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This Week in Misinformation: Lying Costs Fox $787.5 Billion, 2024 Looking Not Great, Twitter Shoots Own Foot

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This Week in Misinformation: Lying Costs Fox $787.5 Billion, 2024 Looking Not Great, Twitter Shoots Own Foot

20 April 2023

Prism Metanews
Apr 21, 2023
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This Week in Misinformation: Lying Costs Fox $787.5 Billion, 2024 Looking Not Great, Twitter Shoots Own Foot

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It’s been a week! We’re staying off Twitter and enjoying the Substack renaissance with the release of Notes. See you around the ‘stack?

Keeping up on misinformation is basically the best thing you can do for your brain. So glad you’re here!

Give this newsletter a share, won’t you? Posting a snippet to social can be a good taste for people in your network, or sending this email directly also tends to work well. 🙂

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.

Dominion got a humongous payout from Fox News over lies about its election systems.

  • While Dominion went in saying Fox would pay up to $1.6 billion for defaming it (Wall Street Journal, 44.35), the two parties came to an agreement suddenly as the trial was beginning (New York Times, 42.26). The settlement is $787.5 million (CNBC, 44.96), which is several times the value of the voting-machine company. 

  • Fox does not appear to be required to recant or apologize beyond a tepid written statement, but despite the cable channel’s efforts to redact materials (NBC News, 45.14) the reality that it made 20 specific false statements about Dominion on its air (CNN, 42.39) is in the public record forever. Depending on who you ask, the settlement itself is either the beginning of a long nightmare for Rupert Murdoch (Jeffrey Sonnenfeld via Time, 41.54) or, you know, maybe not that big a deal when you consider how much money Fox has (NBC News).

  • No matter where you land on that question, two things seem certain: the very similar case being brought by the much larger Smartmatic (Reuters, 47.35) looks dim for Fox, and election falsehoods will continue to circulate (Washington Post, 37.89) no matter how these lawsuits play out.

There were presidential announcements and rumors of presidential announcements.

  • He definitely seems to be running, but the report that Florida’s Ron DeSantis had filed to launch his campaign for president was false (Newsweek, 35.30). One tip-off: South Dakota’s Kristi Noem is supposedly named as his running mate on the form, but vice presidential candidates are *never* chosen in this way, or this early. On the real news side, Trump supporter but overall 2020 election truth-facer Larry Elder announced he would challenge the former president in the Republican primary (CNN).

  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also announced that he would challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination (CBS News, 44.09), a notable turn of events for conspiracy theory-watchers because the nephew of JFK has made his name as a purveyor of vaccine disinformation (NBC News)--and offending Holocaust survivors with inappropriate comparisons--for many years. Meanwhile, we’re told that President Biden may announce his reelection bid as early as next week (New York Times).

  • Between DeSantis, RFK Jr., and the clownery that nowadays passes for politics (Agence France Presse, 48.05), it seems certain that polarization will continue to fuel problems like medical misinformation (Faye Flam via Washington Post) in the 2024 cycle.

Elon Musk instituted a new verification policy at Twitter that is counterproductive and apparently applied arbitrarily.

  • It’s been in the works for some time, and this was the week that the bird site removed the blue checks from accounts that had been verified under the old regime but refuse now to pay $8 per month for Twitter Blue (New York Times). It wasn’t the company’s only regressive change this week (PBS, 47.01), but it has deep implications for how information will be put out and received.

  • No one was safe. Those who lost checks included the pope, J.K. Rowling, a slew of government entity and emergency service accounts, and the IRS’s many handles--raising the prospect for confusion when these are inevitably impersonated by scammers and pranksters. One imposter posing as the New York City government official account has already boldly rolled the actual New York City government official account, which had been stripped of its verification badge.

  • A developing angle we’ll watch: some power users kept their blue checks despite insisting they haven’t paid (The Verge, 44.19). For the moment, Elon has copped to comping “just” Will Shatner, LeBron James, and Stephen King. No word on why these three and not others, but presumably keeping them as content producers and engagement drivers is worth more than $24 per month (he’s so close to getting it!).

