With #SaveTheChildren Rallies, QAnon Sneaks Into The Offline World

On the Media

• Episode: With #SaveTheChildren Rallies, QAnon Sneaks Into The Offline World
• Website: On the Media
• Feed URL: http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia
• Duration: 00:22:29
• Published: 2020-08-26 18:00

On Saturday, more than 200 cities from Spokane to Scranton saw modest rallies for a cause so pure, so unifying, that who in their right mind wouldn’t want to join in? "Save the children" was the chant and child trafficking the scourge. But lately it is a movement being hijacked from within, which is just the latest instance of the QAnon conspiracy theory spilling out of its online domain. This we know from reporting by NBC News investigative reporter Brandy Zadrozny, along with reporter Ben Collins. In this podcast extra, Zadrozny explains how these rallies function as "information laundering," and how local journalists have inadvertantly taken part in QAnon's recruitment strategy.