How 'fake news' and the manipulation of facts turned a small US town upside down

When a young girl was filmed in a sex act with two boys in a town in Idaho, an anti-immigrant movement co-opted the community’s outrage to their cause, writes Caitlin Dickerson

ON a Tuesday morning in June 2016, Nathan Brown, a reporter for The Times-News, the local paper in Twin Falls, Idaho, strolled into the office and cleared off a spot for his coffee cup amid the documents and notebooks piled on his desk.

His first order of business was an article about a city council meeting from the night before, which he hadn’t attended. Brown pulled up a recording of the proceedings and began punching out notes for his weekly article.