Defaming DiResta For Defining Disinformation

The Gist

Mike Pesca

News, Politics, Arts, Daily News

4.4 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, Renée DiResta studied disinformation and alerted social media companies to violations of their own rules. This opened her up to charges that she was engaging in censorship. Out with a new book, Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality, DiResta discusses those accusations and the difference between disinformation, disliked information, and normal political puffery. She also denies being an active CIA agent, which is exactly what a CIA agent might say. Plus, Donald Trump's cognition needn't be the source of investigation when it's output is the source of so much content. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at [email protected] To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Thursday, September 12, 2024 from Peach Fish Productions, it's the gist I'm Mike Pesca.
0:09.0	The Atlantic had a story about Donald Trump's poor performance in Tuesday's debate.
0:14.3	The subhead was, if the debate was a cognitive test,
0:17.5	the former president failed.
0:19.3	Well, he did fail, but it wasn't a cognitive test.
0:22.4	It was a test of voter preference, which depends on verbal
0:25.1	performance as dictated by cognition. It's like saying, if the Olympic long jump is a test of
0:31.7	quads and hamstrings.
0:33.0	I mean, those two muscle groups do largely determine success,
0:36.0	but that is not what it's a test of.
0:39.0	What the author of that story wanted to point out,
0:41.0	what many writers want to point out is that Donald Trump
0:44.8	is not sharp. He lacks acuity. The elevator doesn't go up to the 68th floor
0:50.9	and not only because Trump Tower eliminated 10 floors to make it seem taller.
0:56.2	Ever since Joe Biden dropped out of the race, writers, and even before them, writers have and
1:00.8	have been asking, demanding more stories on the Trump decline.
1:05.0	Alex Wagner of MS NBC summarized one study in a story headlined,
1:08.5	Where is the Avalanche of Coverage of Trump's cognitive decline.
1:12.8	Between January and June of this year,
1:14.6	media matters found nearly 10 times
1:17.1	as many articles focused on just Biden's age
1:20.4	or mental acuity as focused on just trumps.
	...

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