered by two famous South Dakota Toms at the third Daschle Dialogues at South Dakota State University Thursday night.
Former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle and former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw spent about an hour-and-a-half at the SDSU Performing Arts Center discussing a wide range of topics, including their childhoods and families, careers and significant moments in U.S. history, including Sept. 11 and the 2001 anthrax attacks.
A sold-out crowd of about 1,000 gathered to hear from Brokaw and Daschle at the PAC, with veteran journalist Chuck Raasch moderating. The pair also met with a group of about 40 SDSU students Thursday afternoon for a question-and-answer session.
In regard to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Brokaw said he didn’t think the Democratic Party was keeping pace with some of the changes that were happening in the country and the expectations the public had of it, including the plight of the working class and the angst they face.
“Republicans have been very clever about building a ground-level base in this country, and they’ve done it on social values, not just on economic values,” Brokaw said.
The election became about insiders versus outsiders, Daschle added. “Donald Trump is the quintessential outsider. Outsiders won.”
Daschle said there are three areas that he feels are contributing to the political climate today: income stagnation and disparity, globalization, and the debate over the role of government in society today.
“There are those who believe standing your ground is the only way to get through these difficult debates rather than finding common ground,” Daschle said. “And that’s led to a level of dysfunction in Washington that we’ve never seen before, at least since the Civil War.”
Daschle said the U.S. election system is extremely vulnerable to attacks like Russian meddling.
“It was the most sophisticated attack on our infrastructure that we’ve seen to date,” Daschle said. “I don’t think that anybody has been able to conclude with any authority or any confidence just how much that turned votes.
“This is one of the greatest threats and challenges to democracy right now.”
Brokaw agreed that there’s no question on whether Russians meddled in the election, but rather was there any coordination between Russians and the campaigns.
“We don’t know the answer to that. A number of us started getting tips on this a year ago … that the Russians were involved,” Brokaw said.
Brokaw said the single biggest problem journalists face today is the distinction between fake news, heavily opinionated social media, and mainstream news.
“We can’t have a country that is in the grips of this kind of extraordinary distortion that goes on all day long,” Brokaw said.
Daschle said people have to be much more discerning and responsible about determining what is true and what isn’t.
“I think we’re going through a transition in this information age that is enormously disruptive. … We’re going to become more discerning, more empowered, but we’re not there yet.”
Brokaw also called on news consumers to research and be skeptical about everything they hear.
“If it looks like fake news, it probably is. If it seems completely over the top, go back and say, ‘Where are the origins of this?’” Brokaw said.
Daschle agreed. “I think you have to not take anything you see at face value, even if it’s something you completely agree with.”
Contact Jill Fier at jfier@brookingsregister.com.
Photos by Emily Weber/University Marketing & Communications
