donal brown

National Public Radio sued the Department of Health and Human Services on November 12 for public records concerning the knowing distribution of flawed Covid-19 test kits in early February to labs across the U.S. The flawed kits slowed the fight against the disease leading to deaths that could have been prevented. When confronted with reports of the flawed test kits, Center for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield said there was a manufacturing problem, but CDC

Conservative are deserting Twitter for Parler, as it becomes one of the most downloaded apps since the election. They want to escape the censorship they ascribe to Twitter and enjoy free speech in a venue without what they call “agenda-driven fact checking.” Critics fear it’s a haven for hate and incitement to violence. (kbps, November 16, 2020, by Jacob Aere) Before the election, Facebook put the hammer to violent militias and banned QAnon and post-election

Faced with the Trump phenomenon, the social media, Facebook, Google and others, have become gatekeepers to information. They stepped up during the election to curtail false or harmful information, for example that the election was stolen from Trump. (The New York Times, November 7, 2020, by Shira Ovide) CNN’s Brian Stelter thinks that the news media’s hiring of fact-checkers is a good thing to help dispute the alternative realities generated by Trump. The emergence of

Tom Jones of Poynter, November 7, 2020, praises the news media for its performance during election week. They reported tirelessly, avoided calling the race prematurely and admitted when they didn’t have the data to offer an assurance. Jones sees it as a platform for rebuilding trust in the media, eroded during the last four years in part by repeated bashing by President Donald Trump. Stanford lecturer Janine Zacharia, San Francisco Chronicle, November 8, 2020, writes