I make mistakes. You peddle misinformation.
There's a lot of talk about cracking down on "misinformation." But only certain kinds.
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Dear Friends,
There have been a lot of attempts to censor “misinformation” lately. From PayPal fines to the Deep State-packed “Council for Responsible Social Media,” everyone from social media companies to the mainstream media to the government (probably the most scary) is worried about “misinformation.”
Except what they’re worried about isn’t actually misinformation, it’s any statement that contradicts their narrative.
In fact, there are plenty of stories that were reported, and even cited by the White House, that were just plain wrong. None of them were censored. Few of them were even corrected after the facts came to light.
Here are some of them:
8 stories the media and the government got wrong
1.) Migrant whippings: This picture caused an uproar because it looked like the Border Patrol was whipping migrants as they tried to cross into the U.S.
The photographer said that was not the case, and we now know the agents were using the reins to control their horses. In fact, the head of the DHS knew that before he said this publicly,
“Our nation saw horrifying images that do not reflect who we are. We know that those images painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism.”
The images caused an uproar and unfairly vilified Border Patrol agents. No one was banned online for misinformation.
2.) Jan. 6 rioters and the death of a police officer: Capitol Police first reported Officer Sicknick was struck with a fire extinguisher. A few days later, the New York Times reported,
A United States Capitol Police officer died on Thursday night from injuries sustained “while physically engaging” with pro-Trump rioters.
The paper issued a correction, still saying that he was killed and that investigators were looking at whether chemical irritants were a factor. Ultimately, the Chief Medical Examiner ruled he died of natural causes after two strokes. But because corrections and follow-ups are shared much less than original stories, many people still believe he was killed, and even still believe the fire extinguisher story.
3.) The Steele Dossier: The now-debunked Steele Dossier alleged that the Russians could have serious blackmail material on President Trump involving prostitutes, and had plenty of salacious details about what he supposedly did with those ladies. The FBI hasn’t been able to corroborate a single detail from the dossier, but allegations were printed and that misinformation wasn’t censored.
4.) Hunter Biden’s laptop: You’re likely familiar with the true story that got the New York Post banned from Twitter in the fall of 2020, just before the elections. It wasn’t until the next spring that MSM outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post admitted the story was true. They suffered no repercussions (not counting the continued decline of American trust of them.)
5.) Covid misinformation: From announcing that masks don’t help to claiming the vaccine would stop the spread of the virus to the flat-out denial that the virus could have come from a Wuhan lab (which looks likely now), the amount of Covid misinformation coming from officials has been extensive.
This makes sense. The virus was new and unlike anything we’ve dealt with as a nation. Which is why we should continue to allow differing ideas as doctors and scientists continue to work out how to deal with the disease. We certainly shouldn’t criminalize doctors who give honest opinions to patients if those educated opinions contradict current mainstream ideas. Every scientist in history who discovered something did it by ignoring current ideas and exploring something new.
6.) Jussie Smollett: Politicians, actors, and media types praised brave victim Jussie Smollett and condemned the attackers who attempted to lynch him … only to discover that he staged the crime himself. No one was punished for posting misinformation.
7.) Kyle Rittenhouse: President Biden implied Rittenhouse was a “white supremacist” in a campaign video. Rittenhouse killed two men and wounded another during BLM riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was determined in court to have acted in self-defense and no evidence has ever been presented that he’s a white supremacist. Biden’s tweet is still up on the platform.
8.) Parler: Parler was dropped from the Google Play and Apple app stores and Amazon canceled as their web host after the Jan. 6 riots. The “right-wing” platform was accused of being a major way that people communicated their riot plans. A month later, court documents showed that Facebook was the most widely referenced social media platform by rioters. Facebook was mentioned more than seventy times, while Parler had a mere eight mentions. I don’t have to point out to you that nothing ever happened to Facebook.
So the next time a government official or social media CEO mentions cracking down on “misinformation,” remember that it’s as much about politics as it is about truth.
— Ken
A small quibble but the media did not get those stories wrong, not by the traditional definition of wrong. They intentionally misconstrued each one, weaponizing a few in their pitiful zero-sum world where everything is ascribed the ideology. It has to be a sad existence.
More misinfromation:
EV sources.
No united group for EVs on issues IE battery fires
Local issues
Have not seen 1 website devoted to EV issues: sales, rental, issues to discuss issues without being censored etc.
None.
Prove me wrong