The Misinformation Industry

"It's certainly true that bad information and made-up nonsense circulate on social media."--Robby Soave, Reason

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America."--Uri Berliner

Angel & Trumpet

I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.
Uri Berliner, a senior business editor at NPR

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

"It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding. 

"In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population." 

* * * * 

This New York Times story has a comical title: "Accused" of Liberal Bias. My guess is that the majority of NPR journalists are not bothered by this accusation because it is accurate. Anyone who listens to NPR news is well aware of NPR's slant on things, so the story comes as no surprise. 

Accused of Liberal Bias
An essay from an editor at the broadcaster has generated a firestorm of criticism about the network on social media, especially among conservatives.

Uri Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, wrote in an essay published Tuesday by The Free Press, a popular Substack publication, that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/business/media/npr-criticism-liberal-bias.html

"Persistent rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the election became the catnip that drove reporting. At NPR, we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff." 

"Schiff, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, became NPR’s guiding hand, its ever-present muse. By my count, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia. During many of those conversations, Schiff alluded to purported evidence of collusion. The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports."

"But when the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming."

Russiagate was not NPR’s only miscue.

In October 2020, the New York Post published the explosive report about the laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer shop containing emails about his sordid business dealings. With the election only weeks away, NPR turned a blind eye. 

“I decided to go out and publish it [this essay] in hopes that something would change, and that we get a broader conversation going about how the news is covered,” Mr. Berliner said.   >>NYTimes

* * *

Question asked on Quora regarding media integrity:

Do you think the mainstream media is a joke? Why or why not?

TJ Hill: Most mainstream news is very frustrating because they usually lie by omission. They leave out important facts to suit they’re agenda. You can find ex-journalists online telling stories about the round table at these organizations. They have to inflate anything that is fear driven to bring in more ratings…..and most of the major news networks are bought and sold by left leaning corporate interests. They absolutely can’t say anything that doesn’t suit their narrative…..It’s fairly obvious at this point that the only people they’re fooling is the elderly. Most people with access to alternative news sources can see the transparency. 

California Keeps Lawyers Occupied as Common Sense Falls by the Wayside

Here are two California stories that caught my eye this weekend. This first appeared in Reason magazine.

San Francisco Bill Would Let People Sue Grocery Stores for Closing Too Quickly

A proposed ordinance would empower people to sue supermarkets that close without giving the city six months' advance notice.

* * *  

Now, here is my question: Will a bill like this incentivize ANY businessperson to start a grocery store in San Francisco? The intentions may be good (to take care of the community's food necessities during the six months they prepare for alternative grocery supplies) but the long term effect will be to create the opposite effect. No new grocery store will move into that neighborhood because it's too high risk. 

There are already too many regulators and regulations in California. I remember reading a story a number of year back in which someone wanted to start an albacore business. They had to get approvals from nearly 50 agencies before they even opened. After opening they were fined $25,000 because they had not obtained approval from yet another agency that they had never even heard of. 

The story in Reason noted that grocery store executives had been warning that layers of process (red tape) would make it less likely that grocery stores would even do business there in the first place.

As I've noted repeatedly, incentives matter. Make it easy to do business and you get more businesses (and jobs). The harder you make it to do business, the fewer entrepreneurs and risk takers you'll have in your town, city or state. 

Read the full account here at Reason.

ON THE ENERGY FRONT

In January, Joe Biden and the Department of Energy coughed up $1.1 billion to keep Diablo Canyon running. This move came after Governor Gavin Newsom of California put his foot down, saying the plant, originally slated to shut down in 2025, had to stay open to prevent blackouts.

In response, California environmentalists are now throwing a fit and suing to shut down the very same Diablo Canyon reactor, the state’s final nuclear power plant. This plant produces about 9% of California's juice. 

Meanwhile, lawmakers are running feasibility studies to see if they can get buy-in for next-gen nuclear reactors. They know Californians won't be thrilled if they don't keep the lights on. It's not a given.      

You can read a more complete account at The Center Square: California enviros sue to close last nuclear plant providing 9% of state's power 

  

Why Do So Many Young People Like the Idea of Having Big Brother Inside Their Homes?

Detail from a piece by Tara Austin.

This is a scary trend. 

In recent years, there has been a growing trend of younger Americans becoming more accepting of government surveillance. This is in contrast to older generations, who are more likely to be concerned about the erosion of privacy, and threats to our freedom.

This is the article that caught my eye: "Why Are So Many Younger Americans OK With Big Brother Monitoring Their Homes?" (J.D. Tuccille, Reason, 7 June 2023) The subhead reads, "Children raised in an atmosphere of fear become adults who prioritize security over liberty."

Tuccille specializes in government overreach, so he's especially attuned to these kinds of threats. What he strives to get across is that that this is becoming a growing trend among young people. I see it as an extension of the ideas put forth in Coddling of the American Mind, which Tuccille references later in his piece. (See: Are Children Being Raised Too Safe To Succeed?"

There are a number of reasons why younger Americans may be more accepting of Big Brother. One reason is that they have grown up in a world where surveillance is more commonplace. They are used to having their online activity tracked and their movements monitored. As a result, they are less likely to see surveillance as a threat to their privacy.

Another reason why younger Americans are more accepting of Big Brother is that they believe it can make them safer. They see surveillance as a way to deter crime and protect them from harm. They are also more likely to trust the government to use surveillance responsibly. 

These rationales don't hold water for a large swath my generation.

Although some younger Americans are concerned about the potential for government surveillance to be abused, it seems they are in the minority. For the most part, it's a trade-off.  I give up my privacy for the perceived security of knowing that I am being watched.

Tuccille cites research from the Cato Institute: "Americans under the age of 30 stand out when it comes to 1984‐​style in‐​home government surveillance cameras. 3 in 10 (29 percent) Americans under 30 favor 'the government installing surveillance cameras in every household' in order to 'reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity,'" the Cato Institute's Emily Ekins and Jordan Gygi wrote last week. "Support declines with age, dropping to 20 percent among 30–44 year olds and dropping considerably to 6 percent among those over the age of 45."

When I was young, Orwell's 1984 was required reading. I'm curious if he's been left behind. This book (and its companion, Animal Farm) is very much worth reading again because of the warnings it provides.   

Implications

There are a number of implications of this trend. One implication is that it could lead to a more authoritarian society. If younger Americans are more accepting of government surveillance, then it is more likely that the government will use surveillance to crack down on dissent and control its citizens.

Another implication is that it could lead to a more unequal society. If the government is able to track and monitor the activities of its citizens, then it will be able to target those who are seen as a threat to the status quo. This could lead to a society where the government is able to suppress dissent and maintain its power.

Privacy matters. Freedom of speech matters, but even more important is freedom of thought. It is important to be aware of the implications of this disconcerting trend. 

If younger Americans are more accepting of Big Brother, then it is more likely that the government will use surveillance to erode our privacy and control our lives. There's no such thing as a benevolent Big Brother. 

Much has already been written about the rise of "smart homes."  ("Alexa, go to sleep.") It is easy to become paranoid about how much data they gather from our movements, our conversations and our email. Yet a growing percentage of young people are comfortable with this. 

Likewise the increased use of facial recognition technology. On my recent flight to Italy the airline used a facial recognition system to identify me as I boarded. They had me hold my unopened passport in my hand just to show that I had one but they never opened it or looked at it. The Delta staff seemed apologetic about the use of this system which made some people squeamish.

Scenes from a couple Hollywood films come to mind. I'm thinking especially of Tom Cruise striving to navigate the maze of cameras and sensors in the film Minority Report. The degree to which our phones track us might surprise you, especially if you're on the wrong side of the law.  

For most of us, there's hopefully little reason to lose sleep over this. I like the title of Banksy's book in this regard: You Are An Acceptable Level of Threat and if You Were Not You Would Know About it. 

What do you think?

Yes, the Soviet Union Was an Evil Empire, Though We Have Our Issues As Well

I'd like to share two articles from the December 2021 Reason magazine. I would have shared this last night except I was distracted by the Tuesday election results along with the climax of the World Series. (Congratulations, Braves fans.)

Reason routinely produces excellent journalism that fails to get the recognition it deserves. The first article is from their December issue marking the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Like Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, she brings an insider's view to this in depth story that has contemporary applications.

The second article ought to keep us from gloating. To fight for freedom means we have to be humble, vigilant and aware. 

Yes, It Was An "Evil Empire"

It was the summer of 1983, and I, a Soviet émigré and an American in the making, was chatting with the pleasant middle-aged woman sitting next to me on a bus from Asbury Park, New Jersey, to Cherry Hill. Eventually our conversation got to the fact that I was from the Soviet Union, having arrived in the U.S. with my family three years earlier at age 17. "Oh, really?" said my seatmate. "You must have been pretty offended when our president called the Soviet Union an 'evil empire'! Wasn't that ridiculous?" But her merriment at the supposed absurdity of President Ronald Reagan's recent speech was cut short when I somewhat sheepishly informed her that I thought he was entirely on point.

* * *

The woman on the bus in 1983 did not surprise me. By then, I had already met many Americans for whom "anti-Soviet" was almost as much of a pejorative as it had been in the pages of Pravda, the official newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party. My favorite was a man in the café at the Rutgers Student Center who shrugged off the victims of the gulag camps by pointing out that capitalism kills people too—with cigarettes, for example. When I recovered from shock, I told him that smoking was far more ubiquitous in the Soviet Union, and anti-smoking campaigns far less developed. That momentarily stumped him.

You can read the full story here. Cathy Young's account is loaded with insights.

* * * * 

The second story is a reprint from 2013. It's a must read because it shows the extent to which the U.S. is involved in illegal domestic surveillance. 

Thank You, Edward Snowden

"The NSA has turned the internet into a giant surveillance platform."

Last week the Cato Institute put on a terrific conference about unconstitutional domestic spying. The Cato conference took place after a summer of alarming revelations of just how deep and extensive the feds' secret surveillance of our everyday communications had become. The conference, held at the institute's downtown D.C. headquarters, brought some of the most knowledgeable Internet luminaries together with some of the fiercest fighters for Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.

Watchdog organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had sought for years to expose the extent and depth of federal surveillance, but their efforts were largely stymied by the very walls of secrecy they were trying to breach...

The walls of surveillance secrecy were finally cracked by the June revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden's files conclusively show that the federal government has been operating a vast spying program that violates the Fourth Amendment rights of tens of millions of ordinary Americans.

This one, written by Ronald Bailey, is another good read:
Thank You, Edward Snowden

* * * 

Related Links

Solzhenitsyn on World Communism

George Orwell: Insight from a Man Who Saw It All

Politics, Homelessness and the Lack of Affordable Housing

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

I came to Duluth in 1986 when the city had not yet recovered from what was called "The Reagan Recession" even though its roots were in the 70's which ended with double digit inflation, high unemployment and an energy crisis. What I remember most vividly was reading a front page story about a new paper mill that had 100 job openings and 13,000 job applicants.

Another article at the time highlighted the problem of affordable housing here. In the subsequent decades homelessness and the lack of affordable housing have been recurring themes here. 

In 2007 the St. Louis County and our city kicked off a major program to eliminate homelessness titled End Homelessness In Ten (EHIT). Despite the fanfare surrounding this ambitious effort, a May story in the Duluth News Tribune stated that we have more homeless than ever in this county. The article, titled "Our Community Is In Need": St. Louis County Hears Grim Report On Homelessness, stated "In 2020, 2,188 households, totaling 3,170 people, were served by programs for people experiencing homelessness, including 751 people homeless for the first time."

