This Week in Misinformation: Aspen! Bannon! Shaman! Kenosha Bricks, Alex Jones, and COVID/Climate Denyin'!
18 November 2021
This Prism newsletter strives to be the paper of record for all that’s happening in misinformation. For any citizen whose life is impacted by misinformation, it helps you see how storylines evolve from multiple, sourced angles on important stories in one place. For amateur and professional misinformation watchers, it is your go-to resource for updates on peers, platforms, propagandists, and politicians. Learn more about Prism and our other products on our Substack page, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook!
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NOTE: This Week in Misinformation will not publish on 25 November due to the Thanksgiving holiday. We look forward to being back at ya the following week.
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 four stories.
We’re starting, if you can even believe it, with something positive tonight: the Aspen Institute’s star-studded project to address “information disorder” culminated in a big report rollout this week.
The Aspen Digital Commission on Information Disorder set out with big names like Katie Couric, Rashad Robinson, and Prince Harry (Fast Company, 41.76) then added several heavy hitters on the anti-misinformation scene, including former Department of Homeland Security official Chris Krebs (Bloomberg, 45.75), and then conducted an in-depth review of the issues. It interviewed more than a dozen experts for the commissioners’ benefit and released them as a podcast.
After months of assessing what needed to be done, the Commission this week published 15 recommendations across three focus areas: increase transparency, build trust, and reduce harms. We highly recommend their recommendations.
The Aspen Tech Policy Hub announced a prize competition to go along with the report’s recommendations, with proposals due in January. All who have ideas for putting a dent in misinformation, please consider entering!
The federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate is officially on pause, while some who reluctantly got the shot to keep their job are trying to “undo” it.
OSHA suspended moves toward enforcing its pending rule that large businesses must require vaccination or weekly testing by January after a federal appeals court reaffirmed a lesser court’s stay on the emergency temporary standard (CBS News, 46.93). The case, which is a rollup of several states’ lawsuits against the federal government, will go to the Sixth Circuit Court in Ohio, apparently as determined by the drawing of a ping pong ball (CNN, 42.92).
Meanwhile, people are eating up content on TikTok that purports to reverse the effects of the vaccine once injected (NBC News, 45.67)—despite this being quite impossible. Others, like a ring of New York City sanitation workers, never got the shot but faked documentation saying they did (New York Times, 44.72).
Consequences caught up with more election truthers, and the Republican Party of Wyoming is disowning Liz Cheney because she doesn’t indulge “Trump won” falsehoods.
Steve Bannon, who told Congress he would not provide testimony or documents related to his role in the January 6th Capitol attack as required by subpoena, was indicted for criminal contempt (U.S. Department of Justice), turned himself in (Washington Post, 43.82), and pleaded not guilty (Bloomberg, 45.75), and was released pending trial (CNN, ), all while vowing to take down the Biden administration (Newsweek, 39.37).
Jacob Chansley—the January 6th foot soldier dressed in furs, horns, and body tattoos—received a sentence of 41 months in prison for his crimes that day (Reuters, 48.82). The Q community, which once embraced Chansley as its “shaman,” is now seemingly under the impression that the imprisoned man is an actor paid by the deep state (@2021_Karma via Twitter).
Authorities raided the Colorado home of Tina Peters (Daily Beast, 36.65), the county clerk who gained notoriety over the summer for leaking documents to Q personality Ron Watkins and attending Mike Lindell’s cyber symposium. She is being investigated for taking illegal actions under the belief that the election was stolen.
January 6th Committee co-chair Liz Cheney has been ejected from the Wyoming GOP (Associated Press, 49.34) because of her refusal to stop calling out Trump’s election lies and incitement of the Capitol attack. In Arizona, meanwhile, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer started a political action committee to support election realist, “pro-democracy” Republican candidates (AZ Mirror, 43.70).
In an interview, Trump said it was “common sense” that his supporters would chant “hang Mike Pence” on January 6th (Washington Post, 43.82). Trump’s “Kraken” attorney Sidney Powell reportedly called a senior Pentagon official in the weeks after the election to request support getting CIA Director Gina Haspel our of a fake foreign election-interference jam in Germany (ABC News, 46.65). Mike Flynn also wanted the military to seize ballots and overturn Trump’s loss (Rolling Stone, 38.77).
A couple misinformation points to report about the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Kenosha, Wisconsin, notably the return of the much-vaunted piles of bricks.
As arguments concluded this week, the judge in the case defended his instruction that the people Rittenhouse shot should not be referred to as “victims” because the one of them still living was a plaintiff in the case and that using that word could be prejudicial (The Hill, 44.81). He criticized the media for “misinformation” related to this and other aspects of the proceedings.
Bricks! This newsletter did not exist in summer 2020, but right-leaning misinformationists are taking us all back to those days as we await the verdict in the Rittenhouse case. Some in Q world, including Ron Watkins (@2021_Karma via Twitter), have started seeing bricks everywhere in Kenosha (@Shayan86 via Twitter), hinting darkly that they have been delivered for the express purpose of giving antifa something to throw. Others, to their credit, are pointing out that the recycled photos being shared are old and not from Kenosha (@2021_Karma via Twitter).
Finally, it’s time for the stories just weird enough to mention, but not major enough to feature. The grab bag: Alex Jones is found liable for his Sandy Hook lies, promptly begs for cash from InfoWars viewers; the Ron Watkins campaign has raised nil; Q-friendly misinformationist and Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers, however, is doing great; The Reno 911 franchise is doing a QAnon-themed movie; journalists are diving deeper on the Dallas Q-splinter cult of Michael Protzman; a Nevada man produced evidence of voter fraud—but only by him; Twitter unveils shiny new misinformation labels; the Trump White House stopped the CDC from publishing COVID data; and COVID denial is morphing into climate denial.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin