Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

I'm Dan Pramak. On today's show, tracking the coronavirus from space and private equity nearly closes a hospital.

But first, misinformation in the age of coronavirus. It's no secret that trust in media has been falling over the past decade,

and even faster since President Trump began using fake news as a rhetorical crutch. And the coronavirus

outbreak hasn't really seemed to change those trend lines at the national level, even though

trust in local media is on an upswing. Why it matters is that information right now isn't a luxury.

It could be the difference between life and death, putting extra responsibility on news outlets,

social media platforms, and public officials to be certain in what they report, amplify, and say.

And while many in all three of those buckets have indeed been doing laudable work, there are also trouble spots.

Internationally, we have seen media repression play out in countries like China, Hungary,

Egypt, Iran, Brazil, and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, back here at home, President Trump has regularly said untrue or unfounded things about the pandemic,

which many in the press have repeated verbatim in which then get shared endlessly on social media. And speaking of social media, then there's Facebook, which many in the press have repeated verbatim, and which then get shared endlessly

on social media. And speaking of social media, then there's Facebook, which has indeed been

generally strong when it comes to stopping coronavirus misinformation and encouraging the

sharing of accurate information, but which also is under fire after recent reports that it opted

not to investigate an intentional misinformation campaign

by conservative website the Daily Wire.

Now, to be clear, the Daily Wire misinformation wasn't specific to coronavirus, but the incident

did reflect the thorny realities of how Facebook takes into account the possibility of partisan

backlash when making censorship decisions.

The bottom line, coronavirus didn't cause Americans to distrust media, but it has exposed

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