AN IRISH reporter working in the United States has shared a clip of the reality of working with people who distrust the media.
Kerry native Donie O'Sullivan is a reporter with US news outlet CNN, where he focuses on the real-world effects of disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Former president Donald Trump's constant condemnation of the 'Fake news media', including CNN, and his failure to condemn the Q-Anon conspiracy theory, coupled with the January 6 insurrection and Mr Trump's insistence that he was the true winner of the 2020 Presidential Election, means O'Sullivan's work often brings him into the field to cover stories on Donald Trump and gain insight from his followers.
The Irishman went viral in January of this year when reporting from the ground at the insurrection, when he condemned Facebook for its lack of action in allowing conspiracy theories to flood the site.
Speaking live, O'Sullivan said "In 2016 people tried to write off anything about social media, saying oh, it's only a few Facebook posts, what harm?
"Here's the harm," he said, gesturing to the chaos of hundreds who had gathered in the belief that the election was rigged.
Now O'Sullivan has gone viral again, after he shared a clip of him attempting to interview a Trump fan at the former president's Ohio rally yesterday-- the first since he left office.
In the clip, O'Sullivan asks a man wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat and smoking a cigarette for his name, to which he replied "My name is go f*** yourself".
After a short pause, O'Sullivan says "Right.", and asks "Are you from Ohio?" to which the man answers "No".
It’s the friends we meet along the way… pic.twitter.com/jCbziIeX6k
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) June 27, 2021
The Caherciveen native shared the video to Twitter with the sarcastic caption "It's the friends we meet along the way...".
The video garnered a huge reaction from people across Ireland, the US and beyond, with former Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan responding with a series of laughing emojis, and even the Embassy of Ireland in the US getting involved.
The official account wrote underneath the video: "As Yeats had it, there are no strangers here, Donie, only friends you haven't met yet."
Speaking to his followers in Ohio yesterday, Mr Trump doubled down on the assertion of election fraud during his first rally since departing the White House earlier this year.
Speaking at the first of several “revenge rallies” at Lorain County Fairgrounds in Ohio, near Cleveland, the 75-year-old branded Joe Biden’s victory as “the scam of the century.”
“The 2020 presidential election was rigged,” he told those in attendance.
“We won that election in a landslide…This was the scam of the century and this was the crime of the century.”
No local or state election officials found any evidence of mass voter fraud while Trump’s own attorney general and appointed judges have rebuffed claims of vote rigging.
