The Disinformation Industrial Complex
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2021
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on our Arbiters of Truth series on our online information ecosystem, we’re going to be talking about … disinformation! What else? It’s everywhere. It’s ruining society. It’s the subject of endless academic articles, news reports, opinion columns, and, well, podcasts.
Welcome to what BuzzFeed News reporter Joe Bernstein has termed “Big Disinformation.” In a provocative essay in the September issue of Harper’s Magazine, he argues that anxiety over bad information has become a cultural juggernaut that draws in far more attention and funding than the problem really merits—and that the intellectual foundations of that juggernaut are, to a large extent, built on sand.
Joe joined Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic to discuss his article and the response to it among researchers and reporters who work in the field. Joe explained his argument and described what it feels like to be unexpectedly cited by Facebook PR. What led him to essentially drop a bomb into an entire discipline? What does his critique mean for how we think about the role of platforms in American society right now? And … is he right?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
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| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | What I'm asking for is that this discipline, |
| 0:37.0 | that this framework takes on board some better, more sophisticated, |
| 0:43.0 | degree of self-reflection. |
| 0:45.0 | If the critique of my piece is, this is overly harsh on people |
| 0:49.0 | who are basically in completely novel territory trying their best. |
| 0:54.0 | Yeah, I mean, I'm sympathetic to that. |
| 0:57.0 | I'm Quinta Jurassic, and this is the LawFair podcast September 2nd, 2021. |
| 1:05.0 | Today, we're bringing you another episode of our Arbiter's of Truth series |
| 1:09.0 | on our online information ecosystem. |
| 1:11.0 | And we're going to be talking about disinformation. |
| 1:15.0 | What else? It's everywhere. It's ruining society. |
| 1:19.0 | It's the subject of endless academic articles, news reports, |
| 1:23.0 | opinion columns, and well, podcasts. |
| 1:26.0 | Welcome to what Buzzfeed News reporter Joe Bernstein has termed |
| 1:30.0 | big disinformation. |
| 1:32.0 | In a provocative essay in the September issue of Harper's magazine, |
... |
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