Daily Archives: July 18, 2021

Each week the Associated Press publishes Not Real News: A Look at What Didnt Happen Last Week. It is a collection of fake news, most of which has been shared online. The stories usually include quotes taken out of context, photoshopped images and doctored audio.

These are the stories that appear on your news feed courtesy of friends and relatives who believe journalists are enemies of the people. It gives them a chance to share outlandish misinformation that reflects their extreme views.

Recent fakes include this one: President Biden wants to swoop down with Special Forces and gather up every gun in America, and then give out guns to people who get vaccinated for COVID-19.

Heres another internet lie: Airlines are banning vaccinated passengers.

There was also video of Pope Francis speaking in Italian, with fake English subtitles making it appear as though he said, I have a secret agenda to deceive people and unite them under one world religion in order to control them better.

And a 1987 New York Post front page was doctored to show Dr. Anthony Fauci under the headline, THE MAN WHO GAVE US AIDS. (The actual story was about a different person and did not mention Fauci, nor did it include his photo.)

Quite candidly, the most shocking part is that many people believe this stuff.

These fake stories were shared hundreds of thousands of times. The number of people who saw the fakes is likely far greater than those who read the APs weekly attempt to set the record straight.

Although propaganda is nothing new, the internet has propelled fake news to a new level. These people are experts at distorting images and video so that you will believe that red is blue.

Once the fake toothpaste is out of the tube, theres no putting it back. Many people, out of willful ignorance, will happily spread this garbage. They make no effort to check the facts. They are rightfully worried that a few seconds of research might reveal the truth. When they are confronted by anyone who corrects them, they feign innocence.

Oh, I didnt know. I saw it on Facebook, and assumed it was accurate.

I first realized how dangerous these manipulators are while speaking to a college freshman journalism class in 2016. A student asked why my channel wasnt reporting a sensational claim about a presidential candidate that he had seen on ABC News. I asked him to show me on his computer. It was a bizarre story that obviously had no basis in fact. But the website featuring an ABC logo looked almost like the real thing. Upon closer inspection however, it was not the American Broadcasting Company. It was the Associated Broadcast Cooperative or some such nonsense. How is an 18-year-old to know the difference?

Imagine if such deception was widespread during World War II. What if propagandists had such dangerous tools during the Cold War? Our nation was divided enough during the 1960s, with assassinations, protests and riots. Its frightening to think what Americas enemies could have done with the ability to convince half the nation to turn against our government.

I recently argued with folks on Facebook who are convinced reporters are destroying our nation by covering both sides of todays political arguments. (The other side) is obviously lying, they said. Why dont reporters just call them out or ban them on the spot?

As tempting as that might be for some, I dont think thats the cure for a fractured nation. Both sides must be heard.

By continuing to flood us with a fire hose of misinformation, the fake news factories are creating damage that will take a long time to repair. We have gone from I cannot tell a lie to alternative facts and what youre seeing is not happening.

The truth is out there, and it is presented daily by the vast majority of journalists. If a segment of the public chooses not to believe it, no one can force them to do so.

I can only hope that my children and grandchildren can someday enjoy the America I once did. Thats when certified election results were treated as such. Its when we knew the words that came out of our leaders mouths were indeed their own. We knew that the news we saw in print, or that we saw and heard with our own eyes and ears, was unbiased and genuine.

I would suggest that high schools add a new class to their list of required subjects. In addition to reading, writing, science and math, we need a course on Media Literacy: Separating Fact from Fiction. Its apparently too late for some adults, but maybe we can educate the kids before they fall victim to the fake news epidemic.

David Carroll is a TV news anchor and radio host based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is online at ChattanoogaRadioTV.com. You may contact him at 900 Whitehall Road, Chattanooga, TN 37405, or at RadioTV2020@yahoo.com.

Originally posted here:

Fighting the fake news is fundamental | Editorial | tullahomanews.com - Tullahoma News and Guardian

Faridabad authorities resumed the ongoing demolition drive in Khori village, which was suspended on Saturday, a day after Indian authorities replied to the United Nations Human Rights Council over a statement released by its six special rapporteurs that called for the drive to be halted.

Last month, the Supreme Court directed the Haryana government and the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad to remove all encroachments, consisting of around 10,000 residential units, in the Aravalli forest area, saying land grabbers cannot take refuge in the rule of law and talk of fairness.

On Friday, experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council called on India to halt the eviction of around 100,000 people, including 20,000 children, from Khori village in Faridabad, which began last Wednesday, and said it is particularly important that residents be kept safe during the pandemic.

In response, the Permanent Mission of India to the Office of the United Nations issued a statement on Saturday, saying, It is unfortunate that the special rapporteurs have chosen to issue a press release just two days after sending a joint communication to this Mission and not waiting for a response.

The police said that the demolition process remained peaceful. Around 2,000 personnel, including 500 women personnel, were deployed in Khori village on Sunday. The drive started around 10am and went on till 5pm, for which 17 earthmoving machines and five Poclain machines were used.

Garima Mittal, the commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad, said the demolition drive was recorded through drone cameras, with the date, time and location stamping on photos and videos done to ensure authenticity.

The deputy commissioner of Faridabad, Yashpal Yadav, said, We have started full-scale demolition and we are implementing the Supreme Court orders in letter and spirit. All structures will be demolished as per the orders and not just those that have been vacated. The drive is being conducted peacefully and we have not faced any challenge so far, except people not cooperating.

Meanwhile, social activists and residents alleged that situation has worsened in Khori village and that there has been no let-up in the demolitions even after the United Nations experts raised urged an immediate halt.

On Sunday, demolitions started from the Durga temple side, and the number of police deployed there is much higher than what we had seen until now. They have encircled Khori Gaon from all sides and are restricting movement in and out. Volunteers and residents from Khori who have been distributing food are now stuck in this police blockade. They are not being allowed to leave, said Neelesh Kumar, a social activist with Basti Suraksha Manch.

Rehabilitation

With the demolition drive entering the fourth day on Sunday, over 470 people have registered for the rehabilitation scheme, officials of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad said on Sunday. The administration has arranged a temporary shelter for displaced residents of Khori village at Radha Swami Satsang Beas, near Surajkund.

However, members of Mazdoor Awaas Sangharsh Samiti, an organisation working for the rehabilitation of residents of Khori village said that residents are not willing to stay at the temporary shelter.

Mohammad Salim Khan, a member of Mazdoor Awas Sangharsh Samiti, whose house was demolished on Friday, said, Of the thousands of houses demolished so far, not even 5% of the people have been given temporary shelter. People are being forced to go to the shelter home, whereas we want to collect our belongings from the debris. Even the registration for rehabilitation is being conducted without any ground survey.

The MCF on Sunday asked residents to collect their belongings from the demolished houses in Khori.

Man booked for spreading false news

The police booked a Khori resident on Saturday for spreading fake news about residents committing suicide. The suspect, identified as Mohammad Abrar, was booked under Section 505 (2) (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code by the Surajkund police.

The police said that Abrar concocted a story about a Khori resident killing her two daughters and committing suicide after their house was demolished, and posted it on social media platforms.

OP Singh, the commissioner of police, warned residents against spreading fake news that may disturb the peace. A probe in the matter is underway and an Investigating Officer (IO) has been appointed. We are investigating and action will be taken against everyone in accordance with the rules, he said.

See the article here:

Khori resident booked for spreading fake news as drive restarts on Sunday - Hindustan Times

No, Liz, its not that.Image: AP

It would be nice if Liz Cambage didnt try to refute reports that she broke COVID protocols with the term fake news, but the Australian star sure did defend herself after her withdrawal from the Olympic team during its Las Vegas training camp, for which she cited mental health.

Ive been trapped in this room, with no view, with nothing for a week, Cambage said Friday, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Of course Im gonna lose my mind in here, you serious, Im seeing reports that I went out partying. Shit, I wish I did. I know some of the people in Vegas have been having a really good time this week but Ive been in here, bro. Ive been in here. The only time I left this goddamn bubble was for the All-Star Game. I dont appreciate the lies.

Despite having made a deal with Australia coach Sandy Brondello that she could leave the Australian camp to join Team WNBA against Team USA if she didnt overexert herself, Cambage did not play in the game. Instead, she was seen eating popcorn and having a good time, which, cool. She managed her minutes, as agreed.

Cambage further explained that shes had breakdowns in the Whole Foods parking lot and non-stop panic attacks about the Olympic bubble.

G/O Media may get a commission

The main reason I sat out of the WNBA bubble last season was my mental health, Cambage said. Like, Im not OK in a bubble. Im not OK playing in front of no fans, mentally Im escapist, if I have no escape from a situation it gives me anxiety and I panic and there is definitely no escape in Tokyo except for leaving. I would not want to do that to the team.

Cambages openness and honesty about her struggle is refreshing, and a perfect way to hit back at dingdongs like Andrew Bogut making it out like she was faking it for sympathy even if its still true that there was an incident in the Aussies scrimmage against Nigeria, and possibly that an anxiety-riddled Cambage is difficult to have as a teammate, and the controversial altercation a result of all those emotions boiling over.

Well never know the whole truth, and thats fine. Cambage is doing whats best for her, and the Australian team has moved on, too, beating Team USA on Friday in an Olympic tune-up game, 70-67.

Anytime youre on a list where its just you, Joe DiMaggio, and Brooks Robinson, youre probably doing something right.

Jake Cronenworth did something right, in an incredibly odd and specific way. Baseballs ability to have that is neat.

See the original post:

Really? The old 'fake news' gambit? - Deadspin

Donald Trump walks with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and others to visit St Johns Church on June 1, 2020, in Washington, DC. (AFP via Getty Images)

Former president Donald Trump decried a news report saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized an operation to put Trump into office as disgusting and fiction.

Mr Trumps remarks come after a report in the Guardian of leaked Kremlin documents that said on 22 January 2016, Mr Putin, his spy chiefs and senior ministers agreed that a Trump administration was in Russias strategic interests such as causing social turmoil and weakening the presidents negotiating position.

The report said a decree signed by Putin ordered that Russias three spy agencies find practical ways to support Trump, by then the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.

This is disgusting. Its fake news, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA was fake news, Mr Trump said through a statement via his spokeswoman Liz Harrington on Twitter. The former president added that the allegation was just the Radical Left crazies demeaning the right.

Its fiction, and nobody was tougher on Russia than me, including on the pipeline, and sanctions, Mr Trump, who is banned from Twitter, said. At the same time we got along with Russia. Russia respected us, China respected us, Iran respected us, North Korea respected us.

But despite Mr Trumps objections, the Guardian showed the papers to independent experts who said they appeared genuine.

The Russia report called No 32-04 vd was classified as secret and called Trump the most promising candidate from Russias point of view and described Mr Trump as impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex.

