The American health system is bleeding out, and it desperately needs a real doctor. Leading Health and Human Services (HHS) today is like navigating a chaotic hospital — patients in every hallway, monitors screaming, seconds ticking away. Yet, instead of a seasoned physician who triages and trusts proven protocols, that hospital is overseen by an activist named Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Fox News
Farmers in states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota have culled millions of fowl to prevent the avian flu outbreak from spreading. Conspiracy theorists online have made life for farmers even more difficult as they deal with the problem.
The Associated Press
The Trump administration knew that the vast majority of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in mid-March had not been convicted of crimes in the United States before it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data that has not been previously reported.
ProPublica
It is not often that cold, hard facts determine what people care most about and what they believe. Instead, it is the power and familiarity of a well-told story that reigns supreme. Whether it’s a heartfelt anecdote, a personal testimony or a meme echoing familiar cultural narratives, stories tend to stick with us, move us and shape our beliefs.
The Conversation
Health authorities across Mexico are scrambling to contain the nation’s biggest measles outbreak in decades. Cases have been concentrated in the Mennonite community — long skeptical of vaccines and distrustful of authorities — in the northern border state of Chihuahua.
The Associated Press
A first-of-its-kind study from researchers at Michigan State University reveals that individuals who experience the most distress and impairment in daily functioning from social media use are more likely to believe fake news.
Michigan State University Today
Many of us may have friends and family who have fallen down the information rabbit holes of intense partisanship, conspiracy theories or deeper holes of extremism. With both sides of the political aisle falling victim to these rabbit holes, now is as good of a time as any to help our friends and family.
The State Press
The publisher of The New York Times is warning about what he says is a trend of misinformation permeating public discourse and an increasingly hostile posture toward the press taken by leaders around the world.
The Hill
Voice of America (VOA) is planning to partner with One America News (OAN), according to Kari Lake, who serves as the senior adviser at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
The Hill
Health officials are raising alarms over the spread of misinformation amid a growing measles outbreak across the United States, with Georgia falling short of herd immunity thresholds.
WANF / Atlanta News First
Five years after the start of COVID-19 pandemic and the communications challenges, divisions, and false claims that followed, less than half of the public say they have at least some confidence in the federal government’s health agencies like the CDC and the FDA to carry out many of their core responsibilities.
KFF Health News
Decades of psychological research suggest that authoritarian leaders and their admirers consistently share one thing in common: they twist the truth. To accomplish this, such leaders frequently follow a common playbook of attacking truth tellers and truth-telling institutions as a prelude to controlling information infrastructure and a broad-scale decimation of scientific programs.
TIME
A global group of broadcasters and publishers is calling on artificial intelligence developers to make sure their technology serves the public by helping to counter misinformation and protect the value of fact-based news.
The Associated Press
As an immunologist who works in biomedical research, I know misinformation and pseudoscience about cancer is not only frustrating but also extremely dangerous. And if any of you watched the recent Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar, let me tell you: that is only scratching the surface of dangerous lies that circulate in wellness spheres.
Skeptical Inquirer
‘The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must.’ So wrote Thucydides in the ‘History of the Peloponnesian War,’ and the Greek historian’s cold-eyed observation still holds.
The Conversation
In the ongoing battle between fiction and reality, fiction — much of it created by Russia’s robust disinformation machine — appears to be winning. A national YouGov survey commissioned by NewsGuard found that one third of Americans believe at least one false claim being spread by Russian media outlets.
NewsGuard
We live in an age of widespread public deception, where aggressive forms of narrative manipulation spread despair and undermine trust in the commons. Disinformation entrepreneurs harass and intimidate scientists in an attempt to silence them. They create noise and stir up misdirected public outrage.
The Tyee
As Romania heads into another round of presidential elections, TikTok has unveiled a set of initiatives aimed at bolstering election integrity on its platform. These include the launch of a dedicated Election Center, a media literacy campaign in partnership with Romanian media outlets, and an expansion of its moderation and fact-checking efforts.
TikTok
Concerned that the nation’s health leadership is casting unfounded doubt on the safety of well-studied vaccines and may take action to curb their use, a group of public health experts is working to put pieces in place to respond.
CNN
This month, a network of pro-Russian websites began a campaign aimed at undermining confidence in the U.S. defense industry, according to disinformation analysts. The F-35 fighter jet was one target.
The New York Times