* * *

Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal produce an early morning eNewsletter highlighting the day's top stories. The WSJ version ends The 10-Point with a question that readers can respond to. Yesterday's question had to do with affordable housing. Or rather, the question was about soaring housing prices. Here are a few notes from this morning's replies.

Ben K stated that soaring prices were a reflection of unmet demand. The solution to reduce housing costs? "We must increase supply."

Someone told me recently that to build the paper mill in West Duluth they had to eliminate 400 family homes. Have these ever been replaced? The population of Duluth has not increased sine we got here 35 years ago, although the Mayor had a press conference last week in which she announced we increased by a little under 500 since 2010. (It is still in the 86,000 range.)

Ben K went on to say, "Allow accessory dwelling units in single-family zoning. Allow apartments to be built above shops, even above big-box retailers. Reduce minimum lot and square footage requirements. Reduce paperwork for demolish-and-rebuild projects. Reduce mandatory parking requirements. Reduce paperwork for changing a property’s zoning to match its neighbors, and aggressively upzone along transit lines. In other words, get the government out of the way!"

By way of contrast, Myles Z of New Jersey believes, "It is time for the government to get back into building public housing. There is no profit to be made [by developers] in providing housing to the poorest members of our society." Incentives matter.

* * * 

In September, Reason magazine published an article titled "California Is Clueless About Homelessness." It's a story about how Los Angeles has been using 1.2 billion dollars to build houses for homeless people in L.A. The money was approved in 2016 to build 10,000 new units for homeless people. Over the past five years only 700 homes have been completed. At that rate, they city will end up with 1400 homes at an average cost of $857,143 each.

* * * 

Politicians are good at ribbon cutting and making pronouncements, there seems to be no end of programs initiated with good intentions that get bogged down and tangled in red tape. End Homelessness In Ten (EHIT) was a good slogan. What we need are real solutions. 

This is the first of several articles I'm hoping to assemble. Thanks for reading.

Why Our Current "Cancel Culture" Is a Clear and Present Danger

Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash

"Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction." So begins the listing in Wikipedia.

Intelligent people on both the Left and the Right recognize this as a serious issue and a practice that itself should not be abandoned. (EdNote: That sentence was amusing to write because there are people on the Left who do not see any intelligence on the Right, and vice versa.)

Thinking people of all persuasions recognize that the best ideas come from hearing all sides on a matter. This is why President Lincoln's cabinet was comprised of people with differing opinions. This is also why Steve Jobs, when he was with Pixar, preferred to skip meetings where decisions were being debated. He feared, correctly, that some people would only share ideas that they believed he would like, instead of the potentially best ideas, which may have been contrarian.

Here are excerpts from three articles, the first being a three minute YouTube video created from a longer podcast on this theme.

* * * *

How Cancel Culture Violates Intellectual Freedom
https://reason.com/video/how-cancel-culture-violates-intellectual-freedom/?utm_medium=email

"An open society is a place that has a lot of intellectual pluralism," says Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of the landmark 1993 book Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought.

"Canceling comes from the universe of propaganda…it's about making an idea or a person socially radioactive."

In this short video essay, Rauch explains why canceling is different from criticism. The open society "is the most successful social principle ever invented" because it allows individuals to make errors as they seek out the truth.

* * * *

'Cancel Culture' Is a Dangerous, Totalitarian Trend
https://reason.com/2020/08/07/cancel-culture-is-a-dangerous-totalitarian-trend/?utm_medium=email

How many of us think twice before posting a legitimate message—not because the post is offensive per se, but because of the possible repercussions if some numbskull interprets it the wrong way?

We're allowing negation by society's dullest and most easily offended members. There's nothing wrong with calling BS on people's writing. It is wrong, however, to incite mobs to destroy their livelihoods.


A Letter on Justice and Open Debate
https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/

"The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty."


"As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences."

* * * *

In a lighter vein, I wrote a poem about this topic. It's titled Cancel Culture.
https://medium.com/no-crime-in-rhymin/cancel-culture-a5f4fdf2263b

Coronavirus Pandemic Notes and Quotes

Let's start with some positives.

1. I read that a couple in India aged 93 and 88 caught Covid-19 and have recovered.

2. A friend of mine and his daughter caught it, never went to get tested because they did not want to waste the testing supplies. Their symptoms were identical to what's been described as going around, which leads me to believe there are massive quantities of other people who have gotten it but whom are not included in the numbers. WHAT THIS MEANS IS that it is far more pervasive than we realize, but also that the death ratio is far smaller than we feared. [EdNote: We will be monitoring this situation.]

3. Both Abbott and Johnson & Johnson appear to be on a fast track solution.

* * * *
Unfortunately, it's not all roses here on planet earth, though, and we can't pretend otherwise. Some people who get the fever have said they've never experienced anything like it. “It was like somebody was beating me like a piñata,” said CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

* * * *

A Great Escape

There are riots beginning to take place in many parts of the world including China, Lebanon, South Africa and Mexico. Prison riots are breaking out due to panic and overcrowding in many other places: Brazil, Colombia, Tehran & Iranian prisons and elsewhere. The common denominator: Fear. Fear causes people to panic and behave irrationally. It's like the static electricity that builds inside a storm, producing thunder and lightning. I believe that in many of these places, where those in authority have only a tenuous hold on power, the fear will build on both sides and, as with a dam break, chaos and destruction may ensue.

TO PUT THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE, here's an interesting article about the Spanish Flu, which originated not in China but in Kansas and was carried abroad by U.S. doughboys who were deployed to World War I, quickly spreading the flu throughout Europe. It was tagged the Spanish Flu because Spain newspapers were not censored.

* * * *
Here are some a few related articles:

"Is it possible that the politicians are the ones who are panicking, while the people subject to their whims are simply trying to deal with the fallout as best they can?"--Jacob Sullum, 'The Fear, the Panic, Is a Bigger Problem Than the Virus,' Says New York's Governor, Reason

"The line between freedom and security is beginning to blur."--Dean Middleburgh, Can We Trust Big Brother?

"Politicians and the public are alarmingly willing to violate civil liberties in the name of fighting the epidemic." --Jacob Sullum, Will COVID-19 Kill the Constitution? 

* * * *
What's the solution? Larry David says we should all just hunker down and watch television. I myself am working on a book and organizing my files for whatever comes next.

Here's another take on all these things, an article by Dr. Eugene K. Choi which states that the Fear of Covid-19 will harm you more than Covid-19. He proceeds to offer what sounds like sound advice.

I'm curious what people will be saying ten years from now regarding this moment in history. I picture some us someday being asked, "Grandpa, what did you do while the world was in lockdown?"

Wow! I Said Something Wrong on Facebook. Four Times In One Day!!!!

"Oh Wow!" -- Photo by okeykat on Unsplash

My grandson was here this weekend. It's been truly a joy to see him grow. His vocabulary is quite astonishing, though I am not surprised. His parents read to him every night.

I mention Wally because during his visit here this weekend he kept saying the word "Wow!" It was so much fun to see and hear him use this expression to describe every new thing.

Tonight, I had a "Wow!" moment. It had to do with being censored by Facebook. Maybe "censored" is the wrong word. I shared an article from Reason magazine titled Stop It With the Coronavirus Curfews Already, subtitled Self-imprisonment orders from panicky politicians are not a prudent way to flatten the curve.

Reason offers a Libertarian slant on the news, an attitude that less government is better than more government. What I like is that it offers an original perspective that differs from Left and Right, and differentiates itself from the party politics that dominate the national stage.

Just by sharing a different perspective I'm told that I have "violated community standards." Sheesh.

And CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? This comment was also cited for violating community standards. I'd written a review of Andy Messerschidt's impressive iconography currently on display at the Duluth Art Institute.

NOW THIS IS EVEN MORE WOW!
Facebook says my review of the book Baseball Haiku is a violation of community standards. What? Because I used the word Japanese to describe the Haiku art form? Or was it something else?

All these Violation Of Community Standards announcements occurred today. The three above occurring in the last hour. The first one that triggered an alarm for them was the following. (Tell me this is not strange.)

Good article in Reason. It begins: "Now that sports have been effectively canceled, there is apparently a new competition afoot in this coronavirus-cursed country: Politicians vying to see who can impose the most freedom-infringing clampdown in the name of flattening the curve." https://reason.com/2020/03/17/stop-it-with-the-coronavirus-curfews-already/?utm_medium=email

* * * *
Evidently the Pontiff is unhappy when plebes express opinions that fail to align with Papal decrees.

I am honestly Mystified.

OK, so I dig a little deeper and Facebook states this:

We don't allow people to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a way that's misleading to others.
We define spam as things like:

• Repeating the same comment
• Getting fake likes, follows, shares or video views
• Coordinating likes and shares to mislead others about the popularity of something

1. I did not repeat content intentionally or to my knowledge. I only shared something I wanted to share because I thought it interesting. And how many people shared my book review of American Haiku or Andy Messerschmidt's art show at the Duluth Art Institute?

2. I was not looking for likes. I do not care about likes. I did not know one could follow people, only businesses.

3. Who would I have been coordinating with? Especially the book and art reviews. I am clueless as to who else has shared the Reason articles. I have shared articles many times over the years, as most others do. Why was I flagged this time.

* * * *

I'm more surprised than angry, but quite honestly, this seems nuts.

What do you think?

Education Matters: It's National School Choice Week

Painting by Shawna Gilmore. We all want our children to soar.

It's National School Choice Week. Sadly, the government continues to insert itself into every part of our lives, restricting freedom wherever it is able. Always in the name of some higher benevolent purpose, as if bureaucrats know better how to raise our children than we do.

"School choice is the process of allowing every family to choose the K-12 educational options that best fit their children. These options include all forms of education, from traditional public schools, to public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online academies, and homeschooling." (This quote came from the third article below.)

Your kids get one chance at adolescence. There is no reset button on an education. Most parents want the best for their children, and parents will better understand their children's needs than lawyers or bureaucrats ever will.

Here are a number of articles for those who have an interest in this topic.

We Chose Our Child's School. You Should Be Able To Do the Same.

School Choice Opponents Need to Stop Gaslighting Parents

What Is School Choice?

Seattle's School System Wants to Dismantle Its Gifted Programs. This Is Why School Choice Matters.

Read. Learn. Share. Grow.

Education Matters: This Week Is National School Choice Week

Painting by Shawna Gilmore. We all want our children to soar.

It's National School Choice Week. Sadly, the government continues to insert itself into every part of our lives, restricting freedom wherever it is able. Always in the name of some higher benevolent purpose, as if bureaucrats know better how to raise our children than we do.

"School choice is the process of allowing every family to choose the K-12 educational options that best fit their children. These options include all forms of education, from traditional public schools, to public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online academies, and homeschooling." (This quote came from the third article below.)

Your kids get one chance at adolescence. There is no reset button on an education. Most parents want the best for their children, and parents will better understand their children's needs than lawyers or bureaucrats ever will.

Here are a number of articles for those who have an interest in this topic.

We Chose Our Child's School. You Should Be Able To Do the Same.

School Choice Opponents Need to Stop Gaslighting Parents

What Is School Choice?

Seattle's School System Wants to Dismantle Its Gifted Programs. This Is Why School Choice Matters.

Read. Learn. Share. Grow.