One grab bag to rule them all, one grab bag to bind them: anonymous “ninjas” are on the front lines of Twitter’s climate change denialism war; TikTok commits to enforcing a ban on climate change misinformation; the Justice Department charges U.S. citizens and Russian intelligence officers with conspiring to use U.S. Citizens as illegal agents of the Russian Government; Russia makes a lot of fake social media accounts and mostly gets away with it; a journal article dives deep on COVID-19 lockdown revisionism; a conspiracy theory experts explains the American roots of QAnon; a Proud Boy defendant invokes the ol’ Ray Epps conspiracy theory at trial; and, we’re not unhappy to report, Mike Lindell will have to make good on the $5 million he promised cyber experts in exchange for demonstrating his data did not prove election fraud.

All that, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.

-- Kevin


JANUARY 6TH

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe testifies to grand jury in January 6 probe (CNN)
Former DNI John Ratcliffe is latest Trump adviser to appear before Jan. 6 grand jury: Sources (ABC News)
Judge in Proud Boys case denies mistrial motion after jurors report being followed (CNN)
Proud Boy who helped ignite Capitol breach tells jury he got ‘caught up’ in Jan. 6 chaos (Politico)
Proud Boy testifies at Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy trial (NBC News)
Proud Boys members testify in Jan. 6 sedition case: 'It was a terrible day' (ABC News)
Proud Boys defendant testifies in seditious conspiracy trial and says police agitated mob on January 6 (CNN)
Jan. 6 rioter invokes Ray Epps conspiracy theory at Proud Boys trial (NBC News)
Proud Boys Trial Hit by a Series of Setbacks (Newsweek)
Rioter who organized 'fighters' on Jan. 6 pleads guilty, agrees to cooperate with DOJ (NBC News)
Capitol rioter who was armed with gun is found guilty on all charges (NBC News)
Justice Department to seek longest sentence in any Jan. 6 riot case so far (CBS News)
Man who assaulted DC police officer on January 6 sentenced to more than seven years (CNN)

ELECTIONS

Fox News Is on Trial, and So Are Falsehoods About 2020 (New York Times) 
Fox News, Dominion Prepare for Battle in $1.6 Billion Defamation Trial (Wall Street Journal) 
Fox News-Dominion defamation trial moves to opening arguments (CNBC)
Dominion vs. Fox News: The case against conspiracy theories (CBS News)
Fox News, Dominion settle defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million (Washington Post)
Fox to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle election defamation lawsuit (CNBC)
How Hard Lines in Fox-Dominion Deal Talks Suddenly Softened (New York Times)
Here are the 20 specific Fox broadcasts and tweets Dominion says were defamatory (CNN)
See what Fox News tried to redact in the Dominion defamation case (NBC News)
Analysis: 4 takeaways from the Dominion v. Fox settlement (Aaron Blake via Washington Post)
Analysis: Putting the massive Fox News settlement in perspective (@pbump via Washington Post)
Opinion: The Dominion Settlement Is Just the Beginning of Fox and Rupert Murdoch's Nightmare (Jeffrey Sonnenfeld via Time)
Stephen Colbert says Fox News-Dominion settlement 'does nothing for our democracy' (USA Today)
Fox likely to see limited business fallout from a settlement that could remake Dominion (NBC News)
What’s Next for Dominion After Its $787.5 Million Settlement With Fox News? (New York Times)
Fox News still faces $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic (Washington Post)
Fox faces similar defamation case from Smartmatic after Dominion settlement (CNBC)
Fox Has Settled One Voting Machine Company’s Defamation Case. Another Looms. (Wall Street Journal)
Fox resolves Dominion case, but $2.7 billion Smartmatic lawsuit looms (Reuters)
After Fox settlement, experts warn election falsehoods will persist (Washington Post)
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data (CNN)
Mike Lindell’s firm told to pay $5 million in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ election-fraud challenge (Washington Post)
Misinformation Defense Worked in 2020, Up to a Point, Study Finds (New York Times)

QANON & COMPANY

The American Roots of QAnon, Part One (Mike Rothschild)

COVID & HEALTH

Washington Post ‘new light’ op-ed and Peter Hotez’s response (via Twitter)
COVID-19 lockdown revisionism (Blake Murdoch and Timothy Caulfield via Canada Medical Association Journal)
New report from Senate Republicans doubles down on COVID lab leak theory (ABC News)
Republican Report on Covid Origins Pushes Lab Leak Hypothesis (Bloomberg)
Former Intelligence chief to say a lab leak is the 'only explanation' for COVID (Fox News)
Analysis: Political Polarization Fuels Medical Misinformation (Faye Flam via Washington Post)

PLATFORMS

CBC ‘pausing’ use of Twitter after ‘government-funded media’ label (PBS)
Twitter removes transgender protections from hateful conduct policy (CNN)
Twitter quietly changes its hateful conduct policy to remove standing protections for its transgender users (NBC News)
Twitter quietly removes policy against deadnaming transgender people (PBS)
Twitter Begins Removing Check Marks From Accounts (New York Times)
Elon Musk's Twitter begins purge of blue check marks (CNN)
Twitter’s legacy check mark removal hits celebrities, reporters and even the pope (NBC News)
Many official government and emergency service accounts now have no verification (@billdmccarthy via Twitter)
The IRS has multiple accounts, none are verified anymore (@jsrailton via Twitter)
There is a fake NYC gov account trolling the authentic one, which lost its check mark (@Shayan86 via Twitter)
Fake accounts and posts have popped up for public figures like J.K. Rowling and the Pope (@Shayan86 via Twitter)
LeBron James didn’t pay for his Twitter checkmark, but Elon gave it to him anyway (The Verge)
LeBron James, Stephen King deny paying for Twitter verification (The Verge)
Elon says he is paying just for ‘Shatner, LeBron, and King’ (via Twitter)
Facebook's local partners say hate speech stays on the platform (Insider)
Oversight Board Calls For Meta To Revisit Its Covid Misinformation Policies (Forbes)
YouTube rolls out new policies for eating disorder content (CNN)
TikTok to Start Enforcing Climate Change Misinformation Ban (Daily Beast)
Discord, the gaming haven infected with hate (The Times of London)
Parler shuts down as new owner says conservative platform needs big revamp (Ars Technica)

GOVERNMENT & POLICY

Opinion: Department of Homeland Security’s COVID censorship problem (Senator Rand Paul via The Hill)

INTERNATIONAL

Social-Media Account Overseen by Former Navy Noncommissioned Officer Helped Spread Secrets (Wall Street Journal) 
Russians boasted that just 1% of fake social profiles are caught, leak shows (Washington Post)
U.S. Citizens and Russian Intelligence Officers Charged with Conspiring to Use U.S. Citizens as Illegal Agents of the Russian Government (Department of Justice)

GENERAL/OTHER

Another fake presidential campaign started, this time for Ron DeSantis — feds won't stop it (Raw Story)
Ron DeSantis Has Not Filed To Run for President in 2024 Despite Reports (Newsweek)
Donald Trump Targets Ron DeSantis, Other GOP Foes on Social Security, Medicare (Wall Street Journal)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. formally announces bid for president (CBS News)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Soon to Announce White House Run, Sows Doubts About Vaccines (New York Times)
RFK Jr. focuses on family history and skirts anti-vaccine rhetoric in bid against Biden (NBC News)
Biden in Final Stage of ’24 Planning, With Announcement as Early as Tuesday (New York Times)
Larry Elder announces 2024 White House bid (CNN)
Marjorie Taylor Greene posts doctored beer photo of Lindsey Graham (Agence France Presse)
What could make a hoax call reporting a school shooting worse? Social media (NPR)
On TV, skepticism about the science of climate change is dying out — but whataboutism is filling the void (Nieman Lab)
The 'ninjas' fighting climate change denial on Twitter (BBC)
Dan Bongino Parts Ways With Fox News (Mediaite)
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This Week in Misinformation: Lying Costs Fox $787.5 Billion, 2024 Looking Not Great, Twitter Shoots Own Foot

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