Jan-splaining the misinformation

“Everything is on the table,” promises Jan Fran.

“When we first started workshopping the show, we thought, ‘I wonder if we’re going to have enough stuff to talk about each week?’ Not only do we have enough stuff… we have so much stuff! It’s partly exciting, but partly terrifying just how much misinformation is out there.

“It’s not just a Russian bot trying to skewer US elections. It’s misinformation, disinformation, it’s deliberate, accidental, people sharing without knowing that it’s wrong. It’s spin, clickbait. It’s all of these things.”

Fran joins Wil Anderson for new panel show Question Everything this week on ABC.

The show conceived by Anderson seeks to debunk fake stories, false claims, scams, frauds and outright lies.

Produced by the Gruen team from CJZ, the 8 part series sees the hosts joined each week by 3 comedians, separating fact from fiction in a world where it is prevalent.

“It’s something Wil’s been thinking about since 2016,” Fran explains. “I can’t imagine what big event would have spurred him on to think about misinformation!

“He approached me last year with the idea and said, ‘This is what I’m thinking. I’d love to attach you to the project.’ When Wil Anderson comes to you with an idea like this, the answer is unequivocally ‘Yes’ followed very quickly by ‘Thanks!'”

The former host of The Feed grew to know Anderson via a podcast interview,

“I just remember walking away from that chat thinking ‘Why do I tell that man all my secrets? I don’t even know him!’ It just sort of felt very familiar,” she laughs.

“I’m very flattered that he’s landed on me.”

Like Gruen, episodes will be filmed the night before broadcast in order to remain current. Guests this week are Luke Heggie, Alexis Toliopoulos and Concetta Caristo.

“Each week, we’ll be joined by three panelists / comedians. I think part of the real appeal of this show, and part of what it wants to do is to provide a platform for comedians that you might not really see on Australian television.

“It’s a space for comedians, as much as it is a space for us to go into news. Once we get into the middle of that Venn diagram, that’s when we’ll be at our best.”

‘Jansplaining‘ is also her own weekly segment.

“It’s like mansplaining, but far less annoying, hopefully. We’re going to be looking at all the tricks and the tactics that are used by either media outlets, politicians, people in power, to get you to believe certain things, to get you to click to get you to keep reading.

“The highest amount of misinformation comes from people like -and I love her- my mother, my aunt, and my family members who are in WhatsApp groups, sharing memes and videos and all measure of stuff about the pandemic that is either fake, doctored, not real, propaganda, etc.

“One of the things that I’m really interested in, is how do you actually have conversations with people who are being misled or are reading things that are incorrect?

“I’ve got people in my family where you have to have these kind of hard conversations with.

“It’s ubiquitous, so many people have that same story. It just goes to show how deep misinformation runs.”

The show also has its own fact checkers as they scour all newspapers, radio, television, online and social media for misinformation.

“We have a whole team of people to make sure that we get our facts right. But here’s the thing. There may come a point where we don’t. We’re not infallible. One of the things that I really stress going into the show is that we need to also turn this lens onto ourselves, as well. I’ve been fooled by deep fakes. I’ve seen a video of Tom Cruise, trying to put on a turtleneck, thinking that video was hilarious. And it wasn’t Tom Cruise. It was a deep fake video!

“So I’m not immune to any of this stuff at all. I’m not immune to clickbait. I’m not immune to spin. I’d like to think that I am, but in some instances I’m not.

“One of our producers put it really well: the panel is not fighting amongst themselves or competing with themselves to get the right answer. What this is the five of us trying to fight against the tide of misinformation.”

Question Everything airs 8:30pm Wednesday on ABC.