Happy Last Day of the Trump Administration!
How to fix our disinformation nation + in Trump’s new history, slavery wasn't so bad + Biden’s 10-day executive order blitz + North Carolina’s 8,000 COVID deaths + Nazi swag at the Fairgrounds
Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021
Happy Tuesday. I hope those of you who had a long weekend enjoyed it. … Today’s newsletter is a six-minute read. … Yesterday, I learned that MLK Jr. previewed a version of his “I Have a Dream” speech in Rocky Mount in 1962.
Weather: Sunny in the morning, cloudier in the afternoon, high around 55. (WRAL)
On This Day
1861: Georgia seceded from the Union.
1865: Union troops occupied Fort Anderson, North Carolina.
1883: Built by Thomas Edison, the first electric wiring system using overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey.
1942: A German U-boat attacked three ships off the coast of North Carolina.
1955: Paul Howard Rose, the founder of Rose’s discount stores, died at 73.
1977: Snow fell in Miami, the only time in the city’s recorded history.
One Year Ago
Top story: “Trump’s Defense Team Calls Impeachment Charges ‘Brazen’ as Democrats Make Legal Case”
Top 3 Google Search queries, Raleigh-Durham MSA, Jan. 19. 2020:
Chiefs: Defeated the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship.
49ers: Defeated the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship.
Patrick Mahomes: Threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns in the Chiefs’ win.
Today’s Number: 29
Hours from the time this newsletter is sent until the end of Donald Trump’s presidency. Not that I’m counting.
+TODAY’S TOP 5
1. How to Fix Our Disinformation Nation
It’s hardly news that Donald Trump’s presidency has been marked by mendacity or that he used his social media platforms to broadcast disinformation. But the degree to which he poisoned public discourse was difficult to quantify — at least until social media companies booted him.
In the week that followed, the number of online conversations spreading misinformation about the election declined by 73%, according to research firm Zignal Labs.
Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab: “Bottom line is that de-platforming, especially at the scale that occurred last week, rapidly curbs momentum and ability to reach new audiences. That said, it also has the tendency to harden the views of those already engaged in the spread of that type of false information.” (WaPo)
Writing specifically of Fox News, recovering neocon Max Boot called for a return of the pre-Reagan-era Fairness Doctrine as a way to “shut down the influencers who radicalize people and set them on the path toward violence and sedition.”
In other words, he wants the feds to quash the bullshit.
However: The Fairness Doctrine applied to over-the-airwaves broadcasts, which the FCC regulates, unlike cable or internet content.
Just like the public pressured Facebook and Twitter to crack down on Trump, it could also pressure cable companies not to carry OANN, Newsmax, or even Fox News unless they adhere to certain content standards.
Zignal’s analysis shows the power Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. have to drive misinformation into the internet’s nether regions. Were Spectrum, AT&T, and other cable/internet providers to similarly flex their muscles with cable news outlets, the far right’s disinformation networks might be curtailed.
The question: To what degree are we comfortable with large telecoms and social media platforms — companies constantly under federal scrutiny and always looking to make nice with whichever party is in power — deciding what information is misinformation?
—> SPEAKING OF PROPAGANDA
On Oct. 12, Fox News settled a lawsuit with the family of the late Seth Rich, a DNC staffer it falsely claimed leaked DNC emails to Wikileaks in 2016. (The Russians did it.) But the settlement had an odd provision:
“The settlement had to be kept secret for a month — until after the Nov. 3 election.”
“Why did Fox care about keeping the Rich settlement secret for the final month of the Trump re-election campaign? Why was it important to the company, which calls itself a news organization, that one of the biggest lies of the Trump era remain unresolved for that period?”
—> SPEAKING OF MISINFORMATION
Parler is back online, with its domain registered to a DNS provider that has also served the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer and the insane person’s forum 8Chan. It’s being hosted by DDOS Guard, out of Russia. The app still can’t be downloaded on Apple or Android.
—> SPEAKING OF DISINFORMATION
The Trump administration chose MLK Day — sigh — to release its 1776 Commission report, an attempted response to The New York Times’s 1619 Project that intends to call for “patriotic education” but reads like a term paper from a flunking freshman at Liberty University.
The 20-page report, which the White House claims is “definitive,” brushes aside slavery (everybody did it!); calls communism and fascism “ideological cousins” (which would be news to communists and fascists); and says that after the Civil Rights Act, the civil rights movement “turned to programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals of the founders” by focusing on “group rights,” and in so doing, they were “not unlike those advanced by [Confederate Vice President John] Calhoun and his followers.”
The commission is made up of a who’s-who of Who’s That?: scholars connected with small conservative colleges, right-wing activists, Republican politicians, etc. None of the 18 members is a professional historian, though others have academic backgrounds in con law or political science.
Actual historians have not been kind: “James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, said the report was not a work of history, but ‘cynical politics.’”
“Some of the strongest criticism was for the report’s treatment of slavery, which the report suggests was an unfortunate reality throughout the world that was swept away in America by the forces unleashed by the American Revolution, which is described as marking ‘a dramatic sea change in moral sensibilities.’”
“And in a line that drew particular fire from historians, the report calls John C. Calhoun ‘perhaps the leading forerunner’ of identity politics. ‘Like modern-day proponents of identity politics,’ it claims, ‘Calhoun believed that achieving unity through rational deliberation and political compromise was impossible; majority groups would only use the political process to oppress minority groups.’”
2. Trump Plans a Pardon Spree
On his last full day in office, Trump will hand out pardons like Oprah hands out cars.
“Those under consideration include such disparate figures as Sheldon Silver, the disgraced former New York Assembly speaker, and the rapper Lil Wayne, [a Trump supporter] who pleaded guilty last month to a gun charge.”
“There are no plans for Mr. Trump to include a pardon for himself on the list to be released on Tuesday or for him to pre-emptively pardon his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. … But Mr. Trump’s ultimate decision about pardoning himself and members of his family, they said, could remain an open question until noon on Wednesday.”
—> OTHER INSURRECTION NEWS
The accounts of Capitol rioters could expose Trump to criminal liability. (WaPo)
For weeks before the insurrection, far-right groups raised tons of cash and made travel arrangements to go to DC. (NYT)
Franklin Graham, a man of God, says the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting a deadly riot are just like Judas. (N&O)
3. Biden to Go Big and Fast
Biden’s aides are telegraphing a fast start to his presidency, including a 10-day blitz of executive orders and a far-reaching immigration proposal.
“On his first day in office alone, Mr. Biden intends a flurry of executive orders [that] include rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, rejoining the Paris climate change accord, extending pandemic-related limits on evictions and student loan payments, issuing a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel, and ordering agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from families after crossing the border.”
“He also plans to send sweeping immigration legislation on his first day in office providing a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people in the country illegally.” (NYT)
The immigration proposal will be anchored by an eight-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and a vast expansion of refugee admissions.
—> OTHER INAUGURATION NEWS
Local government buildings in downtown Raleigh, as well as the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and the N.C. Museum of History, will be closed today and tomorrow due to the potential for violent protests. (N&O, WRAL)
4. North Carolina Eclipsed 8,000 COVID Deaths
On Saturday, North Carolina surpassed 8,000 known deaths from COVID-19 — just 10 days after the state passed 7,000 deaths. As of Sunday, the death toll had reached 8,083. The U.S. has logged 408,615 deaths.
“More than 2 million people have been recorded killed by the virus worldwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. death toll is the world's worst, even though it makes up less than 5 percent of the world's population.” (NBC News)
—> OTHER LOCAL NEWS
UNC-Chapel Hill plans to cut personnel costs by 3% and operating costs by 15% over the next two years to make up for pandemic losses. (WRAL)
A petition demanding the resignation of freshman congressman Madison Cawthorn has garnered more than 34,000 signatures. (WRAL)
A vendor at a gun show at the State Fairgrounds was selling swastika patches and SS bolts. The show’s promoter asked the vendor to stop selling the Nazi swag. The gun show still had Confederate flags — and, of course, guns — aplenty. (N&O)
For the first time since 1982, neither Duke nor UNC is ranked in the top 25. (N&O)
Local banks are opening their PPP portals today. They expect a lot of interest from bars and restaurants. (TBJ, sub. req.)
Shop Local Raleigh is selling deeply discounted heaters to local bars and restaurants to help them try to survive the winter. (ABC 11)
Here’s a list of the local bars whose permits the ABC Commission canceled without warning earlier this month. Notables include: (N&O)
Wake County: Architect, Little City Brewing & Provisions.
Durham County: Accordion Club, Arcana, Pinhook.
Orange County: Crunkleton, Nash Street Tavern.
5. What I’m Reading: Tuskegee Airman Dies of COVID at 100
Theodore "Ted" Lumpkin Jr., a member of the Tuskegee Airmen whose service as a member of the all-Black unit during World War II helped desegregate the U.S. military, has died at age 100.
Lumpkin, a native Angeleno, died of COVID-19 on Dec. 26 at a hospital, just days shy of his 101st birthday, said his son Ted Lumpkin III.
"We're carrying on his [legacy], but it's an end of an era," his son said.
Lumpkin lived a full life. He was drafted into the military in 1942 when he was a 21-year-old student at UCLA. He was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron of the all-Black unit in Tuskegee, Ala., as a 2nd lieutenant with the U.S. Army Air Force.
He said his eyes weren't good enough to become a pilot, so he served as an intelligence officer, briefing pilots about missions during his overseas combat tour in Italy.
Source: LA Times via Stars & Stripes