Guiltier Than a Ham Sandwich (and Just About as Kosher)
It's been said — somewhat sarcastically, but also somewhat understatedly — that a decent prosecutor can convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. . .
JAMES LILEKS ON ADVERTISING IN 1971: “It’s 1971. Sweet Jeebus, what a miserable year. Everything about that. Everything.”
As was all of the 1970s (especially the pre-Star Wars, pre-Atari 2600, pre-New Wave ’70s), making the endless nostalgia over the Decade from Hell all the more inexplicable.
Proof that you existed
Little O noticed that boys noticed her. Although she didn't know why they did. She didn't have trouble attracting their attention the way some of the other girls did. When she would sense that a boy had fallen in love with her, there would be a peculiar feeling, a magical sort of lonely feeling. When you realized that someone was in love with you, you got to see yourself from the outside, just for a minute. You could finally have proof that you existed. You could look at yourself as though you were a fabled creature, like a unicorn.— from "The Story of Little O (A Portrait of the Marquis de Sade as a Young Girl)" in Daydreams of Angels, by Heather O'Neill.
Marzen, Chad G., A Constitutional Right to Public Information (October 19, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3472464
“In the wake of the 2013 United States Supreme Court decision of McBurney v. Young (569 U.S. 221), this Article calls for policymakers at the federal and state levels to ensure governmental records remain open and accessible to the public. It urges policymakers to call not only for strengthening of the Freedom of Information Act and the various state public records law, but to pursue an amendment to the United States Constitution providing a right to public information.This Article proposes a draft of such an amendment: The right to public information, being a necessary and vital part of democracy, shall be a fundamental right of the people. The right of the people to inspect and/or copy records of government, and to be provided notice of and attend public meetings of government, shall not unreasonably be restricted.
This Article analyzes the benefits of the amendment and concludes the enshrining of the right to public information in both the United States Constitution as well as various state constitutions will ensure greater access of public records and documents to the general public, consistent with the democratic value of open, transparent government.
Facebook heard fact-checkers
It
took Facebook some public and international controversy regarding its policies
to open its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, and receive more
than 100 fact-checkers.
Facebook’s
first global Fact-Checking
Partner Summit took place Tuesday and Wednesday as a completely
off-the-record meeting — an opportunity for fact-checkers and company employees
to exchange experiences and concerns regarding the present and the future of
the Third
Party Fact-Checking Program (3PFC).
Launched
in late 2016 in the United States as an answer to the rise of misinformation on
Facebook, 3PFC is now present in more than 50 countries. It allows
fact-checkers to find and flag false content on Facebook, thereby decreasing
its reach in the News Feed and notifying users who shared it. (Disclosure:
Being a signatory of Poynter’s
International Fact-Checking Network code of principles is a necessary
condition for joining the project.)
The
project has always had a clear policy that says politicians are exempt from
that fact-checking process. But in the United States, that decision has recently
generated controversy regarding political ads and ended up putting a lot of
pressure on the project and also on fact-checkers. Some partners think the
policy is not right. Others think it could stay up with small changes.
In
other parts of the world — like Mexico, The Philippines and Brazil — 3PFC faces
other issues. It is criticized as a way of censoring free speech, for example.
So fact-checkers celebrated the opportunity to head to California and meet
Facebook's team.
In
the Menlo Park meeting, the International
Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and Facebook Journalism Project launched The
Fact-Checking Innovation Initiative, a program created to support the
development of projects focused on new and creative ideas around fact-checking,
misinformation and/or disinformation. Applicants will be able to submit
proposals for grants between $15,000 and $70,000. Registrations will be open in
mid-November.
Agence
France Press (AFP) announced its expansion as a 3PFC partner in South America
and will now start fact-checking content in Bolivia, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador
and Peru. Those four countries are in tough political situations. Bolivia has
just had its presidential election. Chile and Ecuador are under the effects of
major street protests and Venezuela faces a humanitarian crisis under Nicolás
Maduro's government.
While
the summit was happening, two articles popped up in the news and got
fact-checkers talking in the hall.
One
was published Tuesday by NBC
and said, based on off-the-record sources, that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's
CEO, remained "open to ideas about how to curb the spread of false ads
(placed in the platform), including limiting the ability of candidates to
target narrow groups of users." According to NBC, the idea of not allowing
politicians to segment their ads has been "a key sticking point" for
the U.S. Federal Election Commission.
The
second story that got fact-checkers’ attention Wednesday was "the
confidential Facebook files leaked
anonymously" to investigative journalist Duncan Campbell. The leaks
comprise nearly 7,000 pages and were prepared for a long-running lawsuit in
California state court between former Facebook app developer Six4three LLC and
Facebook inc. The material is assembled as four large PDF files.
As
far as fact-checkers could tell on Wednesday, there were no mentions of
fact-checking, fake news, misinformation and/or disinformation on those
documents.
. . . technology
·
We’ve
been
watching the concerns about TikTok. Here are new takes from The
New York Times and Quartz.
On Tuesday, a Senate panel applied
more scrutiny, in this case to its Chinese ownership, which Sen. Josh
Hawley (R-Mo.) said poses national security concerns.
·
The
Knight
Foundation announced more than $3.5 million in new grants to study the
impact technology is having on democracy, and to develop solutions for
policymakers. The funds will go to 22 universities, think tanks and advocacy
organizations researching online disinformation, content moderation on social
media, antitrust enforcement in big tech, and other tech policy topics.
·
Vice
News uncovered a massive Airbnb scam that spans eight cities and nearly 100
property listings. The operation used fake reviews and bogus listings to
collect thousands of dollars from users.
. . . politics
·
A
Canadian expert in disinformation, Marcus Kolga told
the Edmonton Sun that the Russian government probably commissioned an
article by the network Sputnik that highlighted a separatist movement in the
province of Alberta during last month’s elections. “And it’s not just Canada
where they try to do that,” Kolga said.
·
A
new “anti-fake news” center in Thailand is the latest effort by the government
to exert control over a sweeping range of content, Reuters
reported. A group advocating for online freedom said the term “fake news”
is being weaponized to censor dissidents in the Southeast Asian country.
·
The
non-profit group Freedom House said in a report
that governments around the world are increasingly using social media to
manipulate elections and monitor their citizens. “Many governments are finding
that on social media, propaganda works better than censorship,” Mike
Abramowitz, the group’s president, told
Agence France-Presse.
. . . the future of news
·
BuzzFeed’s
Craig
Silverman reported on fake “news” websites that are filled with old content
but are getting questionable traffic as part of an ad scheme uncovered by an ad
fraud consultancy SocialPuncher.
The sites pretended to carry local news from Edmonton (Alberta), in Canada, as
well as in Albany (New York) and Laredo (Texas) in the United States.
·
The
online forum 8Chan, promoter of conspiracy theories and extremism, has been
renamed and is operating
as 8kun – or
at least it was, briefly. Gizmodo
reported that one difference between 8Chan and 8kun is that the new
platform does not include the /pol/ subforum, the board that multiple suspected
gunmen have used to post their manifestos before committing deadly terrorist
acts.
·
A
new study
on fact-checking says it “has a significantly positive overall influence on
political beliefs, but the effects gradually weaken when using ‘truth scales,’
refuting only parts of a claim, and fact-checking campaign-related statements.”
The
Quint, in India, published a funny and detailed Instagram
video this week — not really a classic fact check — to reveal that Indian
courts use 11 billion sheets of paper every year and this is probably a waste
of energy.
The
number is so high not only because India is a large country, with more than 1.3
billion inhabitants. But it’s also high because there is a specific — and very
controversial — law that stipulates that judges, lawyers, prosecutors and other
legal officers can only print on one side of each sheet when presenting a file
or a case.
To
show the impact of this law, The Quint did some math and found out that, if
courts printed on both sides, India could probably save enough water to provide
for all of Mumbai for 14 days — nonstop. More than 18 million people live in
Mumbai.
What we liked: The video, titled "Paper wastage
in Indian courts," uses easy-to understand graphics to explain the math.
It also puts a clear cost on a unique, under-analyzed law. Finally, the video
has received many comments on social media and people seem to be willing to
pressure politicians to change that ruling.
1. Writing
for The New York Times, researcher Brendan Nyhan said there has been a
growth in hyperpartisan websites that pose as local news outlets.
2. A fake cancer treatment, and a gross one
at that, is being enthusiastically recommended among members of private groups
on Facebook, BuzzFeed
reported.
3. Researchers have identified suspicious
social media accounts used to undermine Hong Kong’s protest movement, Bloomberg
reported, even after platforms took down a number of similar accounts in
August.
4. Macedonia has a plan
to shed its reputation as an originator
of “fake news.” It is teaching high schoolers what mis/disinformation is and
how seriously it can impact people's lives. The question is whether this will
keep Macedonians from posting false content during the 2020 U.S. presidential
campaign.
5. Against all odds, fact-checking is
flourishing in Venezuela.
Cristina spent two days in Caracas and wrote about the work being done by the
six fact-checking organizations currently active there.
6. The University of California at
Berkeley, in partnership with the U.S. military, has
been working on a tool that detects manipulated videos such as deepfakes.
7. Mark Cuban has
thoughts about fact-checking on social media.
8. Posts from a fake Twitter user posing as
a BBC journalist were
retweeted by a political candidate in the U.K.
9. For The New York Times, Siva
Vaidhyanathan wrote
an interesting take about why he thinks Facebook won’t fact-check political
ads on its platform.
- Don’t forget to apply to attend Global Fact 7 – the annual worldwide gathering of fact-checkers – in June. Find out more here.