The Kremlin also seemed to confirm that it had kompromat, or compromising material on Mr Trump from his non-official visits to Russian Federation territory.

Read More

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See the original post:

Trump calls report of Kremlin plot to put him in office disgusting and fake news - Yahoo News

With the slow reopening of international travel, most of the larger online booking platforms, led by Booking.com and Expedia, have finally decided to turn their billion-dollars marketing power engine back on. This thunderous comeback ought to put Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) back in the spotlight after a long, pandemic-induced, slumber. For the better but also for the worse.

Indeed, OTAs have been the subject of heated debates ever since their sector-wide adoption in the early 2010s. While some hotels see OTAs as a saving grace, praising the increased exposure and additional bookings, others consider them to be more of a necessary evil, with concerns being raised regarding the high commission rates and sometimes dubious customer acquisition practices. Although this age-old argument is far from being settled, the issue is worth revisiting in light of the new post-COVID-19 travel market trends.

In the past few months, multiple articles and studies have come out covering this subject often from a rather subjective standpoint, to put it mildly. These papers, sometimes directly backed by OTAs, have been spreading relatively debatable content (if not straight-up misinformation). In this article, we will cover and effectively debunk four misguided statements regarding the state of OTAs in a post-COVID-19 travel market, from their cost to their place in hotels channel mix, and more.

Pre-coronavirus, it looked like nothing would be able to put an end to OTAs growing hegemony over the online travel market. Even though some hotels tried hopping on the Return to Direct train that emerged to win back some of OTAs market shares, the sheer power of Booking.com and Expedias marketing strategies was proving hard to compete with. Only an event of unprecedented magnitude could turn around what appeared to be an unstoppable tide. Enter COVID-19.

The outbreak fundamentally altered the relative balance of the online travel market. With OTAs cutting back their marketing budget, hotels had the chance to climb their way back up travel-related search engine queries. Moreover, Google recently changed their advertising features for hotels, allowing for a free listing on their travel platform as well as better chances to compete with big spenders through an improved algorithm. Finally, as lockdowns forced many people to travel within their own countrys borders, reliance on large booking platforms decreased while direct bookings surged. This trend is highlighted in the graph below from a recent D-Edge study.

All these elements combined put these once all-powerful actors in a position of relative weakness. Concurrently, several articles(OTA market share likely to increase due to coronavirus pandemic)went out of their way to show that the position of OTAs has remained very much unchanged and might fare even better than before the pandemic. For example, this study(Study reveals the increasing importance of OTA Travelers in Economic Recovery), unsurprisingly backed by Expedia Group, claims that hotels will become increasingly reliant on OTAs in a post-COVID-19 world. However, the abstract discloses that most of the surveyed travelers were interviewed prior to the pandemic (late 2019, to early 2020). Moreover, the same researchers boldly assert that travelers are 57 percent more likely to book a hotel via an OTA than before the pandemic mostly because leisure travel will be a big part of the recovery process. Although, as we saw when crunching the numbers for both OTAs and direct booking channels, reality tells a very different story.

Another study(Working with OTAs: The Indirect Distribution Dilemma) that recently gained a lot of traction analyzed the importance of relying on OTAs, especially Booking.com, to generate revenue. The main claim was that the volume of bookings generated by OTAs outweighed the cost of the commission. However, there are several apparent issues with this research.

In addition to being focused solely on pre-pandemic Belgian independent hotels, the study only accounted for the monetary cost of working with OTAs and failed to analyze incidental consequences. As hotels have grown to learn, the price of signing a contract with an OTA goes way beyond the commission and comes with a sway of hidden costs that indirectly weigh on hotels bottom line. Below is a non-exhaustive list:

We can also highlight the inherent bias related to the way the study is set up. Indeed, By 2020, most hotels with the budget and resources to have their own digital strategy are already present on Booking.com. This means that the only hotels left to compare are most likely very small hotels that mostly depend on local customers and very regional or sporadic tourism. What would be more interesting would be to compare the profits margins of the different channels of sale, accounting for all costs. (including the cost and risk management of free cancellations)

To be clear, the main takeaway from this list is not that hotels should stop working with OTAs altogether. In fact, most hotels would still benefit from the increased exposure and extra bookings that these platforms can offer. The objective of this argument was to shed light on the reverse side of the coin which is often left behind when analyzing the pros and cons of hotels partnerships with OTAs.

Another point that is often raised to promote OTAs over direct bookings is that advocating for the former is actually pricier than simply relying on OTAs' advertising power. For example, in this short article(Direct is Not Always Best Hotel OTA Commissions in Comparison to the Benefits They Provide), the author claims that marketing costs to drive direct bookings can be as high as 15% of the value of the sale, which is not much lower than OTAs commissions when accounting for the time and resources needed to run such campaigns.

Surely if this were true, there would be exactly 0 need for hotels to invest in any kind of digital marketing-related campaigns. However, the numbers reported in the aforementioned article are very much on the higher end of what hotels should aim for in terms of acquisition cost. Other studies put the numbers more around 30/40 cents per click and the cost of acquisition closer to 5%. Furthermore, even if one agrees on the 15% marketing cost, generating direct bookings would still be much more valuable than third-party bookings as it will allow the hotel to grow its customer base and eventually build customer loyalty. Besides, it is worth reminding that the cost of retention is almost 10x lower than the cost of acquisition of a new guest.

In light of this, one might ask why many hotels are still relying so heavily on OTAs to generate bookings. Probably either because of a lack of time, skills, or all of the above. Although it is almost assuredly not because it is too expensive. As Cory Chambers, VP and chief revenue officer at Hospitality Ventures Management Group puts it: relying heavily on OTAs is the lazy persons way out of it. [] I just look at the OTA expense, and thats putting a lot of money out there that you could be realizing if you did your own direct sales effort.

A common pattern that we have been observing in all of the aforementioned studies is that they are trying hard to paint OTAs in a good light; as hotels best friends, doing everything to support them in a time of need. In reality, notably because of the pandemic, OTAs made some radical changes to their platform, often detrimental to hotels.

Mirai released a piece(What Booking.com was doing to gain market shares while we were all in lockdown) covering the latest changes Booking.com made to their platform post-COVID-19. Below is a summary of the new features the platform is implementing and what they mean for hotels:

Recognizing the threat direct bookings have become during the COVID-19 outbreak, Booking is actively trying to get an edge over hotels' direct acquisition strategies through these new "features". The main takeaway here is that hotels should not take everything OTAs is pushing as genuinely helpful advice. For example, notice the language used in the image below clearly promoting the sharing of your genius rates and setting it by default on hotels profiles. Booking.com and the likes are primarily looking after their clients and bottom line, everything else, including hotels, comes as an afterthought. Make sure you keep your eyes peeled for any new changes implemented by OTAs and always defend your interests tooth and nail.

By drastically disrupting the state of the online travel market, the COVID-19 outbreak has given hotels a unique opportunity to take back control over their acquisition channels. With OTAs grasp over the industry weakened, direct bookings are slowly but surely climbing up hotels' distribution mix. However, OTAs have recently come back out of the woods seeking to reclaim these lost market shares, with little to no concern for hotels interests.

While OTAs will remain an important acquisition channel going forward, hoteliers should strive to keep up the momentum and continue to grow their direct bookings. Even though this might prove harder than simply listing a property on OTAs and waiting for bookings to come in, the reward will be worth it both in terms of revenue and freedom of action.

Moreover, you are not alone in the fight for a return to direct bookings. Multiple online solutions, ranging from widgets to upselling tools and personalized pricing systems can help increase conversion and convert the user traffic coming from OTAs. By complementing this technology portfolio with a solid digital marketing strategy, hotels will be more than ready to stand tall next to these giants of online distribution.

Original post:

4 Fake News about the State of OTAs post-COVID-19 | By Matthieu Mauguin Hospitality Net - Hospitality Net

PETALING JAYA: In August last year, a message circulated on social media saying that the infrared thermometers being widely used to scan people when entering premises were causing brain injuries.

More recently, in May this year, a two-minute and 48-second audio clip surfaced, containing a claim by an unidentified person who warned that Covid-19 vaccines were poisonous and had led to the deaths of 40 nurses who took their shots.

These are just two examples from among 550 widely shared fake news items about Covid-19 that the authorities have had to tackle since the start of the pandemic last year, according to an analysis by The Star.

We looked at the number of items and types of false or misleading information singled out and debunked or clarified on fact-checking portal Sebenarnya.my, as well as on the Health Ministrys social media platforms

The Stars analysis covered an 18-month period from January last year to June this year.

Of the 550 items singled out by the authorities, 70% (405) surfaced between January and June last year.

This year, the number of Covid-19 fake news items tackled by the authorities fell by 82% to 72 from January to June.

Amid the fall comes a change in the type of misinformation being circulated.

The bulk of fake news in the first half of last year contained claims about the spread of Covid-19 cases at certain locations or on the enforcement of standard operating procedures (SOPs) or the various types of movement control order.

This was during the period when the outbreak first hit the country and the first MCO was imposed from March 18 to June 7, 2020.

This year, much of the fake news being spread on WhatsApp and social media has zeroed in on Covid-19 vaccines.

These include some outlandish claims for example, that eating durian shortly before or after getting vaccinated will cause death.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the developer of Sebenarnya.my, said the portal was built as a single reference point for the public to verify news that has a socioeconomic impact and affects security of the country.

Launched in March 2017, the portal gathers information regarding fake news or information through public tip-offs and collaboration with other ministries.

From its inception up to May 31, 2021, the Sebenarnya.my portal has received a total of 13, 690 tip-offs.

Of the total, 4, 993 (36.5%) were on issues related to Covid-19.

RELATED > True or Not: Fighting the fake news free-for-all

The MCMC said the portal focuses on news topics or issues that affect public or national interests.

The authenticity of the news can be verified or have been verified by official channels or government agencies, based on their role, jurisdiction, and subject matter expertise.

Sebenarnya.my does not cover matters relating to individuals. Its scope is to ensure that government policies impacted by fake news has a quick response by the respective agencies and collated under a single reference platform for the public, it said.

MCMC added that the public can channel any suspicious or unverified news to be verified through the portals SALURKAN KEPADA KAMI (Channel to Us) section (https://sebenarnya.my/salur/).

From the tip-offs, our team will then forward and refer the unverified news to the respective agencies to verify its accuracy, and for them to provide a rebuttal should the news are verified as false news, it said.

The MCMC also said the various ministries had a structured collaboration and were proactive in detecting and monitoring the spread of viral fake news or information involving matters within their scope and functions.

They will issue official statements explaining or refuting any false or misleading news involving their respective agencies and ministries. In turn, the statements are then uploaded onto Sebenarnya.my, it said.

Read more from the original source:

INTERACTIVE: How fake news about Covid-19 has shifted, and what to look out for - The Star Online

WASHINGTON Shortly after thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, Joshua Haynes of Virginia texted a selfie in front of a pile of mangled metal camera gear, bragging that hed assaulted the fake news.

We attacked the CNN reporters and the fake news and destroyed tens of thousands of dollars of their video and television equipment here's a picture behind me of the pile we made out of it, Haynes wrote, according to an FBI affidavit.

He added: i Kicked the fake news ass.

A selfie prosecutors say Joshua Haynes took outside the Capitol in front of destroyed camera equipment.

In the days after the insurrection, alleged rioters urged friends and family to regard media coverage as fake news, notwithstanding the mountain of video footage from inside and outside the Capitol. On Jan. 7, Karl Dresch of Michigan insisted via text that news reports about violence at the Capitol were fake, even as he described the day in the same message as a good show of force.

Bro you shoulda been there....the news is all fake...and just to correct shit..we wasnt violent but we took the capitol, Dresch wrote, according to messages quoted by prosecutors.

Donald Trump didnt invent the phrase fake news, but hed made it his own by the time he left the White House. He deployed it countless times since 2016 in speeches and tweets to discredit critical or unflattering media coverage particularly when it was not, in fact, fake. By Jan. 6, Trumps supporters had absorbed his full roster of reality-defying linguistic devices and used them to distort facts or justify their participation in the assault on the Capitol.

The most common Trumpism on display on Jan. 6 was stop the steal, the rallying cry among Trump and his allies referring to the lie that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. But the language that Trump supporters used in social media posts, interviews, and messages to friends and family explaining why they traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 underscores that they werent all there simply to protest the election. The riots were a convergence of four years of grievances and conspiracy theories, from anger at pandemic lockdowns and cancel culture to the QAnon collective delusion.

The 500-plus criminal cases filed so far in connection with the insurrection are peppered with Trumpian turns of phrase going back to the 2016 campaign. They underscore his yearslong influence on the right-wing lexicon and, as a result, how his supporters engage with politics, culture, and the world around them thats likely to far outlast a single term.

Capitol riot defendants railed online against the deep state. They approvingly described the physical takeover of the Capitol as part of a bigger movement to take back the country, a frequent Trump theme.

Some of these words and phrases have evolved way beyond their original meaning. When Trump spoke in 2016 about wanting to drain the swamp, it was usually a reference to political operatives in Washington. When Garret Miller, a Texas man charged in the riots, sent a message claiming hed identified the police officer who shot and killed Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol, he wrote that the officer was part of the swamp, according to the government. (US Capitol Police have declined to identify the officer, and the Justice Department announced in April that they would not face charges.)

One defense lawyer called the investigation into the insurrection the largest political witch hunt in Justice Department history, echoing one of Trumps favorite attacks on the Russia probe. Even Hillary Clintons use of a private email server when she was secretary of state made an appearance the mother of two men charged with joining the riots, Matthew Klein and Jonathanpeter Klein, texted to suggest that one of them [p]ull a Hillary and use a hammer to destroy his phone, according to prosecutors.

The insurrection brought together a broad spectrum of Trump supporters, including some of the more dangerous elements emboldened under him QAnon believers, members of right-wing extremist groups like the Proud Boys and anti-government militias, and self-proclaimed white supremacists. Court filings show how members of these factions took Trumps expressions of tacit, if not explicit, support like when he told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by as permission to descend on the Capitol.

Even out of office and kicked off mainstream social media platforms, Trump still has a megaphone. In speeches and in statements via email, he still rails against fake news and the swamp, maintains that hes the victim of a witch hunt, and insists the election was rigged another word thats repeatedly cropped up in the texts and online posts quoted in charging papers against alleged rioters. His continued influence over the conservative movement has had consequences for his supporters in court. Judges have ordered several defendants to stay in jail while their cases are pending based in part on the fact that theyre still listening to him.

When US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered Dresch in May to remain behind bars, she noted that hed told someone after the insurrection that Trump was the only big shot I trust right now.

Defendants promise to take action in the future cannot be dismissed as an unlikely occurrence given that his singular source of information continues to propagate the lie that inspired the attack on a near daily basis, Jackson wrote.

Trump supporters gather in front of the Washington Monument on Jan. 6.

The term fake news originally was used to describe information that was completely manufactured; former BuzzFeed News reporter Craig Silverman popularized it starting in 2014. But by 2016 Trump had co-opted it to refer to any critical reports.

When Dona Bissey of Indiana posted on Facebook about her time at the Capitol on Jan. 7, she thanked people for checking on her and told them to turn off the #FakeNews, according to her charging papers. Bissey is set to enter a guilty plea later this month.

We are Home [heart emoji]. Thank You to ALL that messaged checking in and concerned [kiss face emoji]. It was a day Ill remember forever [hug emoji]. Im proud to be a part of it! No Shame [eight American flag emojis]. BTW turn off the #FakeNews, Bissey wrote, along with a photo of someone holding a sign that read, Do It Q.

Screenshot from Dona Bissey's Facebook account included in her charging papers.

Bissey had traveled to the Capitol on Jan. 6 with Anna Morgan-Lloyd, who pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of illegally demonstrating inside the Capitol. Morgan-Lloyd was conciliatory at sentencing and told the judge that she was ashamed that it became a savage display of violence; she was sentenced to three years of probation and no jail time.

Appearing on Fox News the next day, she struck a different tone.

When they call it an insurrection, what do you say? host Laura Ingraham asked.

