K-State communication studies professor Dr. Timothy Shaffer recently spoke to KMAN about the arrest of someone in his department for their involvement in the January 6th U.S. Capitol riot.
Topeka resident and K-State PhD candidate William Pope was recently arrested by the FBI and Topeka police on multiple charges related to his participation in the incident.
Shaffer says the riot shows the importance of how one interacts with information.
“All of us need to be very mindful of what do we consume, how do we make sense of it and to navigate that with a degree of humility in recognizing that even if something we that sympathize with or feel like it must be accurate, we must do our due diligence to check it,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer, who is also the director for the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at K-State, says it also shows the impact of the changed relationships with news and media.
“That’s part of what the rhetorical impact has had in recent years of the distrust of industries such as media. If we don’t have our trust in institutions that allow us to know what’s going on in the world well then we’ve got a real problem. I think we’re experiencing that, and for some of us it’s even closer to home,” he said.
Pope was arrested by the FBI and Topeka police in February on multiple charges related to his role in the riots.
His brother, Michael Pope, who lives in Idaho, and three Kansas City area men, were also recently arrested for participating in the incident.
Dr. Shaffer joins KMAN’s In Focus the fourth Thursday of the month at 9:06 a.m. His next appearance will be on March 25.
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