#339
Fake News, Disinformation: The Scourge Of Our Time
By Hank Silverberg
"The President is going after Harvard because Barron got turned down for admission."
"The Democrats hired that kid who tried to kill Trump in Pennsylvania."
"Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a clone, body doubles and robotic, engineered soulless, mindless entities."
They are all fake, of course. And that is why we are in real trouble. The mass circulation of fake news or disinformation has made it almost impossible for most people to judge what is real and what is not.
The posts above are extreme, though I heard from some people who believed the story about Barron Trump and Harvard.
Fake news is not a new phenomenon. Remember those tabloids at the supermarket that have apparently been wiped out by social media? There was that famous photoshopped picture of Hillary Clinton holding an alien baby in 1992. We all looked at it and laughed.
But these days, with Artificial Intelligence programs, those who know how can pretty much make everything look real. And those who know how include everyone from Gen Alpha teenagers to agents of foreign governments. Because of that, the free press and our democracy are in trouble.
We can't be sure if what we are seeing and hearing is real or fake. And it can have influence beyond just the results of an election.
I am reminded of Orson Welles' "War of The Worlds" radio broadcast on October 30, 1938, when the Mercury Theatre had a significant number of people across the country believing that Martians had invaded New Jersey! Radio was still a new medium then, and people thought what they heard on all news broadcasts was real. All Welles had to do was make his fictional play sound like a real news broadcast. Thousands panicked. And Welles did not have that big of an audience by today's standards.
With that in mind, these statistics are worrisome.
Just about 70% of Americans and more than 2.6 billion people worldwide use social networking sites, with the average user spending 2.5 hours per day on social media.
In 2005, only 5% of the public used social media. Today, Gen Z and Gen Alpha do not really know life without it.
Mainstream media has had trouble keeping up with social media-generated content. The old rules, check two sources before you print or broadcast it, don't work anymore. When Donald Trump, President of the United States, goes on a rant on Truth Social or posts something on the official White House website, it can not be ignored.
The information is out there before it can be fact checked, and when you have people who want to spread disinformation, like the current administration, the impact can be deceptive, and at its worst, devastating.
Here is just one small example:
The DOGE website claims they have identified "tens of billions of dollars" in waste, fraud and abuse" and could end up saving "close to a trillion dollars".
You won't find too many people who want to keep "waste, fraud and abuse" in our government. So at this point, polls indicate most people favor what DOGE has been doing. But here's where the disinformation comes in.
Not a single incident of waste, fraud of abuse has been highlighted by DOGE. No details. An NPR analysis has found that $46.5 billion of DOGE's reported savings are not linked to any specific program, and another $8.5 billion came from items like canceling government contracts. Where's the waste, fraud and abuse?
Not surprisingly, the administration's indirect answer to that highlighted discrepancy was to push for cuts in all federal funds that goes to NPR.
The "Little Red Riding Hood" lesson--beware of wolves wearing sheep's clothing, needs to be modified. Beware of social media disguised as news. Even those lovable cat videos may be AI generated these days.
Impact of USAID Cuts!
A large number of Americans seem to approve of the Trump administration's cuts in foreign aid, highlighted by the elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development, (USAID). But the impact has been substantial.
Just one example: USAID once provided 65% of all aid to Somalia, but now with hundreds of millions of dollars cut, the dying has begun. Save The Children, the largest non-governmental provider of health and nutrition services to children in Somalia, says they have had to close 121 nutrition centers, putting the lives of 55,000 children in jeopardy.
The U.S. provided a billion dollars to Somalia last
What the current administration seems to ignore is the political impact of such cuts. They could destabilize Somalia again, creating new havens for terrorists.
Or the Chinese could move into to replace the U.S., cutting out our political influence in Africa or the entire Gulf region. Foreign aid has always been a positive weapon to make friends and influence other countries to work with us for a better world. That may be gone now.
China Exploiting U.S. Chaos?
Speaking of China, there is concern in south Asia about a huge build-up of the Chinese military.
Both Australia and the Philippines have asked for an explanation from Beijing. The Australian Defense Minister, Richard Marles, says China is now in the midst of the single biggest increase in military capability in conventional weapons than in any country since the end of World War Two. And he has asked U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to increase spending in the region to counter the threat from China.
The Philippines, meanwhile, continues to clash over fishing rights and other jurisdictional issues along the South China Sea, which China claims mostly belongs to them. That conflicts with seven countries which have shoreline along the Sea-- including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.
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The underlying dispute here though, remains Taiwan, which China claims as theirs despite its recognition as an independent country by much of the world.
The United States has a large military base in the Philippines and has promised to defend Taiwan if the Chinese threaten its independence. The current White House has pretty much ignored the issue.
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
This week's dumbest quote comes from Iowa Republican Senator, Joni Ernst. She appeared at a town hall event in Butler County to talk about the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" that the House had just passed. The meeting was tense with the focus on the impact of the cuts in Medicaid. One member of the public made an accurate observation. She said those cuts could result in people dying, to which Senator Ernst replied:
"Well, we are all going to die."
The reaction to this dumb and insensitive response was immediate booing from the audience, and harsh criticism across the country and online.
So after that, the Senator posted a video on Instagram and X which she said was an apology for the remark. She said she wanted to:
"apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall. I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth."
And then more sarcasm which insulted her constituents:
"I'm really, really glad I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well."
In the background of the video she appears to be walking through a cemetery, and what looks like gravestones are scattered behind her on the grass.
This, of course, made everything worse. One must wonder if this kind of attitude about the American public persists among all Republicans in Congress.
https://www.newsweek.com/joni-ernsts-sarcastic-apology-medicaid-sparks-fury-2079449
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