Spin, Lies, and Misinformation
"When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies." --Michael Ende, writing in The Neverending Story
When it comes to the current information we consume, there are two paths to being untrustworthy: spin and lies.
For instance, when KUSI ran a story about Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey running for county supervisor, they characterized incumbent Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer as a “Far-left Democrat. There was no mention of Bailey’s past association with the fringy Awaken Church, which people who study emerging authoritarian groups say is ‘far right.’
That’s spin, although there is not really a commonly accepted definition for “far-left” elected officials. Since the Dear Leader is now characterizing Democrats in general as communists, the newshounds at KUSI could say they were just following orders.
The misinformation game is a bit more complicated. It’s a lie stacked on top of other lies with both horizontal and vertical connections to conspiracy oriented individuals or institutions. Misinformation goes beyond distortion of a fact; it’s part of a fallacious universe. And fighting misinformation requires more than rebutting a specific lie.
Recently, we’ve had a dandy misinformation controversy receiving major media coverage. Podcaster and big mouth Joe Rogan hosted Robert F Kennedy, Jr for a three hour talk-fest best described as a torrent of lies.
Kennedy, is running for president as a Democrat, and currently has the highest favorability rating of all presidential candidates, Democrat or Republican. His campaign seems focused on courting the crazies on the right for support. He dances around popular conspiracy theories and uses discredited or unverified research published by his non-profit to bolster his claims.
Mostly he’s being touted as the anti-vaxx candidate, but he’s willing to discuss other topics like chemicals in drinking water facilitating gender body dysmorphia in boys, Wifi radiation opening up the blood-brain barrier so toxins can gain access to the brain, and climate policy as part of an international conspiracy involving Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum.
After the show, vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez took to social media to describe the Rogan/Kennedy exchange as “nonsense” and “misinformation,” Rogan offered the scientist $100,000 to debate RFK Jr on his podcast.
Hotez declined the offer, setting off a storm of social media garble-garble. He was wise to do so, because they wouldn’t have been “debating” vaccines; the assumptions going into antecedent anti-science arguments would make rational discourse impossible.
What Rogan was really trying to do was to stage a Jerry Springer type fight to get big ratings.
So, misinformation involves distribution of one falsehood that relies on pre-existing incorrect data. It is, in case you haven’t noticed, something that Donald Trump is actually good at.
As ahistorical and anti-science statements have taken the place of principles and truth among hard-core MAGAts, this type of deception has become the basis of most day-to-day activities among Republicans.
Republicans in the House of Representatives started out to impeach Joe Biden on Wednesday, based on falsehoods about hordes storming over the Mexican border, when in fact the current administration kept Trump’s restrictions in place until last month. Since new policies concerning eligibility for asylum have gone in effect, numbers of border crossers have fallen drastically. (The resolution was sidetracked into committees where it presumably will die.)
The facts had changed, but the unwinnable effort (they didn’t have the votes) continued for a while, especially after the former president threatened to primary any Republican voting against it.
Name any issue conservatives are touting these days and you’ll find it based on misinformation. Locally, the best example is homelessness, where localities are being asked by Republicans to make themselves ineligible for federal and state funding so the logical outcome is that unhoused humans can be jailed. Their words about services for addicts and mentally ill people are unrealistic; the medical personnel and facilities simply don’t exist.
Side Note: Democrats nationally have been busy tinkering with laws making encampments illegal because they are frightened of the political consequences (angry mobs of people with places to live) of not getting “those” people off the street. Since there are not and won’t be anytime soon shelters/legal campgrounds to accommodate the rapidly growing numbers of displaced people, the ultimate solution will be… jail.
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The misinformation process is so dear to right wingers that they’ve launched efforts to attack universities, think tanks, and private researchers who specialize in fact checking. The goal of their lawsuits and legislative investigations is to make it impossible to distinguish between lies and truth.
From the New York Times:
The House Judiciary Committee, which in January came under Republican majority control, has sent scores of letters and subpoenas to the researchers — only some of which have been made public. It has threatened legal action against those who have not responded quickly or fully enough.
A conservative advocacy group led by Stephen Miller, the former adviser to Mr. Trump, filed a class-action lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Louisiana that echoes many of the committee’s accusations and focuses on some of the same defendants.
Targets include Stanford, Clemson and New York Universities and the University of Washington; the Atlantic Council, the German Marshall Fund and the National Conference on Citizenship, all nonpartisan, nongovernmental organizations in Washington; the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco; and Graphika, a company that researches disinformation online.
The reasoning behind these intimidating tactics is the belief that government officials effectively cajoled or coerced Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms into censoring “disfavored speech.”
There can be no doubt of the existence of ongoing relationships between government and social media. Foreign countries have routinely spread rumors and lies hoping to influence the public. Child pornographers nibble around the edges of restrictive posting policies to advertise their wares. Criminals use social media as a vehicle for countless scams. (This blockbuster story published today should concern everyone with a bank account.) And finally, extremist groups use social media to induce members of the public to participate in unseemly activities.
It’s that last relationship that conservatives are interested in protecting. For example, last year social media accounts distributed false accusations by politicians alleging the Biden administration was siccing the FBI on parents attending school board meetings.
The unsaid part of this accusation was that parents were fearful about issues that really weren’t issues or had been misrepresented. Library books are being tossed. Kids aren’t learning about Black history. And sex ed courses are being refashioned to suit religious sects. And then there is the matter of the Proud Boys gang being used to intimidate speakers.
Solving the problem of misinformation is going to be a difficult process. European countries have taken the lead by introducing digital literacy programs for students, public education, and fostering fertile ground for fact checking organizations.
That’s going to be a tough nut to crack in the USA, where the First Amendment is already being nibbled at around the edges, and there is a cottage industry of conservatives willing to scream censorship at the first hint of pushback against lies spread online.
The San Diego Union-Tribune has given digital workshops to groups explaining the basics of truth telling on the internet. MicroSoft and the Trust Project, a nonprofit consortium of news organizations, are publicizing a list of eight “ trust indicators,” useful in assessing a website’s credibility. They include things like the clear labeling of opinion pieces, an editorial statement of good practices and the attribution of sources.
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The good news for the media (all of us, including bloggers) is the newly reintroduced federal reporter’s shield law known as the PRESS Act. It has bipartisan support in both houses of congress and would have been enacted into law except for the objections of Sen. Tom Cotton, Republican from Texas. If nothing else, the law could keep congresscritters on a head hunt at bay.
Via the Freedom of the Press Foundation:
The PRESS Act would mean journalists can’t be threatened with crippling fines or jail time unless they cough up the names of confidential sources or other information about their newsgathering. It would also stop the federal government from spying on journalists through their phones, email providers, and other online services. This anti-surveillance provision is especially important in the digital age, when reporters often must use email, cloud, and messaging services, as well as social media, to communicate with sources or store their work.
The PRESS Act covers both professional and citizen journalists. It applies regardless of the perceived political leanings of a news outlet or reporter. In other words, it would shield a blogger or a Pulitzer Prize winner, a reporter for Fox News or Media Matters for America. It would stop administrations — either Democrat or Republican — from spying on journalists whose reporting angers or embarrasses them.
At the same time, the PRESS Act also has some limited exceptions that apply when necessary to prevent terrorism or imminent violence. These commonsense limits let us both protect reporters in the vast majority of cases and allow the government to compel disclosures in exceptional (and, at least so far in U.S. history, entirely hypothetical) instances where source confidentiality could somehow lead to terrorism or violence.
News Clips From a Free Press
Republican Presidential Candidates Once Again Wooing Admirers Of The Confederacy Via Huffpo. Who wants military bases named after traitors?
Bragg had won praise as an artillery officer during the Mexican-American War. After Southern states seceded following the election of Abraham Lincoln, Bragg was called to serve as a general in the Confederate army.
In that role, he quickly earned a reputation for both incompetence and cruelty. He executed a conscript for leaving his unit to visit his dying mother, despite the pleas of other top officers. At the same time, he was losing battle after battle, including one of the war’s most pivotal at Chattanooga, Tennessee, in late 1863. He later failed to hold the harbor in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1865, just weeks before the South’s surrender.
To Glatthaar, Bragg’s track record as a military commander is less significant when it comes to having his name grace a major Army installation than the fundamental fact of what he did: kill U.S. Army service members.
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This is exactly why abortion will play even worse for Republicans in 2024 Via Kerry Eleveld at Daily Kos.
Since the Dobbs ruling, voters' worst fears have been realized in story after story about those who are pregnant having difficulty accessing reproductive care, being deprived of standard procedures following a miscarriage, being forced to carry non-viable fetuses to term, and suffering unnecessary complications as a result of restricted care. Additionally, abortion-restricting states are losing their doctors, a problem particularly acute in rural areas.
One year later, more Americans are convinced the country has taken a turn for the worse following the fall of Roe, and none of those horror stories are going to end between now and Election Day next year.
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Australia to Elon Musk: Explain how you’re dealing with hate on Twitter Via the Washington Post. I’d say he’s encouraging it.
Australia has shown itself willing to take on social media giants in recent years.
In 2021, the government passed legislation forcing some social media companies to pay news organizations for content shared on their platforms. Facebook responded during negotiations by blocking all news links for Australian users — including health and vaccine information during the coronavirus pandemic — for about a week before it backed down.
In February, the Australian eSafety commission asked Twitter, TikTok, Google, YouTube, Twitch and Discord for information on how they are addressing child sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual extortion and the promotion of harmful content on their platforms.
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Something I don't understand about lies and misinformation... If it is illegal to shout "Fire" in a movie theater when there is no fire, then surely spewing lies and misinformation is also illegal.