I can only talk about the area I was in, and I don't believe it, Morgan-Lloyd replied. But as I said, that's only from the area I was at. Her lawyer Heather Shaner told BuzzFeed News that Fox had limited her response.

Stephen Ayres of Ohio recorded a video about his experience at the Capitol after he returned to his hotel, according to the government. He spoke about how the fake news wouldnt accurately report what had happened but that he and people he was traveling with had seen it all and recorded their own footage to share.

On Jan. 7, Daryl Johnson of Iowa posted on Facebook repeating a lie pushed by some prominent Republicans that members of the antifa movement had infiltrated the crowd, per charging papers.

You need to look more deeply into what actually happened - what the media is saying is completely false, Johnson wrote, according to messages the FBI says it found after a judge signed off on a search warrant for his account. It was antifa causing the damage. I was there!

Duke Wilson confronting police at the Capitol, according to prosecutors.

The government identified some defendants based on distinctive, fake newsthemed clothing. Charging documents feature photos of Daniel Warmus of New York inside the Capitol sporting a sweatshirt that says CNN is fake news. Duke Wilson of Idaho wore a purple and white hat that read CNN Fake News as he allegedly joined a mob pushing the police officers guarding one of the tunnels into the building. Surveillance cameras inside the Capitol captured a person identified by prosecutors as Kene Lazo of Virginia carrying around a plaque with what appeared to be custom stenciled slogans, including FALSE MEDIA = COUP.

Trump supporters stand near a gallows that rioters put up across from the US Capitol on Jan. 6.

Like fake news, Trump didnt invent the term deep state, but it became a staple of his linguistic toolbox to try to undermine the investigations that he and his administration faced and to attack law enforcement for not prosecuting his political foes. The late linguist Geoffrey Nunberg summed up Trumps definition of it as a cabal of unelected leftist officials lodged deep in the government who are conspiring to thwart the administrations policies, discredit its supporters and ultimately even overturn Trumps election.

Samuel Fisher, a self-described dating coach from New York who ran a website under the name Brad Holiday, put up a post early on Jan. 6 before going to the Capitol, in which he offered several theories about what might happen as the day unfolded, according to the government.

Trump has an Ace card up his sleeve. He plays it. The Deep State is arrested and hanged on the White House lawn for the High Treason, Fisher wrote, explaining one of his predictions of what could happen.

If Joe Biden were ultimately sworn in, he continued, his theories were that either we live under the rule of the elite pedophiles and chinese communist party or Patriots show up in the millions with guns. They execute all treasonous members of government and rebuild.

Alleged Capitol rioters charged with being part of a conspiracy involving the far-right militant group the Oath Keepers used the deep state narrative, too, according to the FBI. Jessica Watkins of Ohio, one of the defendants in the case, allegedly messaged someone listed as a recruit a few weeks after the November election warning that the deep state was behind Bidens win. Watkins is accused of organizing members of the conspiracy to travel to Washington to try to disrupt Congresss certification of the Electoral College results on Jan. 6.

I dont underestimate the resolve of the Deep State, Watkins told the person on Nov. 17, 2020. Biden may still be our President. If he is, our way of life as we know it is over. Our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights.

Two months after the insurrection, another alleged member of the Oath Keepers conspiracy, Kenneth Harrelson, brought up the deep state in a text exchange cited by the government about tactics to avoid government surveillance. He allegedly told an unidentified person to avoid discussing plans near phones, TVs, or anything plugged in, and to use protective cases for electronic devices while traveling.

I hope the Deep State feels this pain! he wrote on March 5; he was arrested less than a week later.

A man holding pro-Trump signs and flags in front of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Former president Ronald Reagan is usually credited with popularizing the phrase drain the swamp in the early 1980s. It generally refers to tamping down on the influence of lobbyists and other traditional power brokers in Washington. Politicians from both parties have used it to pitch themselves as political outsiders, and Trump carried on that tradition during his 2016 campaign. His supporters picked up on it as a stand-in for referring broadly and pejoratively to Democrats and official Washington.

Alan Hostetter of California, charged in another conspiracy case, posted on Instagram on Dec. 19 about his plans to follow Trumps directive to come to DC on Jan. 6. According to the government, he wrote: I will be there, bullhorns on fire, to let the swamp dwellers know we will not let them steal our country from us.

Hitting DC in the 5-7th..you should pop thru! We gonna Storm the Swamp, Anthony Williams of Michigan posted on Facebook on Dec. 30, according to his charging papers.

The day after the riots, the government says, Bruno Cua of Georgia posted a message on Parler addressed to swamp rats, writing, The events at the capital were a reminder that WE THE PEOPLE are in charge of this country and that you work for us. There will be no warning shot next time.

The FBI cites screenshots of tweets by defendant Brandon Straka of Nebraska defending the breach of the Capitol. Perhaps I missed the part where it was agreed this would be a revolution of ice cream cones & hair-braiding parties to take our government back from lying, cheating globally interested swamp parasites. My bad, he wrote.

Members of a pro-Trump mob exit the Capitol after teargas was dispersed inside on Jan. 6.

When Trump called on his supporters to take back our country in 2015, it tended to go hand-in-hand with campaign rhetoric around his hardline stance against immigration. The phrase evolved into a catch-all for supporting GOP-backed policies and conservative causes.

On Jan. 6, speaking to a crowd of his supporters shortly before many of them marched to the Capitol, Trump said, Youll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength. Near the end of the speech, he again encouraged the crowd to go to the Capitol to give Republican lawmakers who planned to certify his election loss the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

Trump has denied that his words incited the assault on the Capitol; he was impeached for that by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and then acquitted by the Republican majority in the Senate following a trial. Defendants charged with participating in the riots repeatedly expressed that they saw their involvement as part of a larger movement to take back the country.

Picture of Karl Dresch inside the Capitol, according to the government.

In the lead-up to Jan. 6, the government says Dresch (the Michigan man who told a friend to disregard news reports about violence) posted on Facebook about his plans to travel to Washington, writing: NO EXCUSES! NO RETREAT! NO SURRENDER! TAKE THE STREETS! TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY! 1/6/2021=7/4/1776.

In a video allegedly recorded from a terrace outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, Bradley Weeks of Florida taped himself saying: Weve had to break things to get through, but weve gotten through. Weve gotten through, and we are going to take back the Capitol! Were taking back our country!

Corinne Montoni of Florida posted on Parler throughout Jan. 6, according to the government, including one message that stated: Storming the Capitol to take back our country from traitors! This is OUR HOUSEEEE!

The next day, an anonymous tipster alerted law enforcement that Kevin Cordon of California had given an interview to a Finnish news outlet talking about participating in the insurrection.

Were standing up and were taking our country back, Cordon said. This is just the beginning.

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Trump Gave Capitol Rioters The Language To Defend The Insurrection And Deny Reality - BuzzFeed News

The documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, which opened in theatres on Friday, is an angry, elegant, often overwhelmingly emotional chronicle of the late television stars life and his impact on the people close to him. Directed by Morgan Neville, the film portrays Bourdain as intense, self-loathing, relentlessly driven, preternaturally charismatic, andin his life and in his death, by suicide, in 2018a man who both focussed and disturbed the lives of those around him. To craft the films narrative, Neville drew on tens of thousands of hours of video footage and audio archivesand, for three particular lines heard in the film, Neville commissioned a software company to make an A.I.-generated version of Bourdains voice. News of the synthetic audio, which Neville discussed this past week in interviews with me and with Brett Martin, at GQ, provoked a striking degree of anger and unease among Bourdains fans. Well, this is ghoulish; This is awful; WTF?! people said on Twitter, where the fake Bourdain voice became a trending topic. The critic Sean Burns, who had reviewed the documentary negatively, tweeted, I feel like this tells you all you need to know about the ethics of the people behind this project.

When I first spoke with Neville, I was surprised to learn about his use of synthetic audio and equally taken aback that hed chosen not to disclose its presence in his film. He admitted to using the technology for a specific voice-over that Id asked aboutin which Bourdain improbably reads aloud a despairing e-mail that he sent to a friend, the artist David Choebut did not reveal the documentarys other two instances of technological wizardry. Creating a synthetic Bourdain voice-over seemed to me far less crass than, say, a C.G.I. Fred Astaire put to work selling vacuum cleaners in a Dirt Devil commercial, or a holographic Tupac Shakur performing alongside Snoop Dogg at Coachella, and far more trivial than the intentional blending of fiction and nonfiction in, for instance, Errol Morriss Thin Blue Line. Neville used the A.I.-generated audio only to narrate text that Bourdain himself had written. Bourdain composed the words; he justto the best of our knowledgenever uttered them aloud. Some of Nevilles critics contend that Bourdain should have the right to control the way his written words are delivered. But doesnt a person relinquish that control anytime his writing goes out into the world? The act of readingwhether an e-mail or a novel, in our heads or out loudalways involves some degree of interpretation. I was more troubled by the fact that Neville said he hadnt interviewed Bourdains former girlfriend Asia Argento, who is portrayed in the film as the agent of his unravelling.

Besides, documentary film, like nonfiction writing, is a broad and loose category, encompassing everything from unedited, unmanipulated vrit to highly constructed and reconstructed narratives. Winsor McCays short The Sinking of the Lusitania, a propaganda film, from 1918, thats considered an early example of the animated-documentary form, was made entirely from renacted and re-created footage. Ari Folmans Oscar-nominated Waltz with Bashir, from 2008, is a cinematic memoir of war told through animation, with an unreliable narrator, and with the inclusion of characters who are entirely fictional. Vrit is merely a superficial truth, the truth of accountants, Werner Herzog wrote in his famous manifesto Minnesota Declaration. There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization. At the same time, deepfakes and other computer-generated synthetic media have certain troubling connotationspolitical machinations, fake news, lies wearing the HD-rendered face of truthand it is natural for viewers, and filmmakers, to question the boundaries of its responsible use. Nevilles offhand comment, in his interview with me, that we can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later, did not help assure people that he took these matters seriously.

On Friday, to help me unknot the tangle of ethical and emotional questions raised by the three bits of Roadrunner audio (totalling a mere forty-five seconds), I spoke to two people who would be well-qualified for Nevilles hypothetical ethics panel. The first, Sam Gregory, is a former filmmaker and the program director of Witness, a human-rights nonprofit that focusses on ethical applications of video and technology. In some senses, this is quite a minor use of a synthetic-media technology, he told me. Its a few lines in a genre where you do sometimes construct things, where there arent fixed norms about whats acceptable. But, he explained, Nevilles re-creation, and the way he used it, raise fundamental questions about how we define ethical use of synthetic media.

The first has to do with consent, and what Gregory described as our queasiness around manipulating the image or voice of a deceased person. In Nevilles interview with GQ, he said that he had pursued the A.I. idea with the support of Bourdains inner circleI checked, you know, with his widow and his literary executor, just to make sure people were cool with that, he said. But early on Friday morning, as the news of his use of A.I. ricocheted, his ex-wife Ottavia Busia tweeted, I certainly was NOT the one who said Tony would have been cool with that. On Saturday afternoon, Neville wrote to me that the A.I. idea was part of my initial pitch of having Tony narrate the film posthumously la Sunset Boulevardone of Tonys favorite films and one he had even reenacted himself on Cooks Tour, adding, I didnt mean to imply that Ottavia thought Tony wouldve liked it. All I know is that nobody ever expressed any reservations to me. (Busia told me, in an e-mail, that she recalled the idea of A.I. coming up in an initial conversation with Neville and others, but that she didnt realize that it had actually been used until the social-media flurry began. I do believe Morgan thought he had everyones blessing to go ahead, she wrote. I took the decision to remove myself from the process early on because it was just too painful for me.)

A second core principle is disclosurehow the use of synthetic media is or is not made clear to an audience. Gregory brought up the example of Welcome to Chechnya, the film, from 2020, about underground Chechen activists who work to free survivors of the countrys violent anti-gay purges. The films director, David France, relied on deepfake technology to protect the identities of the films subjects by swapping their faces for others, but he left a slight shimmer around the heads of the activists to alert his viewers to the manipulation what Gregory described as an example of creative signalling. Its not like you need to literally label somethingits not like you need to write something across the bottom of the screen every time you use a synthetic toolbut its responsible to just remind the audience that this is a representation, he said. If you look at a Ken Burns documentary, it doesnt say reconstruction at the bottom of every photo hes animated. But theres norms and contexttrying to think, within the nature of the genre, how we might show manipulation in a way thats responsible to the audience and doesnt deceive them.

Gregory suggested that much of the discomfort people are feeling about Roadrunner might stem from the novelty of the technology. Im not sure that its even all that much about what the director did in this filmits because its triggering us to think how this will play out, in terms of our norms of whats acceptable, our expectations of media, he said. It may well be that in a couple of years we are comfortable with this, in the same way were comfortable with a narrator reading a poem, or a letter from the Civil War.

There are really awesome creative uses for these tools, my second interviewee, Karen Hao, an editor at the MIT Technology Review who focusses on artificial intelligence, told me. But we have to be really cautious of how we use them early on. She brought up two recent deployments of deepfake technology that she considers successful. The first, a 2020 collaboration between artists and A.I. companies, is an audio-video synthetic representation of Richard Nixon reading his infamous In Event of Moon Disaster speech, which he would have delivered had the Apollo 11 mission failed and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin perished. (The first time I watched it, I got chills, Hao said.) The second, an episode of The Simpsons, from March, in which the character Mrs. Krabappel, voiced by the late actress Marcia Wallace, was resurrected by splicing together phonemes from earlier recordings, passed her ethical litmus test because, in a fictional show like The Simpsons, you know that the persons voice is not representing them, so theres less attachment to the fact that the voice might be fake, Hao said. But, in the context of a documentary, youre not expecting to suddenly be viewing fake footage, or hearing fake audio.

A particularly unsettling aspect of the Bourdain voice clone, Hao speculated, may be its hybridization of reality and unreality: Its not clearly faked, nor is it clearly real, and the fact that it was his actual words just muddles that even more. In the world of broadcast media, deepfake and synthetic technologies are logical successors to ubiquitousand more discernibleanalog and digital manipulation techniques. Already, face renders and voice clones are an up-and-coming technology in scripted media, especially in high-budget productions, where they promise to provide an alternative to laborious and expensive practical effects. But the potential of these technologies is undermined if we introduce the public to them in jarring ways, Hao said, adding, It could prime the public to have a more negative perception of this technology than perhaps is deserved. The fact that the synthetic Bourdain voice was undetected until Neville pointed it out is part of what makes it so unnerving. Im sure people are asking themselves, How many other things have I heard where I thought this is definitely real, because this is something X person would say, and it was actually fabricated? Hao said. Still, she added, I would urge people to give the guyNevillesome slack. This is such fresh territory.... Its completely new ground. I would personally be inclined to forgive him for crossing a boundary that didnt previously exist.

Excerpt from:

The Ethics of a Deepfake Anthony Bourdain Voice in Roadrunner - The New Yorker

A general view of the drug Ivermectin.

Photo by Gallo Images/Ziyaad Douglas

The Department of Health says a report that Ivermectin has been registered as a medicine in South Africa is "fake news".

The department responded to a screen shot of a SABC News social media post, with a breaking news tag, claiming the medication had been approved for use.

Acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi's spokesperson, HlengiweNhlabathi-Mokota, said the reports were incorrect and that the medication had not been approved for use in Covid-19 patients and without doctors having undertaken a Section 21 process with the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra).

In terms of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act, a Section 21 application is used to apply for the prescription of medicine not registered for human use in South Africa.

READ |Ivermectin settlement: 'Sanctity of human life' top of mind, says ACDP

Sahpra spokesperson Yuven Gounden confirmed the reports were false.

Sahpra added, in a social media post, that the image appeared to be "an old screen shot" that was being circulated.

In February, Sahpra agreed to allow doctors, in cases deemed urgent, to start Ivermectin treatment as soon as a Section 21 application had been submitted without waiting for the application's outcome.

Sahpra was hesitant to allow the use of Ivermectin for the treatment of Covid-19, saying there was not enough clinical evidence to support this.

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Reports of Ivermectin approval 'fake news', says Sahpra - News24