NSS Weekly: How to Be Discerning in an Age of Nonstop Headlines, Fake News, and Propaganda

Transcript

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INTRO: You are listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota.

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HOST: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. I’m Chantel SinGs.

Governor Walz says he expects the majority of federal agents to leave Minnesota sooner rather than later. He made the announcement after talking with federal officials. The announcement comes on the heels of 700 federal agents leaving our state, which brought a measure of relief to some Minnesotans. But federal immigration operations continue across the state, and many communities are still feeling the impacts of the prolonged crackdown.

In today’s program, we examine the psychological toll of living under an ongoing federal presence and how that pressure is affecting schools, families, and everyday life. Then, in an era of nonstop news across multiple platforms, we explore how people are navigating the flood of propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation, and what it means to be an informed media consumer.

But first, here are some of the stories that made headlines this week.

Tribal leaders around the state are invited to give input on federal education programs and services focused on Native education partnerships. The US Departments of Education, interior and Labor say they want tribal leaders to help shape the coordination of education programs for Native students nationwide. They say the goal is to improve accountability and outcomes for Native education programs, while reducing bureaucracy and strengthening tribal sovereignty in workforce and training grants.

A new report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warns that development of new energy sources and updates to the power grid are necessary to meet the growing demand for power in the northern region. The need for electricity is growing faster than the power grid's capability and reliable around the clock, power plants are aging and shutting down. Minnesota's Rural Electric Association warns to take the report seriously, saying increasing extreme heat and winter cold add more stress. They say an all-inclusive energy strategy is necessary to meet future demand, including nuclear power options. Minnesota currently has a moratorium on building new nuclear power plants.

The presence of several thousand federal agents in our state is taking a heavy toll on our economy. A new survey from meet Minneapolis found that 90% of respondents, including hotels, restaurants, retailers and arts organizations, report negative impacts since Operation Metro Surge began in December.

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Next, many across the nation received the news of the removal of hundreds of federal agents from the streets of Minnesota as a sign of de-escalation. But many in the Twin Cities continue living in fear for their friends, families, and their own safety amidst the continuation of Operation Metro Surge. Developmental psychologists and school counselors worry that the negative mental health impacts will be long-lasting. Reporter Maija Hecht has more.

MAIJA HECHT: Across Minnesota, school-aged children are living in fear for their friends, family and their own safety. Operation Metro Surge by federal agents is causing what school counselors and psychologists worry will become long-term mental health consequences.

LINDA: I have people coming into my office telling me about nightmares that they have of having to bring their siblings and run away from ICE as they watch in their nightmares their parents die. And I've seen students come to my office wondering if they're going to get snatched on the bus.

MAIJA HECHT: Linda is a first-year elementary school counselor in South Minneapolis. We have changed her name in this story to protect her students. Privacy of the students who attend Linda's school, 50% are English language learners, and 35% of the student body has chosen online education in recent weeks.

LINDA: Whether it be because of transportation issues or just because they don't feel safe being brown and stepping outside of their home, none of my students are criminals, and 100% of them are facing trauma that will never be able to go away because of what's happening to their community, to their family, to their friends. It is so frustrating to know that people don't believe what is happening here when we are looking at it in the face, and it is the face of an eight-year-old crying and not knowing what will happen to mom. And I think that's just the most devastating part, to not be able to tell him that those fears are wrong, and not be able to protect him from all of those things and just know that we're doing everything that we can, but that still can't stop what's happening.

MAIJA HECHT: Mental health experts say the stress caused by these events has the potential for long-term consequences. University of Minnesota Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Juan Del Toro studies the effect this kind of prolonged stress and vigilance has on children, particularly on black and Latino youth.

DR JUAN DEL TORO: A lot of that chronicity and stress could get under the skin and really disrupt kind of normative biological stress responses.

MAIJA HECHT: On the surface, this can look like trouble falling and staying asleep, feeling on edge, difficulty concentrating, emotional numbness or overreacting to minor stressors.

DR JUAN DEL TORO: A lot of things that happen early on have the potential to shape a lot of long-term behaviors in adulthood.

MAIJA HECHT: Juan's research has found that so-called preventative policing on youth backfires, and that negative early interactions with law enforcement can cause youth to disengage from all authority figures, including educators and sources of support.

DR JUAN DEL TORO: A lot of what ICE is doing is actually going to generate more adverse outcomes, rather than kind of the preventive behavior that they say that they're doing.

MAIJA HECHT: Like many school and neighborhood communities in Minneapolis, Linda says a network of parents and teachers have stepped up after hours to support families disrupted and endangered by ICE.

LINDA: We are lucky enough to have a large parent group that has been able to be incredibly organized and mobilized really well.

MAIJA HECHT: Individual parents have taken on grocery and basic needs deliveries as well as coordination of rent and utility payment assistance to families who are unable to work or afraid to leave their homes. Other parents help with daily activities like providing transportation and walking kids home from school.

LINDA: And then we are also taking it case by case. We had a fifth-grade student detained with her mother.

MAIJA HECHT: The student was detained with her father and mother, who was eight months pregnant.

LINDA: The three of them were in the car on their way home, and they were stopped by ICE. Both of the parents have legal work permits, so are in the country legally.

MAIJA HECHT: After two hours of being detained together, the mother and daughter were released while the father was sent to Texas. They didn't hear from him for 12 days. The school network is now working to connect him with a lawyer and help the family cover costs incurred from detainment.

LINDA: When he is released, he will be responsible for the financial cost of his flight back to his family in Minnesota.

MAIJA HECHT: The dubbed “conveyor belt strategy” moving detainees quickly out of state, often without legal counsel, is widespread in Minnesota. Immigration lawyers say that challenging the legality of these actions isn't stopping the federal government from continuing, indicating that events are intentional obstructions of the truth.

MARCUS SCHMIT: We know that our kids right now are dealing with a lot, and they shouldn't be.

MAIJA HECHT: Marcus Schmit, Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, says there are some things parents can do to help young people through this.

MARCUS SCHMIT: And we're really encouraging parents to engage with their kids, to start that conversation, to be as honest and open as possible and make sure that their kids understand what they're feeling is normal.

MAIJA HECHT: Research shows that children are less afraid when they are prepared about what to expect. NAMI-MN.org offers free resources from help lines to focus groups and ICE-specific material in multiple languages to help parents start that discussion. For emergencies—

MARCUS SCHMIT: 988, so 988 is the crisis hotline. It's a confidential resource. It is your go-to if you have a loved one or you are experiencing crisis right now. We really want to get people connected.

MAIJA HECHT: For North Star Stories, Maija Hecht.

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HOST: Parents, teachers, and other adults are also carrying the weight of these circumstances, adding an extra layer of stress to everyday life. To help us understand what this means for families and communities, we’re joined by Dr. Antony Stately, an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation and a descendant of the Red Lake and White Earth Ojibwe nations. He is the Executive Officer and President of the Native American Community Clinic in South Minneapolis. The clinic provides primary care, dental care, and behavioral health services.

Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Stately. FROM what you're seeing, how does this kind of prolonged fear and uncertainty affect adults, especially parents, differently, though, than children, and what long term impacts should we be paying attention to?

DR ANTONY STATELY: Thank you, Chantel. I appreciate being invited to the conversation. One of the things I think about, and I think about this not just as a clinician, I think about this also as being a parent of young teenage boys who just graduated from high school. I'm trying to launch them, then trying to be out in the world, doing their thing, and that, in itself, is a really challenging process for them. As Indigenous boys, Native boys in this environment, a lot of those anxieties come out for them in all kinds of ways that I end up having as a parent and my partner, we have to manage that for them and support them. And so I think parents are struggling with just trying to help their children make sense of what's going on.

HOST: What are some of the signs, maybe, that you've even seen that stress from this situation is turning into deeper trauma for the parents, for the children or the whole family?

DR ANTONY STATELY: I think it shows up in all kinds of different ways when we think of like traumatic events. And our response as human beings to traumatic events, we have this fight or freeze sort of process that happens with us, and I think that the way that might show up with kids or their parents in this context would be things like fighting might look like, you know, wanting to go out and protest. That's a form of reaction that also ends up feeling sometimes like you are controlling what's happening in the environment. Fleeing looks like, you know, disengaging. Freezing feels like a lot like, you know, like just numbing and not knowing really, sort of like just not being present in your body. My sons called me a couple of days ago. They were down at the Mall of America, and they usually would go there for like, maybe hours at a time, and I'm like, Oh yeah, I'll drop you off, and I'll have like, three or four hours I can go and do some things, do some errands and stuff like that. They called me right away, and they wanted me to come and pick them up. And there's a lot of people here, and they were like, there's like, a lot of a lot of ICE activity. They were anxious. They were fearful. They were like, they were wanting to hide, you know, so, like, freezing can look like, just wanting to, sort of like, shut down. I think the way that shows up for parents is like, you know, we're also hyper vigilant, you know. I ask them every single day, do you have your identification with you? Do you have your birth certificate on you? Because my children are Indigenous, so those things weigh heavily on my mind a lot as they sort of navigate these public spaces. So hyper vigilance for us as parents, it also, I think, is in place, and that causes all kinds of other conditions, like lack of sleep, inability to sleep, you know, just an overwhelming sense of anxiety and fear at times.

HOST: What can parents do at home, not only your children, but even for yourself, to feel emotionally grounded while all of this uncertainty continues?

DR ANTONY STATELY: I think there's a couple different things you can do as a parent, like, if there's things that you do in your family to sort of just kind of create calmness when, when things are a little bit out of control. In my house, I'll do something like, I'll ask my children, I'll say, like, let's sit down and I'll light some sage or some sweet grass, and I'll smudge and I'll sort of kind of create an environment where we're just going to be quiet, and we're just sort of, to kind of be a little bit more intentional. Turn off the TV and not be distracted by all this, all of the things that are going on around us. So if we can kind of just turn inward and be a little bit more present and be in the space with one another, we can kind of ground ourselves with any kind of practice that you might have that's your own, that is meaningful to you. Bring your attention to something else, just so you can, kind of like, also just release all that tension in your body. Take a walk together if you're afraid of leaving the house. If many people are afraid to leave the house, do something else inside your house. You know, be active or something, anything that will kind of help you sort of release that tension and anxiety in your that you're holding physiologically in your body is a really good thing, and then checking in with my kids and asking them how they're feeling, asking them if they're fearful of something, asking you how prepared they feel, everybody will feel just a little bit more calm if they're prepared and they have a plan for how they would do something in a situation in which they feel threatened or afraid.

HOST: We appreciate your time and your energy and everything you're doing for your community. Thanks so much.

DR ANTONY STATELY: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

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HOST: After the break, how to be a smarter consumer of news and information in an age of nonstop headlines, fake news, and propaganda. This is North Star Stories, Voices from Where We Live, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. I’m Chantel SinGS. We’ll be right back.

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HOST: You are listening to North Star Stories. I’m Chantel SinGs.

Next, in a world where information moves faster than truth, remaining informed is not about finding the information but about properly vetting and filtering the information you consume. Reporter Jose Ozoria helps us understand how stories are researched, packaged, and presented in the new media landscape.

JOSE OZORIA: So when you play these two pieces of audio together, they sound nearly identical.

KRISTI NOEM and GREG BOVINO (superimposed): An individual approached us with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun. The officer attempted to disarm the individual, but the armed reacted violently.

JOSE OZORIA: That’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and then Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, reading an incredibly similar statement at separate press conferences regarding the shooting of Alex Pretti, a statement many criticized for trying to spin the story to sway public opinion.

DR JAMIE COHEN: It doesn't seem like it's propaganda, but it's very much propaganda, and so propaganda gets re-disguised in the idea of an official statement.

JOSE OZORIA: Dr. Jamie Cohen, who teaches social media and digital activism, holds a PhD in Cultural and Media Studies and sits on the advisory board of the Fair Media Council, a media watchdog organization. Dr. Cohen says it—

DR JAMIE COHEN: Should be noted by a smart consumer that it is designed specifically to be some sort of rhetoric to either change somebody's mind, make somebody angry, or reinforce somebody's mind, which is what propaganda does.

JOSE OZORIA: Propaganda is used by both newsmakers and politicians on both sides of the aisle as an attempt to win the public over. It's the act of spreading biased information to shape public opinion around a cause or an ideology. We're seeing this more than ever from both political parties in the current dispute over immigration. In addition to propaganda, there's also misinformation, which is incorrect information spread without malicious intent, and disinformation, which is false information that is deliberately created and shared to deceive or manipulate.

DR JAMIE COHEN: Propaganda appears everywhere, all at once, mostly in social media. Now, propaganda is just ubiquitous because it's engaging, and social media rewards engagement. So when we used to, when we used to have propaganda, the second category to news or public relations, it's kind of like it’s now overlapping into other areas.

JOSE OZORIA: Dr. Cohen says that an important part of media literacy is doing your due diligence as a media consumer when seeking a trusted source of information.

DR JAMIE COHEN: To figure out whether something is fact-based or opinion-based or even commentary-based, figure out what the journalist or writer or outlet’s history is in terms of their coverage of fact-based information and their willingness to uphold the idea of what would be so-called truth or holding power to account.

NICK SHIRLEY: Another daycare center. Absolutely no signage and there's no footprints in the snow of children playing outside. Five million…

JOSE OZORIA: In December of 2025, a video from YouTuber Nick Shirley, alleging mass fraud at Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota, went viral.

DYLAN HEDTLER-GAUDETTE: They had a difficult time substantiating what Mr. Shirley was claiming to be true in his video.

JOSE OZORIA: Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette is the Director of Government Affairs at Project on Government Oversight. He testified at the House GOP Judiciary Committee's hearing into Shirley's fraud story.

DYLAN HEDTLER-GAUDETTE: They found countervailing evidence, including having been provided security footage by one of those daycares of children being dropped off the very day that Mr. Shirley was supposedly there.

JOSE OZORIA: During the hearing, Mr. Hedtler-Gaudette points to the poor quality of the research and investigation behind Shirley's video that were later debunked by state investigators and several local and national news outlets. KatGetsMoney is a Minnesota based influencer and content creator. She points out how the very structure of social media creates a repetitive message that reinforces ideas and biases.

KATGETSMONEY: Social media platforms. they want people to stay on them for as long as possible. The more you are on a social media platform, the more money that platform is making.

JOSE OZORIA: What an algorithm does is find something that interests you based on what you previously viewed online and maximizes your exposure to it. A study by the Integrity Institute, a think tank focusing on social media's impact on society, states that algorithmic-based curated exposure of this kind can amplify misinformation, disinformation and propaganda.

KATGETSMONEY: It's all about the algorithm. You know, you could put out the same piece of content, but structure it just a little bit differently to better meet the needs of a particular algorithm, and that will change its performance. And people know this right? Influencers, they know it.

JOSE OZORIA: Brittney Smith is an educator and a director with the News literacy Project, an organization that works with schools to help students become smart, savvy consumers of news and information.

BRITTNEY SMITH: Eight in 10 teens that we surveyed reported seeing posts on social media that were spreading or promoting conspiracy theories. Eighty-one percent said they're inclined to believe one or more of these conspiracy theories.

JOSE OZORIA: And the lack of media literacy among young people has consequences beyond making them susceptible to misinformation.

BRITTNEY SMITH: We found that teens think about reporters and editors as people who regularly are engaging in unethical behaviors that would never work in a credible newsroom.

JOSE OZORIA: Ultimately, for the News Literacy Project, true media literacy requires key skills to help them navigate the media landscape.

BRITTNEY SMITH: That a piece uses multiple credible sources looking for the inclusion of people who are in a position to know, you know, relevant facts, relevant details, balance presenting multiple sides of the issue, understanding their process for checking and confirming details.

JOSE OZORIA: For North Star Stories, I’m Jose Ozoria.

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HOST: Propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation are not limited to one party, one agency, or one media outlet; they can appear across the entire political and media landscape. And to help us understand how to navigate this environment and become more informed news consumers, we’re joined now by Lindsay Matts-Benson. She is the Teaching and Learning Program Lead for the University of Minnesota Libraries. Her research interests revolve around the connections between misinformation techniques and information literacy. Thank you so much for joining us.

LINDSAY MATTS-BENSON: Thank you.

HOST: Tell us in situations like this, how can audiences distinguish between legitimate government messaging and propaganda?

LINDSAY MATTS-BENSON: I think the first thing we all need to understand is that there is nothing inherent in information that demands that it be used in the pursuit of the common good, and that's kind of a scary feeling coming from information we're supposed to trust, like things from our local, state and federal government. So I like to ask myself a few questions about any type of information that I'm seeing coming from public officials, whether that's written, statements, policy, reports, interviews in the news. The first is that, does this information have a goal to inform or is it clearly meant to influence, persuade or inflame emotion? Everything from anger to sadness, excitement and outrage. Is that message grounded in facts or evidence? And can I find the evidence to those claims? Can I easily find those, that that evidence that's out there, is it in a report? Is it in testimony, et cetera? And then can I see facts and evidence in my own experience? What am I seeing with my own eyes? What are the eyes of my community seeing? We often consume the news and other information in those small bits, and that's really hard to see the big context of the situation to really understand what kind of information is out there and if it's legitimate or if it is meant as propaganda.

HOST: At a time when people can curate their own news echo chambers, kind of like we're talking about, does that make misinformation and disinformation more powerful? And why would that be, Lindsay?

LINDSAY MATTS-BENSON: Absolutely, it makes it more powerful, and one of the reasons on that is that misinformation is the form of social bonding. So research on misinformation suggests that the spread and the belief of misinformation have less to do with that information being correct or even fake, but more about like fitting in with a group that the power of misinformation lies and how it can penetrate our social spheres. And our social spheres, the relationships we build with our friends, our neighbors, our community, are strengthened by exchanging information. And so the quality of the information that we exchange can really become secondary, and that misinformation sticks like the way our brains work. It sticks depending on the relationships we have and as individuals. We can all feel and think certain things. But what research suggests is that when we get into a group, the way we react to something and the way we believe something changes, and that puts misinformation and disinformation at an advantage that all of our behaviors when it comes to seeking information and using information and even avoiding information really help make us more susceptible to misinformation. One of my favorite quotes is “The reason facts don't change most people is because most people don't use facts to form their opinions. They use their opinions to form their facts.” And so I think that's really indicative kind of about the world that we live in with misinformation.

HOST: So for everyday news consumers, what are a few practical steps that we can take to recognize propaganda, verify claims and even avoid being influenced by emotionally charged messaging?

LINDSAY MATTS-BENSON: I think my first thing is ask yourself, why you want to share so that whole information using information sharing? Are you doing it to inform others? Are you doing it to just express outrage and solidarity? Are you sharing that information to be smug about some situation? And I really would recommend for people to stop and think before they share. The other is thinking about the information we consume so the information we seek, the information we avoid, the information we use and understand that technology is built for us to really get a lot of confirmation bias and show us things, especially in social media, of things that we already know and like and believe. And it's not going to test those assumptions for us. So I would challenge people to look outside their filter bubble, look outside their scope and use, look at other different news sources on occasion, or find those voices in the conversation that are really working to be unbiased. Understanding the tools that I'm using to find information. Am I asking a search engine like Google, or am I asking an AI tool like ChatGPT?

HOST: Thank you so much for your time, Lindsay.

LINDSAY MATTS-BENSON: Thank you.

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HOST: We end today’s program with a look at Black History Month events across Minnesota. Southwest Minnesota State University is hosting soul food nights, grocery bingo, open skate, and film screenings that highlight Black heritage and culture. In St. Paul, the Minnesota Historical Society’s Black History Voices initiative is partnering with local community members to share stories and experiences. In Duluth, the Family Freedom Center is organizing a Black History Month community celebration with Harm Reduction Sisters and the Damiano Center, while the Center for Equity and Inclusion at Lake Superior College welcomes speaker and podcaster Anthony Galloway. St. Cloud State University is hosting “Beyond Visibility: Resilience, Belonging, and Excellence in Black Student Life” at the Cascade Room in Atwood Memorial Center. And in Minneapolis, the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery continues to offer year‑round exhibits and programs on Black liberation and history.

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HOST: This is all the time we have for today’s program. If you missed any part of today’s newscast, you can find this and past episodes at AMPERS.org, or listen to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back next week with more stories and voices from the North Star State.

OUTRO: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at AMPERS.org.