This Prism newsletter strives to be the paper of record for all that’s happening in misinformation. For any citizen whose life is impacted by misinformation, it helps you see how storylines evolve from multiple, sourced angles on important stories in one place. For amateur and professional misinformation watchers, it is your go-to resource for updates on peers, platforms, propagandists, and politicians. Learn more about Prism and our other products on our Substack page, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook!
________________________________
Misinformation is the best lens through which to understand news about the world. Remove the garbage cluttering your view, and you’ll be able to more clearly see things as they are.
If you’re new to the ‘letter this week: welcome! If you’re old to the ‘letter: hey again! If you’re reading this and loving it: why not forward to a couple friends this week?
Get it all the weeks:
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. Special edition, January 6th!
We start with today’s January 6th coverage of the anniversary.
There was a memorial at the Capitol (New York Times, 44.72) and “vigils for democracy” in other parts of the country on the first anniversary of the January 6th attack. President Biden, speaking from inside the Capitol, emphasized the role of misinformation motivating the violence and urged Americans to be “clear about what is true and what is a lie” (NPR, 46.21) and called out his predecessor for the “web of lies” about the 2020 election that led to the attack (Washington Post, 43.82).
False narratives have also dominated the discourse about January 6th itself, as documented by PBS (48.74), USA Today (45.72), and others. With the aid of vast troves of video footage taken inside and outside the building that day, news organizations gave blanket coverage to what happened on that day (VICE, 41.42).
The former president issued a statement repeating a number of false claims about the election (@bernybelvedere via Twitter). Republicans tried to hit Biden’s speech for “politicizing” the attempt by political extremists, urged on by politicians, to undo the outcome of an inherently political democratic process (The Hill, 44.81).
The January 6th Committee, meanwhile, continued its work, revealing it had evidence that the White House had been told it needed to do something (Insider, 43.32) about what was happening down Pennsylvania Avenue, requesting the voluntary cooperation of Sean Hannity for his firsthand account of conversations with Trump and others (Axios, 45.66), and signaling that it will seek the cooperation of former Vice President Pence (CNN, 43.70).
Experts and journalists also published detailed analyses related to the attempt to subvert democracy and what it meant for extremism in America.
The Atlantic Council (-) with a nice roundup of several experts. Analysis by CNN (43.70) reporters Brian Stelter and Donie O’Sullivan.
Critical conservative views from Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal (46.00) and Amanda Carpenter in The Bulwark (34.89). Fox News (35.93) focused on how tense things still are.
New York Times (44.72) editorialized that “every day” is now January 6th, and NBC News (45.67) did an in-depth special called “The Riot and the Republic.”
Counterterrorism and domestic extremism expert Clint Watts published a three-part series on how things have evolved since the attack; we recommend checking out all three parts.
Finally, the January 6th mob was motivated by lies about the 2020 election, and that misinformation has remained constant, if not become further entrenched, since one year ago.
Through the House Committee’s investigation, a document was made public in which Rudy Giuliani and others laid out plans to overturn of the election, and it included a list of personalities, including probably-Q Ron Watkins, to blitz the media with “stolen” election-related justifications for unconstitutional move (VICE, 41.42).
Retrospectives came out on how social media companies including Parler (New America, -) and Facebook (ProPublica, 47.46) enabled the spread of election lies and facilitated the planning needed to coordinate their activities in Washington, DC on January 6th.
In a great debut on the disinformation reporting beat, Stuart Thompson published in The New York Times (44.72) about how important right-wing podcasts were for the election disinformationists in agitating the conservative masses to extralegal action.
Trump has shown no signs of laying off the gas; he intended to lay out his views on January 6th in a press conference on that day, but ultimately canceled and indicated he would share those thoughts at a rally in Arizona on January 15th instead (Wall Street Journal, 46.00). His former trade adviser, Peter Navarro, this week on MSNBC (37.18) described the violence-free attempt to overturn the election that the Trump inner circle really wanted to execute (Insider, 43.32). The GOP overall has gotten pretty comfortable, again, with going all in for whatever Trump wants to say about the election and January 6th (Media Matters, -).
Literally everything other topic we normally try to cover is in the grab bag this week, crowded out by the overwhelming importance and volume of the January 6th news: Twitter kicked Marjorie Taylor Greene off for COVID misinformation, and she was big mad; GETTR kicked Nick Fuentes off; Trump’s TRUTH Social looks set to launch in February; New York Times profiled the CrowdTangle founder who has become a leading critic of Facebook’s lack of transparency; QAnon has not gone away, and got all bothered by Betty White of all people; the Negative 48 Q-splinter cult in Dallas has plenty of merchandise; the Cyber Ninjas are left holding a very hefty bag after doing the Arizona “audit”; the interim results of the Texas “audit” were basically nothing new; Wisconsin went full steam ahead anyway; and the Secretary for Homeland Security spoke about how disinformation helps domestic extremist groups.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin