It was travel and then medical things and then summer and then, last week, getting ready for an interview on a national radio program! To be perfectly frank, tonight would have been a great week to keep the skid going. But, as you will see, the news was not going to wait even one more day. Thanks readers for bearing with me, and thanks as always for taking care of your brain.
The radio appearance brought Prism to the attention of a lot of new folks this week, so a warm welcome to anyone giving this a first try. If you like, please share it with a good person or two.🙂
Reliability scores for media outlets cited in the summary are in parentheses for each, courtesy of the terrific folks at Ad Fontes Media.
Now, on to our top stories.
A federal judge temporarily barred the government from contacting social media companies.
Government officials were in almost daily contact with trust and safety teams at the big platforms until the Louisiana judge’s order halted all that jazz with one fell stroke (Reuters, 46.98). It’s the latest in the debate over whether government involvement with what content these sites choose to examine is appropriate (New York Times, 42.00).
The Biden administration quickly requested an injunction so agencies could continue to work with the platforms (Reuters); at first this was refused by the judge (PBS, 46.17), but the appeals court one level up granted a temporary reprieve while the government appealed the original decision (Vox, 40.12).
Limiting the flow of information between government officials who know things and social media sites that want to know them as well, it should be noted, certainly comes at a cost (New York Times).
The Justice Department and at least two states appear close to indicting Donald Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
We don’t know the details yet, but Trump indicated special counsel Jack Smith sent him a letter informing him he was a target of an investigation into January 6th and related happenings (CNBC, 44.60). This is the kind of notice that is given just before an indictment drops (New York Times), and there is reporting that Smith has been having all kinds of folks testify to his grand jury (CNN, 42.18). Lines of inquiry include whether Trump knew voting was secure (NBC News, 44.72), what his January 6th "war rooms" got up to (Rolling Stone, 26.97), and how Team Trump leaned on GOP officials (NBC News) in key states like Arizona (CNN).
The federal investigation, which let’s not confuse with the one for breaking Georgia election law (PBS), is focusing on Trump’s election-battle lawyers, according to The Wall Street Journal (43.65), for example the team that Rudy Giuliani led (CNN). Mr. Giuliani, in possibly related news, filed in a defamation case against him that he won't "contest" that he made false statements about election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss (Politico, 42.59).
Giuliani also spearheaded the effort to have unauthorized ballots for Trump made out and signed by Republicans in state capitols before January 6th, and now the fake electors who helped him are facing felony forgery charges in Michigan (NPR, 43.26) and possibly Arizona as well (AZ Central, 43.97).
Young Bronny James suffered cardiac arrest at a college basketball practice, and Elon Musk led the charge to blame COVID vaccines.
James, son of NBA star LeBron, is thankfully looking to make a full recovery (Associated Press, 48.40) from the incident.
Musk, as is the habit of many a conspiracy theorist these days (Media Matters, 26.44), immediately jumped in to suggest James’ vaccination-related myocarditis was the reason (The Hill, 42.69). At least two million people saw the tweet. Experts like this sports cardiologist (CNN) tended to urge caution in making the connection and to remember that getting COVID increases chances of myocarditis far more than the vaccine does.
A Community Notes correcting the record was posted alongside Musk’s unsubstantiated inference, that is until it wasn't (Forbes, 40.98). But don’t fret for Elon, even doctors who repeatedly put lives at risk by spreading false information about COVID are only rarely held accountable (Washington Post, 38.18).
No, there’s no place like grab bag for the holidays: a Senate report flames security agencies for not taking J6 threats seriously; Ray Epps sues Fox News for telling lies about him being a fed; over on TikTok the kids are drinking borax for some reason; sunscreen, oddly, is another subject of misinformation; a study finds that false information on Facebook during election season tends to hit conservative users disproportionately, but some researchers say don’t worry because the algorithm doesn't change that many minds anyway; tons of people lose their minds when a “liberal” Twitter account says racist things, and many fewer people discover it was always a fake; meanwhile, “conservative” accounts spewing all manner of horrors receive payouts for tweeting under Musk’s new incentive program; presidential hopeful RFK Jr. puts his deep end on display with a bigoted new COVID conspiracy theory; misinformation is responsible for tricking migrants into going to the U.S.; far-fetched claims leads to calls for a boycott of AMC theaters; theories that environmental pollution causes transgenderism reach the mainstream; VP Harris says “population” instead of “pollution” during a speech about the environment; state election officials brace for a wave of AI-fueled disinformation in 2024; Meta, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube say they have plans to address this, but Meta’s Threads is already quite large and seems to be lacking a policy.
All that, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin