USA: Republican VP candidate J.D. Vance’s fake stories create real risks for journalists

An online news outlet serving the Haitian American community, The Haitian Times, has received anonymous threats and editor Macollvie Neel’s home was “swatted” when police showed up to her residence in response to a false report of a crime. These incidents took place a few days after Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance circulated a widely debunked claim from Facebook alleging that Haitian migrants resettled in the town of Springfield, Ohio were stealing and eating local residents’ pets. 

In the weeks since Vance elevated this fake story, Springfield has been subjected to dozens of bomb threats and city leaders have been flooded with threatening hate mail. Racist and xenophobic displays have left Haitian residents feeling unsafe, including journalists from The Haitian Times, who were forced to cancel a scheduled town hall event.

Instead of retracting this claim, Vance has defended it and asserted that he is willing to “create stories so that the American media actually pays attention.” 

“By admitting he will invent stories to further his political purposes, J.D. Vance is saying the quiet part out loud. Donald Trump has been running this playbook for a long time, and his campaign is only getting more brazen about it. The result is heightened risks for journalists and journalism as a whole. RSF is deeply concerned by Vance’s cavalier attitude towards facts. Beyond exacerbating obvious real-world dangers to the media as illustrated here, such deliberate disinformation poisons the information space, making it more difficult for citizens to distinguish fact from fiction. J.D. Vance should use Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate to clear the air, admit these stories about Haitian migrants are false, and disavow violence against journalists.”

Clayton Weimers

Executive Director, RSF USA

"For JD Vance to admit to what amounts to media manipulation is further proof of his base's all-out attempts to silence media outlets like The Haitian Times whose mission is to elevate the stories of immigrant Americans. For the sake of immigrant communities across America and our media ecosystem, I hope he is held to account to the greatest extent possible. I also hope his comments serve as a wake-up call for the media ecosystem to be on guard against ongoing attempts to shepherd destructive agendas through our platforms as Election Day nears." 

Macollvie Neel

Haitian Times

A long history of spreading falsehoods

Former President Donald Trump’s political career has been in part defined by his proclivity for spreading falsehoods. Throughout his first term, he made over 30,000 false or misleading statements, a volume of inaccuracy that has never been equaled in American history. One of Trump’s most dangerous claims has been his consistent denial of electoral results that go against him. During the 2016 Republican primary, he repeatedly claimed that the Iowa and Colorado caucuses where he lost to Ted Cruz were rigged. After the 2016 election, Trump maintained that he won the popular vote minus “the millions of people who voted illegally.” He has repeatedly refused to accept his loss to President Joe Biden in 2020. 

In an earlier demonstration of how disinformation can lead to violence, Trump repeated his false claims of a stolen election at a rally in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 just before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, resulting in at least seven deaths. During the course of the riot, Trump supporters destroyed media equipment and threatened the press with messages such as “Murder the media!” Throughout the Biden administration, Trump has doubled down on his election denialism, and says that there is already a reason to overturn a 2024 defeat. While attacking the press as ‘enemies of the people,’ he’s also waging a misinformation campaign that inflames public sentiment and drives distrust of journalism. 

Combating misinformation: a key issue in the election campaign

RSF recently published its 10-Point Plan for U.S. Press Freedom in which it urges the presidential campaigns to treat the members of the press with respect and “publicly reaffirm the right and necessity of journalists to do their jobs safely.” RSF has previously highlighted the global problem of increased political attacks on the media. Of the five indicators that RSF measures on its World Press Freedom Index, where this year the U.S. dropped to a ranking of 55th out 180 countries, the political indicator saw the sharpest decline in 2024.