This Week in Misinformation: Trucks and More Trucks, Pence vs. Trump vs. McConnell, How Not To Dispose of Presidential Records, 'Crack Pipes'
10 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.
Leading off, it’s the trucks in Canada’s capital. Well, some of the trucks. We’re mostly interested in the ones blocking roads and an international crossing and keeping people from sleeping with their drivers’ all-hours honking schtick.
The “Freedom Convoy,” which started as a protest against COVID vaccine mandates, has gotten so serious that the mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency this week (NPR, 44.55). As with many of the demonstrations against vaccine mandates, this one has at its heart some very serious misinformation about the vaccines themselves, including quite conspiracy theory-minded leadership (The Guardian, 43.84).
A lot of fake information has also cropped up alongside high-profile news coverage of and social media interest in the event, for example some of the pictures being widely shared online purporting to be from it are, in fact, not. There have also been false claims about the number of trucks demonstrating (National Post, -), mass resignations of Ottawa police officers (Reuters, 48.11), dramatic announcements by the Canadian armed forces (@ddale8 via Twitter), and more (CNN, 42.76).
Some people said they would love to see a convoy in the U.S. (CBC News, -), and it seems wishing might make it so. Tucker Carlson boosted the signal of a group planning a demonstration traveling from California to the nation’s capital on his show just on Thursday night (@acyn via Twitter). Looks like it won’t be in time for the Super Bowl, though--a certain disappointment to more than a few Telegram users who think the halftime show is Satanic (@coolfacejane via Twitter), but probably music to the Department of Homeland Security’s ears (Yahoo! News, -).
A weird thing happened with the convoy fan pages on Facebook, namely that many of them appear to have been astroturfed. The account of the Missouri woman who was listed as owner of these pages, with lots of followers all told, was reported to have been stolen from the real person who used to use that account (Grid News, -). Huh.
We have to do January 6th this week, but keeping it brief:
Mike Pence said Trump was wrong about the Vice President’s ability to overturn a certified election (New York Times, 44.36). Trump fired back at Pence, and looped in “Old Crow” Mitch McConnell, for not fighting to steal the election for a Republican (The Hill, 43.33).
The former president’s party reprimanded, but didn’t excommunicate, apostates Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for the sin of investigating the Capitol attack and opposing political violence and lies about election fraud (Washington Post, 43.28).
And back to McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader from Kentucky expressed his disagreement with the Republican National Committee’s decision to censure his House colleagues (NPR, 44.55). He also called the riot a “violent insurrection,” notable in that he hasn’t spoken out much against it since the immediate aftermath (@kylegriffin1 via Twitter).
A lot of official documents were torn up and left on the Resolute Desk by one Donald Trump. And those were the lucky ones.
The Washington Post (43.28) reported that Trump had a habit of just tearing up pieces of paper. As the papers in question were official presidential records, however, the Presidential Records Act makes all this ripping quite illegal. Some of the papers got taped together again by staffers (The Hill, 43.33), but still.
In a related story, a New York Times (44.36) reporter who covered the Trump White House wrote in her book that staffers would find toilets in the presidential mansion clogged with--you guessed it--torn up papers (Axios, 45.61). These must have been the ones he *really* didn’t want any nosy bureaucrats to keep for posterity.
More lawbreaking? You got it. As he was leaving Washington, Trump apparently had a bunch of things shipped down to his retirement villa in Florida (Washington Post, 43.28). Among the 15 boxes worth of stuff may have been several classified documents (New York Times, 44.36) that have been unsecured for longer than a year at Mar a Lago, prompting the National Archives to request the Department of Justice to look into the matter (CNN, 42.76).
Finally, a full-to-overflowing grab bag: so much baseless “crack pipes” messaging, so few corrections; Neil Young says Spotify employees should quit to save their souls; Rumble tries to poach Joe Rogan from Spotify but fails; Colorado’s conspiracy clerk was arrested; Razzlekhan and spouse laundered billions in ‘coin; the Bored Ape Yacht Club founders’ identities were revealed; Facebook threatens to quit Europe but its bluff is called; Thiel leaves Facebook board to get more Big Lie supporters elected; a long-form NYT on Mike Flynn’s war-like approach to domestic politics; one Arizona House resolution aims to reclaim the state’s 2020 electors (and is swiftly killed by committee assignment), another to split Maricopa County into four; a January 6th defendant wants to subpoena Trump; and top Trump adviser Peter Navarro gets his very own subpoena from the Committee.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin