USA 2024 Elections Thread

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Mon Nov 21 20:47:35 PST 2022


Google is a CIA Operation, FBI is corrupt,
Hillary is a lying cunt, Trump Won...


Taibbi: YouTube Censors Reality, Boosts Disinformation - Part 1, 1984

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/youtube-censors-reality-boosts-disinformation

As subscribers by now are aware, I’m very upset about YouTube’s recent
decision to censor a factually accurate video about “rigged election”
comments produced for this site by Matt Orfalea. The company has given
Matt a strike and labeled his/our work “misinformation,” an insult
I’ve decided not to take lying down. I’m going to search for new ways
to embarrass the company until they reverse their decision. As it
happens, today offers an excellent opportunity.

CBS This Morning today came out with a story claiming they obtained a
copy of Hunter Biden’s laptop, sent for an “independent forensic
review,” and determined it “appears genuine.” This follows up
confirmation from The New York Times back on March 16th, and more
importantly, the exhaustive earlier work of Politico reporter Ben
Schreckinger confirming key emails in his book, The Bidens.

Matt did an exceptional job back in March in the video above,
compiling clips of people who went on air and with absolute certainty
proclaimed the laptop “a lie,” “altered or fake,” “pure distractions,”
and of course, “RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION.”

Whether or not you thought the actual content of the story was
important, the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop affair was a
crossroads moment in the history of modern censorship. YouTube played
a major role in this event.

This was a case in which major news media — including CBS, NBC, PBS,
CNN, and countless other outlets — actively embraced disinformation,
in the form of a group letter from 50-plus former intelligence
officials saying the laptop story (they referred to a “laptop op”) had
the “classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” All the
aforementioned news agencies fell for this, as did Twitter (which
blocked access to it, in what then-CEO Jack Dorsey later admitted was
a “total mistake”) and Facebook (whose increasingly adrift founder
Mark Zuckerberg later told Joe Rogan the story was throttled down at
the suggestion of the FBI).

YouTube also pushed this disinformation campaign. It still does.
Despite the total absence of evidence ever existing that the laptop
was either fake or part of a Russian “information operation” and a
growing pile of evidence that the laptop is real, YouTube continues to
leave unmolested on its site countless videos promoting the conspiracy
theory — that’s what it is, let’s be clear — that the laptop story is
both bunk and an intelligence op.

Here’s a brief sample of materials they still have up, unmarked as
“misinformation” or “disinformation”:

    Are Trump allies peddling Russian disinformation about the Bidens?
PBS October 16, 2020 Judy Woodruff: “Today we learned more about
concerns expressed by the President’s most senior advisors, that the
President’s personal attorney was peddling Russian disinformation.”
Nick Schifrin: “The bottom line is we cannot confirm the story, Judy,
but… the Biden campaign says that this is Russian disinformation, and
disinformation experts I talk to tell me that pro-Russian actors have
been packaging their disinformation next to apparently legitimate
information.” The irony, of course, is that PBS and YouTube were the
ones pushing disinformation here.

    Hunter Biden tabloid story raises disinformation campaign fears,
CBS October 15, 2020 “Experts say it has all the hallmarks of
information laundering…,” said correspondent Norah O’Donnell, before
quoting former FBI agent Eric O’Neil saying, “This looks like your
classic disinformation campaign.”

    US investigating if emails connected to Russia disinformation
against Biden, CNN October 16, 2020 This is a beauty. Wolf Blitzer
introduces correspondent Alex Marquardt by talking about how there are
“fears that [the laptop story] could actually be part of Russia’s
latest and very massive disinformation campaign in the US presidential
election.” To which Marquardt answers, “Massive indeed Wolf,” before
going on to “report” that “we are being told by two people who’ve been
briefed on what the FBI is doing, that they’re looking into whether
these unverified emails about Hunter Biden that were published earlier
this week by the New York Post… are part of this bigger Russian
disinformation effort in the 2020 election.” We have no proof this
campaign existed, no proof this story was connected to it, and no
proof of it being “bigger” than any other campaign. Unflagged by
YouTube.

    Bash On Pushing Of Disinformation On Biden: This Looks, Walks, &
Talks Like Russian Intelligence, MSNBC October 19.2020 This piece is
extraordinary because it’s almost exactly the same message as the one
written by the 50 “former” intelligence officers. Nicolle Wallace
starts off humorously, scoffing at the idea that someone is
“suggesting somehow that Joe Biden is a corrupt politician — one of
the most vetted politicians in this country.” Jeremy Bash, a former
CIA chief of staff now posing as a media figure, concurs. “This looks
like Russian intelligence. This walks like Russian intelligence,”
adding that the laptop story “looks like a classic Russian playbook,
disinformation campaign.” If you go back and look, you will find
countless instances of reporters using words like classic, hallmarks,
earmarks, and disinformation campaign.

    Joe Biden on 60 Minutes, CBS. October 26, 2020 Remember, CBS just
did a story contradicting their own earlier 60 Minutes piece in which
Lesley Stahl berated then-President Trump that the laptop story “can’t
be verified.” Indeed, CBS just by doing its new story proved that its
previous position — that verification was impossible — was a lark. In
their other 60 Minutes interview from that season, they soft-balled
Joe Biden on the laptop story. CBS: “Do you believe [Hunter's laptop]
is part of a Russian disinformation campaign?” BIDEN: “It’s just what
it is. It’s a smear campaign.”

There are plenty more of these. If you want to widen the criticism to
Google, these “Russian disinformation” stories still pop up high in
searches (see here, here, here, here, and here, for instance). YouTube
and Google now become exhibit A in the ultimate truth about any
attempt to “moderate” content at scale. If you make even a good-faith
effort to weed out “disinformation,” relying on official bodies to
help, what you’ll be left with is… official disinformation.

But this isn’t a good-faith effort to weed out untruths. YouTube has
become a place that censors true content but traffics in official and
quasi-official deceptions. It’s become indistinguishable from a state
censorship bureau. If they feel they’re right about their decisions,
they should be happy to explain themselves to people me. Until then,
they can expect more love letters from this address.


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