This Week in Misinformation: Missing Sub, The Debate That Wasn't, Exonerating Ms. Ruby
22 June 2023
Keeping up on misinformation is basically the best thing you can do for your brain. So glad you’re here!
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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 stories.
Tragedy struck the same spot twice in the North Atlantic.
Days after the world learned that the Titan submersible, on its way almost 13,000 feet under the sea to the wreckage of Titanic of water (CNN, 42.18), lost contact with its surface ship, rescue crews reported that its five passengers had died all at once early in its journey (USA Today, 41.89). The immense pressure of being so deep apparently triggered a catastrophic implosion of the vessel, judging from the field of new debris found on the ocean floor near Titanic (BBC, 46.15).
Well before this conclusion was reported, a host of conspiracy theories ran amok about the Titan and its fate online. You had a fake CNN story (Associated Press, 48.40), Donald Trump Jr trying out some conspiracy ideation on Twitter, and a bunch else besides (@this_is_mallory via Twitter).
An expert who had previously reported on the adventure tourism company explained how the news it went missing triggered an avalanche of misinformed commentary about the sub (NBC News, 44.85). Unless these early perceptions are disrupted quickly, Titan seems destined to end up—like Titanic herself (New York Times, 41.97)—the subject of unfounded theories for decades to come.
A podcast guy unsuccessfully challenged a scientist to “debate” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Readers of this newsletter know well that presidential hopeful RFK Jr. has earned a reputation as a promoter and articulator of fringe theories about a number of important issues (ABC News, 46.23), and this has implications for whether we really want to put him in charge of the executive branch (NBC News). Last week Joe Rogan had Kennedy on his show, Kennedy did his thing, and a vaccine scientist named Dr. Peter Hotez tweeted an article pointing out the ways the interview vectored misinformation to Rogan’s massive audience of already pretty vaccine-skeptical people (@jayvanbavel via Twitter).
Rogan offered to donate $100,000 to charity if Hotez would come on his show with Kennedy. When Hotez declined (rightly, in my opinion), who else but Elon Musk jumped in to goad and taunt Hotez, going so far as to say he shouldn’t call himself a scientist if he won’t debate on demand. Musk’s characterizations of Hotez were generally wrong (Forbes, 40.91), as were a number of other rumors going around (@PeterHotez via Twitter) that went against what is easily known about the man (NPR, 43.26). Billionaire and sports enthusiast Mark Cuban went after Rogan and Musk in defense of Hotez (Fortune, 44.49), while professional athlete Aaron Rodger took the opportunity to lean into his anti-vaccine public persona by attacking Hotez (New York Post, 33.41).
The predictable result of people with millions of followers painting you as a villain is that, as happened in this case, some of those followers will take it very seriously and confront the villain in the real world (Washington Post, 38.16). No wonder after this incident that more scientists are concluding that Twitter is a bad place for science these days (Axios, ).
Ending on a happy note: Ms. Ruby of Georgia was given a clean slate after Trump and others baselessly smeared her for years.
It has been more than two and a half years since 2020 election deniers began accusing Ruby Freeman and her daughter, election workers, of cheating to help Biden win (ABC News).
Turns out those claims were simply made up, as we learned this week from an official State of Georgia report on an investigation into the allegations (NBC News).
Guess who reported a ton on Freeman’s supposedly nefarious scheming and has not given a single minute to the Georgia investigation clearing her name? Fox News (24.83).
Let’s go now to the fabulous, one-of-a-kind grab bag: Durham answers, poorly, for his report in front of Congress; the one-time Oath Keepers attorney is herself ruled incompetent to stand trial for January 6th crimes; the guy who tased Michael Fanone shouts "Trump won" as he is sentenced to more than 12 years; InfoWars’s Owen Shroyer will plead guilty in January 6th case; Barack Obama says "digital fingerprints" could be the solution to deepfakes; Republicans in Congress are targeting disinformation researchers; a fake tweet circulates with the claim that Sam Bankman-Fried would walk free; and growth in misinformation is clearly outpacing growth in fact-checking.
All that, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin