This Week in Misinformation: Dominion v. Fox, Proud Boys v. Trump, Sy Hersh v. Objective Reality
16 February 2023
Keeping up on misinformation is basically the best thing you can do for your brain. So glad you’re here!
Reader challenge: either fire back a note with a quick piece of feedback that would make this newsletter better for you, OR fire this email forward to a friend who would be interested in one of the three headline stories. I dare you.
And here be the magic button:
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.
2020 elections update: Dominion Voting Systems has filed for a default judgment against Fox News in its defamation suit.
Though it isn’t the only company (Reuters, 47.40) suing Fox News for knowingly lying about them on air, the Dominion case took center stage because its court filing thoroughly and entertainingly exposed how well Fox knew that what it said about them were lies (Reuters, 47.40).
You should read the evidence for yourself (courtesy @willsommer), but here is the New York Times (42.48) treatment of the text messages and other proof that on-air personalities and off-screen executives were nowhere close to genuinely believing the false stuff the network was blasting out after Trump lost.
This week also further established that the Trump campaign had nothing to back up its claims of widespread fraud and that election denialism is a political loser (Washington Post, 38.35). Maybe next time we can just have concession speeches and skip the hysterics? Please?
January 6th update: the Special Counsel and the Proud Boys agree Trump and his inner circle should testify.
DoJ’s Jack Smith has issued a grand jury subpoena to compel Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to be a witness in his investigation, according to CNN (42.45). Meadows was a central player in the January 6th drama, including his texts with just so many people after the election, his management of the fake electors scheme with Rudy Giuliani , and his failure to persuade the President to stop the attack. (See The Prism Guide to January 6th voice essay for more on Meadows.)
Over in court, meanwhile, Proud Boys defendants moved to have the judge subpoena Donald Trump himself (New York Times, 42.48), as in their opinion he should be on trial for seditious conspiracy instead of they.
Nord Stream explosion update: There are good reasons to be skeptical of the tale published last week by legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
First, look at how the parts about underwater sounds make no sense (@Mauro_Gilli via Twitter).
Second, consider that major details like the Norwegian ship that is supposed to have been involved could not possibly have been involved (@OAlexanderDK via Twitter).
And third, last for now, an OSINT review of the last decade of Hersh’s reporting (@EliotHiggins via Twitter) betrays an apparently ideologically-motivated willingness to play fast and loose with facts. My opinion? Hersh has lost it and we should wait for corroboration on this one.
Getta loada this grab bag: a buncha conspiracy accounts coordinate on a narrative about the Ohio train derailment; the QAnon Queen of Canada wants followers to shoot migrants; Alex Jones holds on to some guns for a few of the January 6th insurrectionists; tech platforms are kinda giving up on doing whatever they’ve been doing about misinformation, which isn’t great because Mark Cuban and others are sounding the alarm that AI will exacerbate our current problems; Twitter rushed to publish research on misinformation before Uncle Elon could shut it down; TikTok announces adverse action against Russian influence networks misleading Europeans; there is at least one squad of mercenaries who hack and do disinformation to sway elections around the world; Moscow prosecutes a long-running disinformation front in its war against Ukraine; misinformation about the International Space Station is spreading on Earth; and this study shows Americans are becoming convinced that news organizations are trying to deceive them.
All that, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin