by significant numbers. qanon supporters were amongst the mob that stormed the us capitol last year. the movement has been fuelled by the online postings of a user who signs off as q, and last week, after nearly two years of silence, 0 posted again. gabriel gatehouse is international editor at bbc news and the presenter of the radio a documentary series the coming storm that looks at the rise of qanon, and dr irene pasquetto is assistant professor at the university of michigan school of information. irene, gabriel, welcome to the media show. hi, katie. hello. thank you. most welcome. gabriel, when we say 0 is back, how do we know this? what s happened 7 ok, so, 0 was this supposed figure who was supposed to be a government insider with high level security clearance who was revealing secrets about this cabal of satanic paedophiles that had supposedly captured the levers of government in the united states. and 0, this government insider, was posting his secrets on a little know
hello, and welcome. this week, we re talking about the return of q. and if that doesn t mean anything to you, don t worry. you ll be hearing a lot more in this programme about one of the world s most notorious conspiracy theories. we re also looking at why bristol s mayor is facing a boycott of his press briefings and what it says about the often fractious relationship between councils and journalists. among our guests on that topic are martin booth, editor of bristol 24 7, and charlotte green, who s a local democracy reporter with the manchester evening news. martin, welcome to the media show. what s your big story in bristol today? so, today i ve been visiting bristol s newly repainted rainbow crossing, just painted in time for our city s pride celebrations. so we ve got a brand new rainbow crossing on wine street. sounds fantastic. charlotte, what have you been covering in tameside? so, in tameside, we ve just got a new council leader, after the last one was deposed follow
migrant boat in the english channel. at least 27 people drowned. the suspects are believed to be a part of the people smuggling network. now come on bbc news, it is time for the media show. you be hearing a lot more in this programme above one of the worlds most conspiracy theories. white bristles mayor is facing a boycott in the press briefings and what it says about the fractious relationship between councils and journalists. i guess on the topic and 20 a7, and green who was a local democracy reporterfor and green who was a local democracy reporter for the evening news. martin, welcome to the media show. what is your big story in bristol today? i ve been visiting the newly repainted rainbow crossing just painted in time for the pride celebrations so, we have a brand new rainbow celebrations so, we have a brand-new rainbow crossing. charlotte. brand-new rainbow crossing. charlotte, what brand-new rainbow crossing. charlotte, what have - brand-new rainbow crossing. charlo
are controlling our lives. i m presumably they can be that many people believing hillary clinton drinks baby s blood? you would be surprised. oh, my gosh. i m not kidding you. so, what happened was that this qanon conspiracy theory about the cabal of satanic paedophiles merged with the conspiracy theory about how the election was stolen, and in a sense, that conspiracy theory which involves these weird voting machines called dominion voting machines which apparently were flipping votes from trump to biden, that conspiracy theory was also promoted by this same ron watkins guy who was one of the administrators who we think may have been controlling qanon. so these two things merged, and what has happened now is that the idea that america is controlled by a malevolent force, a deep state that has subverted its democracy, is now mainstream political opinion, right? there is a massive battle going on inside the republican party between those who believe this big lie, those
theory which involves these weird voting machines called dominion voting machines which apparently were flipping votes from trump to biden, that conspiracy theory was also promoted by this same ron watkins guy who was one of the administrators who we think may have been controlling qanon. so these two things merged, and what has happened now is that the idea that america is controlled by a malevolent force, a deep state that has subverted its democracy, is now mainstream political opinion, right? there is a massive battle going on inside the republican party between those who believe this big lie, those who are promoting the big lie, and those who really don t, but it has become massively mainstream. if you look at the hearings that are currently going on, on capitol hill into what happened around the january 6, 2021 storming of the us capitol, what we see is that the american electorate is completely bifurcated by this conspiracy theory