With the liberal media still largely ignoring the disgustingly late Washington Post revelations that the Hunter Biden scandals involving his laptop and shady financial ties in China are real, after the media lied and claimed they were “Russian disinformation,” CNN+ host Brian Stelter had the gall to run a segment during Reliable Sources Daily on Wednesday about a conference (ran by liberals) “exploring the roots of [disinformation].”
“From elections to COVID and the war in Ukraine, misinformation is everywhere. It’s like information pollution at this point. It’s part of the atmosphere choking all of us,” he lamented.
In trying to explain the difference between misinformation and disinformation, Stelter used himself as an example:
Now misinformation may or may not even be deliberate it can spread without trying to mislead anyone. If I give you the wrong directions to an address, that’s misinformation. It’s not on purpose, I’m not trying to hurt you.
Note that Stelter didn’t say he misremembered the address or make a mistake while writing down the address. And no mention of trying to make it right. Giving someone the wrong information in this context could mean you didn’t want them to be wherever that address was for your own reasons.
You know, sort of like giving the public the wrong information about the validity or existence of a scandal involving the son of a Democratic president, and which could implicate said president (aka “the big guy”).
“But disinformation is something different,” Stelter continued. “Disinformation is worse, it’s malicious, it’s wrong on purpose. It’s intended to circumvent the truth.” He unironically described disinformation as coming “from bad-faith actors, including autocracies around the world.”
Hyping this supposed “non-partisan” conference (which was incidentally headlined by former President Barack Obama and run by his former chief of staff David Axelrod), Stelter blamed former President Trump for current deceptions:
Now, of course, his successor, Donald Trump, tore down the guardrails of truth in the White House for four years. And now there are some attempts to rebuild them. That’s what the idea of this conference is. It’s hosted by the Atlantic and the University of Chicago’s non-partisan Institute of Politics.
After conveniently having Axelrod on hand for the segment, Stelter continued to hound Trump:
I feel like we’ve come a long way – maybe not in a great way in the last six years; from the time Donald Trump popularized the term “fake news” to mean anything he didn’t like. Now, there’s a much more sophisticated conversation underway about disinformation.
“Yeah, we should point out Donald Trump didn’t invent disinformation. Disinformation has been with us for a long time in history,” Axelrod said in a moment of honesty. “But it’s been turbocharged by the new technologies that allow it to be micro-targeted by big data and algorithms.”
Hmm, that sounds a lot like Twitter’s Soviet-style crackdown on the distribution of the true Hunter story and the bans on users who shared it.
Axelrod described disinformation as a “heat-seeking missile heading at the heart of democracies around the world, including ours.” And he was putting on the conference “not just to shine a light on that problem but also to talk about potential solutions to it. And how we combat disinformation.”
Here’s a simple one: the media just tells the truth and stops taking political sides. But that’s likely too much of an ask.
And it was only after Axelrod gave his first long-winded answer that Stelter decided to fully disclose that he would be speaking at the disinformation conference.
So, up front and honest. This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN+’s Reliable Sources
April 6, 2022
11:08:36 a.m. EasternBRIAN STELTER: Turning now to a major conference happening in Chicago, starting today. From elections to COVID and the war in Ukraine, misinformation is everywhere. It’s like information pollution at this point. It’s part of the atmosphere choking all of us.
Now misinformation may or may not even be deliberate it can spread without trying to mislead anyone. If I give you the wrong directions to an address, that’s misinformation. It’s not on purpose, I’m not trying to hurt you.
But disinformation is something different. Disinformation is worse, it’s malicious, it’s wrong on purpose. It’s intended to circumvent the truth. We’re seeing this from bad-faith actors, including autocracies around the world. And democracies are under assault as a result.
That’s why a conference has started today in Chicago to examine the organized spread of disinformation and the best strategies to respond. The featured conversation tonight is with former President Obama. He’ll be on stage one day after returning to the White House for the first time in five years.
Now remember that appearance was about the Affordable Care Act, but now he’s trying to draw attention to the plague of disinformation.
Now, of course, his successor, Donald Trump, tore down the guardrails of truth in the White House for four years. And now there are some attempts to rebuild them. That’s what the idea of this conference is. It’s hosted by the Atlantic and the University of Chicago’s non-partisan Institute of Politics.
David Axelrod is the director of the institute. He joins us live from Chicago now. David, thanks for coming on the program.
[Time delay issue]
DAVID AXELROD: Good to be with you, Brian.
STELTER: Oh, there you are.
I feel like we’ve come a long way – maybe not in a great way in the last six years; from the time Donald Trump popularized the term “fake news” to mean anything he didn’t like. Now, there’s a much more sophisticated conversation underway about disinformation. So, what are you hoping to accomplish this week?
AXELROD: Yeah, we should point out Donald Trump didn’t invent disinformation. Disinformation has been with us for a long time in history. But it’s been turbocharged by the new technologies that allow it to be micro-targeted by big data and algorithms.
So, we have a more complex problem today than we’ve ever had before and it’s a heat-seeking missile heading at the heart of democracies around the world, including ours.
Our hope is not just to shine a light on that problem but also to talk about potential solutions to it. And how we combat disinformation.
And I’m glad you defined it properly at the beginning. This is willful, intentional falsehoods that are aimed at ripping apart democratic societies, creating mistrust in institutions, and ultimately unraveling Democracies. And that’s why this is such an important discussion.
STELTER: The description of the conference – and full disclosure, I’m going to be speaking tomorrow. So, I’ll see you tomorrow there.
You talk about the organized spread of disinformation.
AXELROD (time delay response): Looking forward to it.
STELTER: So, this is not about random Twitter trolls. I mean, yeah, there’s a lot of issues with coordinated trolling too. But when we talk about disinformation, what we’re really now talking about are autocracies wielding these tools in way that are hurting democracy.
(…)
