
BREAKING the DEADLOCK: Truth Under Fire
Preview: 10/1/2025 | 1m 14sVideo has Closed Captions
Facing a gripping hypothetical dilemma, a panel of experts reckons with social media and truth.
Facing a gripping hypothetical dilemma—disinformation about a controversial school board decision spreading rapidly on social media—a panel of experts grapples with what is true, and what truth even means today. Watch the preview for BREAKING the DEADLOCK: Truth Under Fire.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Funding for this program was provided in part by grants from The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation and by a grant from Anne Ray Foundation and by contributions from viewers like you. Thank you. Location furnished by The New York Historical.

BREAKING the DEADLOCK: Truth Under Fire
Preview: 10/1/2025 | 1m 14sVideo has Closed Captions
Facing a gripping hypothetical dilemma—disinformation about a controversial school board decision spreading rapidly on social media—a panel of experts grapples with what is true, and what truth even means today. Watch the preview for BREAKING the DEADLOCK: Truth Under Fire.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch DEADLOCK
DEADLOCK is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Buy Now
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipThere's shock, anger, disbelief.
It's a video released 15 minutes ago on social media.
A voice yells out, bro, they're burning the Ten Commandments!
Has anybody actually proven that this video is real?
As long as I have all these followers, I'm going to be broadcasting like mad.
If it's cooking we can't stop it from cooking.
I don't trust technology.
I want a human being to tell me that they saw it.
500,000 views.
It's a parent's nightmare.
And you've got national politics involved.
State politics.
I didn't get to be where I am, but I just jumpin because somebody yelled at me.
We have not caused this.
Whoever did it did a horrendous thing that has divided our community.
You're going to get a lot of blowback when the truth comes out.
We would all do a little bit good to reach over and actually try to understand where they're coming from.
But it's the community and a country's opportunity to show forgiveness.
Who do you take yourself to be?
What kind of country do you want?
A Candidate’s Moment of Reckoning
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 4m 15s | A fake video, a high-stakes call, and an election on the line. Will truth or strategy win? (4m 15s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 3m 7s | Social media spreads voices—but does it spread truth? The battle for facts is far from over. (3m 7s)
The Cost of Victory: Why Truth Still Matters in Politics
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 3m 22s | When winning means sacrificing truth: a candidate’s reckoning with integrity and disinformation. (3m 22s)
Faith, Politics, and Media: A Classroom Showdown
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 5m 8s | When a classroom poster becomes a flashpoint—how should media handle the heat? Watch the clip. (5m 8s)
Game-Changing Confession and a Parent’s Nightmare
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 5m 38s | On election eve, a mother learns her son staged a viral stunt—what happens next? (5m 38s)
Truth vs. Politics: An Election Eve Dilemma
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 5m 43s | Hours before polls close, a candidate faces a choice: truth or power? (5m 43s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- News and Public Affairs
Top journalists deliver compelling original analysis of the hour's headlines.
- News and Public Affairs
FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.
Support for PBS provided by:
Funding for this program was provided in part by grants from The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation and by a grant from Anne Ray Foundation and by contributions from viewers like you. Thank you. Location furnished by The New York Historical.