This Week in Misinformation: Ohio Train Tracks, Putin Speech Facts, Tucker-J6 Security Cameras
23 February 2023
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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.
A train derailed in Ohio, and in its aftermath misinformation flourished.
First, some facts (Washington Post, 38.42).
Out on the Internet, people and also robots riffed on the disaster to weave conspiracy tales, for example that the wreck and fire were planned (Agence France Presse, 48.05). Basically, misinformation was everywhere shortly after the headlines started appearing (Gizmodo, -), causing fear on TikTok and otherwise wreaking unnecessary havoc (NBC News, 45.26).
While I’m not too sympathetic to the train operator Norfolk Southern when it tries to pin the blame for its terrible response on misinformation (Axios, 44.18), I would like to foot stomp what the person in charge of investigating train accidents said in asking people to stop making this about politics and relaying bad information related to the Ohio situation (Politico, 42.77).
An authoritarian warmonger gave a speech in Moscow, and in it he attempted to assign fault for his war of choice on others.
It has been a year since Vladimir Putin launched a massive, unprovoked offensive in his long-running invasion of sovereign neighbor Ukraine, and the Russian president commemorated the occasion by delivering a fact-challenged address about it all to his people (BBC, 46.15). Among other lies, he asserted that the West and Ukraine had started the war (CNBC, 45.15).
The speech also made headlines for his announcement of another kind of dishonesty: that Russia would no longer participate in the New START nuclear arms control agreement it signed with the United States (Associated Press, 48.80).
The Ukraine war has become a case study in Russian disinformation (Atlantic Council, -), for those inclined to learn from it. And it ain’t over yet (The Guardian, 43.74). Watch out especially for the fake-verified Russian accounts on Twitter (thanks, Elon!) (Washington Post, 38.42).
An historically weak Speaker of the House is giving exclusive access to January 6th security camera footage to one Tucker Carlson.
Tucker, whose relationship with reality has been somewhat distant of late (Insider, 42.50), found himself winning the right-wing propagandist lottery this week, as his producers have been given “unfettered access” to 44,000 hours of footage from the Capitol attack.
Sure, there are security concerns (NPR, 43.33) with revealing where all the cameras are on Capitol Hill. But to me, the greater problem is that Tucker has been on a mission for two years to change the narrative that has been so, so bad for Republicans into one where they aren’t responsible for the sedition and insurrection. Best guess? He pulls out a few instances that can be made to appear as if people disguised as Trump supporters--either antifa or “feds”--instigated peace-loving MAGA enthusiasts to violence and lawlessness.
Kevin McCarthy is defending this decision under criticism as the fulfillment of some kind of promise (The Hill, 43.36); one can only wonder to what that refers and why he is beholden to anyone on issues of national security. I hope the footage gets released to everyone now.
It’s not every day (but it is every week, okay) that you get a grab bag such as this: the new Arizona AG releases report debunking 2020 election misinformation that her predecessor kept from the public; legal experts think Fox News is in deep trouble after court filing; the Proud Boys thought they were doing a “revolution” to undo the 2020 election on January 6th; Rep. Greene pushes for a “national divorce”; election deniers and QAnon fabulists are taking over state Republican party organizations; Project Veritas forces out its singing, dancing leader; some are blaming windmills for whale deaths; ‘15-minute cities’ are a fashionable target for conspiracy theorists; chatbots are still quite awful in terms of misinformation; the Supreme Court hears a terrorism case with big implications for how platforms moderate content; and Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer is out with a new book on the Q thing.
All that, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin