This Week in Misinformation: Russia Video Fake-Out, Trump 'Overturn' Admission, Rogan Apology, Wordle, Burning Books
3 February 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 three stories.
Disinformation and foreign policy were on the front pages as the U.S. sought to expose Russia for its attempts to make a fabricated case for invading Ukraine on false premises.
The U.S. Government announced its assessment that Russia was preparing to produce a video of a phony Ukrainian attack on Russian forces (CBS News, 46.75). The fake video would have actors and modified military equipment and be scripted to justify a falsely retaliatory Russian invasion (New York Times, 44.72).
In recent weeks, the Biden Administration has been vocal about the possibility that Russia could launch a war against its neighbor (The Hill, 43.30) and has been calling out examples of what it sees as the disinformation aspects of Russia’s style of warfare (Axios, 45.61).
There has been so much talk about Russian disinformation targeting Ukraine that NBC’s Saturday Night Live opened its program with a sketch portraying Biden receiving an over-the-top briefing on it in the Oval Office (CNN, 42.70). It has some funny moments, and we also have issues with its treatment of our pet issue that we will unpack hopefully soon.
Closer to home, former president Donald Trump called on his supporters to be ready to mob Washington, D.C. and other American cities if law enforcement makes a move against him.
Trump said he wanted to see the “biggest protest ever” in U.S. history (Newsweek, 38.14) in the event he is held accountable for his wrongdoing by prosecutors’ “illegal” actions (The Hill, 43.30). The DA investigating Trump for crimes in Georgia, felt compelled to ask the FBI for security assistance after his statement was broadcast (Associated Press, 48.97).
The Florida man may be reacting to a flurry of revelations about his involvement in crimes, for example reports this week that he directly asked parts of the federal government to seize voting machines after the election (New York Times, 44.72), or that his lieutenants concocted a plan to pull raw internet traffic from the National Security Agency to prove foreign powers tricked everyone into thinking Biden won (Washington Post, 43.85).
The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution got a lot of use this week as Trump ally (CNN, 42.70) after Trump ally (Politico, 43.33) invoked it to avoid incriminating themselves when the January 6th Committee questioned them under oath. The Committee has won many of its legal scrapes with Trump (Politico, 43.33) and secured troves of documents and testimony, but some witnesses might be less willing to cooperate after Trump indicated he would pardon those involved in the Capitol attack if he wins in 2024 (Reuters, 48.79).
Trump also directed fire at his former VP, writing in an official statement that Pence could have “overturned the election” but chose not to (@rothschildmd via Twitter). [Editor’s note: overturning elections is wrong.] Trump further said that the January 6th Committee should investigate Pence for not extra-constitutionally handing the election to him (Newsweek, 38.14). [Editor’s note: This, as well, is wrong.]
One hopes that this can be the end of talking about it for a while, but the Spotify saga feat. Joe Rogan was, once again, everywhere this week.
Joni Mitchell, a polio survivor and vaccine appreciator, announced she would stand with Neil Young and pull her music from the platform for doing nothing about the COVID misinformation platformed on Rogan’s show. Many other artists (Washington Post, 43.85) and podcasters (The Hill, 43.30) joined the walk-out, too.
Under pressure, Spotify disclosed that it had a policy on moderating false content. Despite its criteria being weak and badly enforced according to misinformation experts (@abbieasr via Twitter), and the fact that it pays to exclusively carry (@reckless via Twitter), not just allow to exist, the Joe Rogan Experience, many on the right still framed Spotify’s statement as a cave to the woke mob (@QOrigins via Twitter).
Rogan himself posted a video to Instagram thanking Spotify for its support, apologizing to the “haters,” and saying he wanted to do better by balancing out the controversial guests with more people that have mainstream views. There are many issues with the statements Rogan made, including some of it being misinformation; we took a stab at outlining these in the first-ever Prism Pop Culture Note. In the end, too, Rogan demonstrated that he learned pretty much nothing when he amplified a goofed Reuters headline (@kenklippenstein via Twitter) about an ivermectin study out of Japan. Oh, well. Maybe next time.
We wish we could feature everything! But since we can’t, we grab bag: obsessing over Wordle might help people obsess less about QAnon; QAnon people get the National Butterfly Center to shut its doors; ESPN scoops Tom Brady’s retirement announcement citing anonymous sources; Ron Watkins beefs with Wendy Rogers; a Long Island nurse is arrested for selling phony COVID-19 vaccination cards; Republican state legislatures want to make it easier for doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin; Google stops serving ads on Dan Bongino’s website; India seeks tougher action from tech companies on fake news; people are embellishing and miscaptioning pictures to further a narrative about Canada’s trucker “freedom convoy”; and ‘Maus‘ sales are soaring while a right wing pastor literally burns books.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin