PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The headline in this blog appeared couple days ago in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in a story contained very useful information about to separate the wheat from the chaff in what we read about coronavirus pandemic.

I say “useful” because, if left to our devices as we engage in social distancing, we could drown in coronavirus information – and not all of it is either accurate or worth reading.

To be sure, quality journalists provide useful information such as the story from the WSJ, which appeared under this headline:

In the Coronavirus “Infodemic,” Here’s How to Avoid Bad Information

Misleading information about Covid-19 spreads through texts and emails—but you can protect yourself from dubious claims and reports

The writer, Nicole Nguyen, started her story this way:

“The same coronavirus post kept popping up on my Facebook feed last week. People in my network—a friend’s mom, a college classmate and another ‘friend,’ who I’m not sure I’ve even met in person—had somehow obtained identical symptom and treatment guidance from Stanford University.

“There were details about an at-home testing technique involving breath holding, as well as something truly dubious about sipping water every 15 minutes. On March 12, the university said the text was ‘not from Stanford.’”

Overnight, Nguyen reported, the viral post disappeared from the social network.

For my part, I had received the Stanford information from one of my golfing buddies in the California desert – I am not there now; instead I am “staying at home in Oregon.” My wife was smart enough to know immediately the information was not accurate, more like a hoax.

My friend passed on the information innocently, believing that the supposed source – Stanford University – was credible, so he wanted to make sure his friends had the information. I relayed to him that the information was wrong and he apologized for sending it.

No problem. In these times, all of us can be taken in by bad information if, for no other reason, than that we are looking for good news amidst the unprecedented bad news of coronavirus.

Nguyen agrees: “Many people spreading these fraudulent posts have good intentions. Everyone’s trying to keep up with an ever-shifting situation. And they want to help each other. But the current regularity of forwarded falsehoods is revealing: Any absence of good information leaves room for a lot of terrible information.”

The World Health Organization recently described this moment as an “infodemic,” which, Nguyen writes, “means we are getting virus news through a fire hose—push notifications, TV, social media, hearsay through our networks. There’s misleading or inaccurate information at every turn, despite companies’ efforts to remove it. And as social networks crack down on misinformation, it’s growing in grass-roots channels, like text and email.”

Many people, confused by all the noise, are still searching for answers. Here are some ways to help, which I list based on Nguyen’s reporting:

• PolitiFact, the Poynter Institute’s non-profit fact-checking organization, has a website dedicated to confirming and debunking coronavirus information spread by government officials, text messages and social media.
• Focus on factual information from official channels. “I would strongly urge people to get their information from sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or highly respected news organizations. Everything else should be regarded as suspect,” says Angie Drobnic Holan, editor in chief of the PolitiFact.
• Focus more on facts from official sources, and less on chasing down every shred that might be true, says Claire Wardle, a research fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center and co-founder of First Draft, a non-profit dedicated to studying misinformation. Further, right-wing wackos trying to act like “the media” don’t dispense facts; they dispense only their own biases.
• The more people are exposed to a falsehood, the more likely they are to accept it as true—what Dr. Wardle refers to as the “familiarity backfire effect.” Once in play, falsehoods take on their life of their own. Correcting them is tough.
• Focus on facts directly from official channels. The World Health Organization recently launched a WhatsApp messaging service bringing updates on the outbreak and information about myths right to your phone.
• The primary sources that reporters rely on include the World Health Organization and U.S.-based CDC. Both agencies provide virus outbreak updates and guidance on how to stay healthy from public officials. The CDC mobile app serves this information right to your phone. Pro tip: Turn on the app’s filter for “Coronavirus Disease 2019.”
• Many state and local authorities are also excellent resources as they try imperfectly to provide solid information. The CDC website includes links to every accredited state and health department across the U.S.

Plus, in this infodemic, the information shared most often can seem plausible, if only because of the repetition.

The most recent wave of misinformation reads more like rumors that could be true or are close to being true rather than outright falsehoods. Fraudulent messages are often attributed to “a friend of my friend who works in the government” or other authoritative entities.

Even though misinformation is moving from public to private channels, the Internet’s largest social networks are working to moderate coronavirus content. In mid-March, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube sent out this joint statement: “We are … jointly combating fraud and misinformation about the virus and elevating authoritative content on our platforms.”

And this final point.

Who is the largest disseminator of misinformation and exaggeration? It’s President Donald Trump. He usually doesn’t know what he is talking about and talks anyway. His press conferences are hugely destructive, but, after he shares what’s on top of mind for him, whatever that is, it often it is too late for credentialed figures to make corrections.

So, in addition to the advisories above, I say turn off Trump. Don’t listen to him. Don’t watch his press conferences, which only are campaign rallies. Ignore what he says and we’ll all be better off.