This Week in Misinformation: Desert Rally Weirdness, Giuliani and Powell and Ivanka, Alex Jones-Oath Keepers, DirecTV-OAN, YouTube-Bongino
20 January 2022
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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.
First, the former president’s “Save America” rally in Arizona had some old misinformation, some new stuff (about race!), and some really very extreme strains of conspiracy thinking.
Donald Trump, predictably, played his greatest hits election and January 6th falsehoods set list (New York Post, 33.74). Other speakers, including elected Republicans and hopefuls for statewide office, went right along with all of it (Phoenix New Times, -).
What was new this time: Trump made some patently wrong assertions about how white people are being forced to go to the “back of the line” for COVID treatments (Associated Press, 49.00). Possibly he got this talking point from watching Tucker Carlson (The Independent, 41.74).
A few folks in attendance even believed that Trump might not be Trump (The Independent, 41.74), including many cult followers of Michael Protzman who splintered off from the main QAnon movement to take up residence in Dallas last year (VICE, 41.42).
The January 6th Committee demanded answers from people close to Trump and scored a major legal win for its investigation.
The committee announced it had handed down subpoenas to compel testimony and documents from key members of Trump’s election lawyer team Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, among others. Powell indicated through her attorney she would appear and answer questions (@AnaCabrera via Twitter).
Later in the week, the committee sent an 11-page letter asking Ivanka Trump to share her account of her father’s activities on January 6th, laying out specific points of inquiry corresponding to evidence already given to investigators (Washington Post, 43.80).
At the Supreme Court, the former president’s bid to keep records from being turned over to the committee met its final end (Bloomberg, 45.75). The committee tweeted that it had already begun receiving some of the documents it had been seeking (via Twitter).
Alex Jones had a lot of thoughts about the Oath Keepers, whom he had previously platformed and promoted, after they were arrested for sedition last week.
InfoWars host and seasoned disinformation artist Alex Jones (6.67) seemed at a loss for what to make of the indictment of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and several others who conspired with him to execute sedition (New York Times, 44.76). On the one hand, Jones defended the man whose messaging he helped amplify for years (CNN, 42.97) as having done “absolutely nothing” and confusingly blamed the indictment on Ted Cruz for asking questions about Ray Epps (@RonFilipkowski via Twitter). On the other hand, Media Matters (-) reported that Jones spoke privately with Tucker Carlson about whether the Oath Keepers might have been “feds” to set up him and his media company. What to believe?
On the personal side of things, Rhodes’s estranged wife went on CNN and said that he is a “complete sociopath” and that she was relieved when he was arrested (Daily Beast, 36.96)
Back to Tucker, the popular Fox News entertainer (22.37) wasted no time after the indictment to have one of the alleged seditionists on his program (Fox News, 36.08) to make the case that the Oath Keepers were on the right side of a “good vs. evil” struggle on January 6th (Newsweek, 39.37). This framing makes sense when you consider how Tucker has effectively rewritten January 6th in the minds of his audience so that it is understood only as oppressive left-wing persecution of righteous patriots, a la his film “Patriot Purge.”
Finally, DirecTV and YouTube took action against known sources of misinformation OAN (25.30)and Dan Bongino (14.29).
One America News (25.30), which relies on DirecTV for a substantial share of its total revenues, was booted by the satellite content distributor (Reuters, 48.79) for reasons that aren’t entirely transparent (Newsweek, 39.37). OAN gained media market share in the past year for being willing to go to bat for Trump’s election lies and COVID-related disinformation (CNN, 42.97), competing in that space with Newsmax (28.22) who both want to peel viewers off from Fox News (36.08). OAN appealed to its viewers to call AT&T to protest the decision (Times of San Diego, -), and Rand Paul answered the call by saying he would cancel his personal DirecTV subscription (The Hill, 42.67). Take that!
Google’s YouTube temporarily suspended and demonetized popular talk show host Dan Bongino (14.29) for violating its policy on COVID misinformation (Forbes, 43.81). Bongino wore it as a badge of honor, claiming without basis as many have before that Big Tech unfairly targets conservative points of view (Washington Examiner, 34.15).
Oh, that reminds me about the time 270 doctors and scientists begged Spotify to just have a policy at all after Joe Rogan blasted COVID misinformation all across its platform (Fox News, 36.08). Last we checked, Spotify has not even acknowledged the letter, to say nothing of announcing a response or new policy (The Independent, 41.74).
Grab bag: Smartmatic sues Mike Lindell; a “digital army” is out counting (2020!) votes for Trump; Lin Wood to fund a truther “audit” in New Mexico; the story of a man who left QAnon after January 6th; Facebook parenting groups are targets for misinformation; right-wing media mischaracterizes New York City voting policy, to the surprise of no one; and snark over CNN’s new misinformation team and hiring of Rex Chapman.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin