Anson's Skeptical Daily

Top of Anson's Skeptical Daily for February 18, 2018.

paper.li is a free service (with paid upgrade for additional features) which will automatically create a web "newspaper" every day based on user specified keywords or other criteria. It looks in Twitter, Facebook, Google+ LinkedIn and other sources specified by the user. It will optinally tweet or post to your Facebook account every time a paper is published.

I've had a paper on skeptical topics generated daily for a few years. I started it for personal use and haven't publicized it at all but decided to share the link to it now. A new edition is usually generated between 12:30 and 1:00 pm Eastern time.

I like it because it often pulls clips from sites and sources I wasn't aware of or don't read regularly. For example, today's edition has links to articles like Flat Earthers: Belief, Skepticism, and Denialism: When people reject facts, what do they really believe? by Joe Pierre in Psychology Today. Since I don't regularly ready Psychology Today I would have missed this one. It has an interesting comment on the difference between saying "I believe in..." and "I believe that..." Of course, today's edition also has a few howlers in it. Like It's Good for Christians to Be Skeptical, But to a Degree, a tweet by Faithfully Magazine about their article Five Potential Dangers Of Skepticism, by Jonathan Holmes. Holmes basically argues it's OK for Christians to be skeptical of some things, but being too skeptical could damage their faith. Indeed. Rationality, critical thinking and skepticism are crucial to a healthy democracy. One could argue our current slow-motion Constitutional crisis is due at least as much to a lack of skepticism and critical thinking as it is to Russian meddling. But that'a topic for a different time.

paper.li does have its detractors. Some think that being tweeted at by a bot is abusive. For example, here's the tweet for today's edition of Anson's BBQ Daily (I like smoked meat, what can I say?):

The latest Anson's BBQ Daily! https://t.co/hSy4fQSPle Thanks to @MistaMawz @KaluhisKitchen #bbq #recipe

— Anson Kennedy (@ansonkennedy) February 18, 2018

No one has ever complained about my BBQ daily tweets. In fact often the people mentioned will like or retweet. But if you create a paper and enable tweeting be aware not everyone will necessarily appreciate it.

Note: I am not associated with paper.li in any way other than as a user. paper.li in no way supported this post or bog.

Update 2/21/2018: Added link to Anson's Skeptical Daily for 2/19/2018.

Does Fox News Source Its Reports from Facebook Memes?

Here's that Facebook meme again, with added clarification

A couple of days ago I wrote how a Facebook meme completely misrepresents the Nunes Memo in order to promulgate a false narrative about the Trump-Russia investigation, originally begun under then-FBI Director James Comey then carried on by Special Counsel Robert Mueller appointed after Comey was summarily fired for not dropping the investigation.

(I figure if Donald Trump reads this blog he'll stop at that first sentence since it's too complex.)

OK, now that we know Trump isn't reading this, ThinkProgress.org has a report that summarizes Fox News reporting on the Nunes Memo. The sub head is "Fox News is talking about an alternate reality memo that does not exist." I think it does exist. The "memo" Fox News is reporting on is the false Facebook meme I wrote about two days ago.

Why do I think this? Here are the Fox News talking points ThinkProgress highlights:

• The Steele dossier formed the basis for the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign - Points 1, 2, and 3 of the meme.
• The memo describes surveillance of the Trump campaign - Points 4 and 6.
• The FBI didn’t disclose any partisan motivations of the dossier - Point 5.
• The dossier undermines the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation - That's the whole point.

I think that's a pretty amazing correlation.

The Nunes Memo and Fake News

Facebook meme which completely misrepresents Nunes Memo

I've seen this SUMMARY OF THE MEMO meme shared on Facebook a few times. While it may represent what some people want you to believe about the Nunes Memo, it misrepresents the memo and the facts on every point. I've read the memo as well as much of the publicly released Congressional testimony and other open source reporting. Unlike this meme or the Nunes Memo itself, I will provide links to my sources. You don't have to just take my word for it. All referenced links were accessed on February 4, 2018.

1. Two false allegations in one sentence. First: No, the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC did not hire a former spy to do oppo research on Trump. A conservative website, the Washington Free Beacon, hired Fusion GPS to do the research on Trump in September or October of 2015. After Trump won the Republican nomination a law firm for the Democrat Party hired Fusion GPS [Glenn Simpson Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, August 22, 2017 pg 63, "‘Journalism for rent’: Inside the secretive firm behind the Trump dossier", Washington Post, Dec. 11, 2017]. Fusion GPS subbed out the work to Christopher Steele, a former agent of British MI6 [Journalism for rent]. Second: Fusion GPS was not hired to "concoct a fake dossier on Trump." Nor did they subcontract Steele to do so. The work was standard opposition research [Simpson Testimony pg. 63-64].
2. Neither the Clinton campaign nor the DNC gave the Steele dossier to the DOJ or the FBI. Christopher Steele took the info to the FBI after he determined that then-candidate Trump was possibly compromised by Russia [Simpson Testimony pg. 159-162].
3. The worst you can objectively say about the Steele dossier is that it is partially verified and otherwise unverified [A Second Look at the Steele Dossier, ]. No evidence that I am aware of has discredited any of its allegations. Calling it "fake" is, well, fake news.
4. All you have to do is read the Nunes Memo to know this one is false. There was no "Trump wiretap" requested. The DOJ/FBI requested a FISA surveillance warrant on Carter Page, not Trump. And the request was made in October 2017, about a month after Page left the Trump campaign in September. [Nunes Memo].
5. The memo is vague on whether or not the FISA court was informed about the political connections of the Steele dossier [Nunes Memo] although other reporting states that it was disclosed [Rep. Schiff: Steele dossier's political motivation disclosed in FISA application, CNN.com, Feb. 3, 2018]. This is just one of the points the Nunes Memo obfuscates to give the impression of some sort of vast conspiracy.
6. Publicly available information including the Nunes Memo itself does not support the allegation that the FISA court was defrauded [Nunes Memo]. And to reiterate the Trump campaign was not wiretapped. This even misrepresents the already shaky claims of the Nunes Memo.

Any time you see something like this GIF shared on Facebook you should take it with a grain of salt. Heck, a bushel of salt. It is more likely than not misleading (at best) or flat out wrong (at worst). I have no idea who the source of this particular meme is, but based on descriptions of what the Russia-linked groups [Black Friday Report: On Russian Propaganda Network Mapping, Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say, Washington Post, Nov. 24, 2016] did I would not be surprised to learn that they were involved.

As to the title of this post, "The Nunes Memo and Fake News", what's the difference?