“The truth, the post truth, and nothing but no truth, so help me God” Event

Hillary Clinton was at the centre of a paedophile ring, the Pope backed Trump, the Feds were investigating Clinton for conspiracy to murder. She was also supplying arms to ISIS. They were just some of the totally fictitious stories that gained traction during the election of 2016. A mixture of appalling mendacity, Macedonians who wanted to make money, Russian agents who wanted to make mischief, and soulless computer algorithms on social media all combined. But how much of a role did they play in propelling a disillusioned and angry American public to vote for Donald Trump? And he won the popular vote too. Or he would have done if it hadn’t been for 5 million illegal immigrants voting for Hillary Clinton. Or is that a fiction too?

Speaker details

Jon Sopel is a graduate of the University of Southampton, completing his BSc in Politics and Sociology in 1981. He has enjoyed a distinguished career with the BBC and currently serves as North America Editor based in Washington, DC.

Following his graduation, Sopel remained at the University as Students’ Union President. In 1983, he joined BBC Radio Solent in Southampton as a reporter and producer. He later went on to become the chief political correspondent for BBC News 24 and spent three years as the BBC’s Paris correspondent during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

In 2005, Sopel fronted The Politics Show on BBC One interviewing key politicians including Prime Minister’s Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and former US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice. He has also co-presented on the BBC News Channel and fronted a number of radio and television programmes including Newsnight, HARDtalk and The Daily Politics. He wrote an acclaimed biography of Tony Blair and is currently working on a book about his time in America.

Prior to his current role, Sopel was the main presenter on the BBC News Channel programme Global.

In 2007, Sopel was voted Political Journalist of the Year by the Public Affairs Industry. In 2013, he was shortlisted for National Presenter of the Year at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards.

Sopel was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Southampton in 2011.