Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision

of tech, business, and politics.

Presented by Bridge Bank. Be bold. Venture wisely. I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, Facebook's

hot air and new China tariffs take a bite out of Apple.

But first, delete your accounts. So that is the social media mantra of Axios editor-in-chief

Nick Johnson, and he's only kind of sort of kidding. The basic idea is that platforms like

Twitter and Facebook have become places where journalists write things that they'd never put

or be allowed to put in print,

not just silly pet pictures, but sometimes unvetted news items or snark that can negatively color future

reporting. Why it matters today is that there was a recent New York Times story about how an ad hoc

group of Trump supporters had screenshoted social media postings from hundreds of journalists,

plus their family members and lower-level media company employees, and plan to disseminate them

when needed to discredit future reporting. Axios' Mike Allen followed up today, saying that the

Times story ended up ironically creating a much more formalized process. In other words, people

saw the Times story and thought, hey, we should turn this into an

organization.

And a group of GOP operatives is seeking to raise $2 million for an organization that will

investigate mainstream media reporters and editors.

This is a major escalation of Trump's fake news attacks and could play a central role

in not only the

2020 election, but in how media interacts with its audience in the future. By the way, my

Twitter handle remains at Dampra Mac. Sorry, Nick. In 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with Axios'

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