A debate has been active in Washington for months over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996. In essence, Section 230 protects internet companies who host comments or any user-created content from being held liable for what the users post. In the past six months, some Republicans, annoyed with the perceived political bias from media companies such as Twitter and Google, most notably, have been threatening to rescind that immunity claiming that the companies treating conservatives differently makes them ineligible for the protection.
While there is evidence that the media companies are biased against conservatives (considering the proportion of conservative content that is removed), arguing that their 230 protections should be removed is a stretch.
While Google argues that they should be protected from private lawsuits based on comments, however, it seems they believe that de-platforming other sites for user-generated comments is right and proper.
NBC News reported The Federalist to Google (side note: several stories and tweets (1, 2, 3) provide the quote "Google blocked The Federalist from its advertising platform after the NBC News Verification Unit brought the project to its attention" but that does not appear in the story...anymore.) based on some media "watchdog" group, and then reported that Google was demonetizing The Federalist. Google then clarified that it was just warning The Federalist about some comments (that have not been listed) and it had three days until "a ban goes into effect."
So, in a nutshell, Google is threatening to punish The Federalist for comments left on one of its stories, at the same time it is telling the government that it shouldn't be held responsible for comments left on their many sites.
Many tech journalists are arguing that it's not inconsistent at all, that Google is not the government and Google has a right to do this. This is missing the point of the inconsistency. Of course Google is not the government, and Google has this right. The point is that Google wants a power (punishing other companies for comments on their site) that they don't want used against them. Other claims are that Google wants protection from the government, not private parties. Private parties are free to do as they choose. But that's not correct either. Section 230 also protects Google from lawsuits from other private parties based on the comments.
Granted, they're not the exact same situations. No one is claiming that they are. If you look at the specifics and details then you can argue that these aren't the same situation. However, if you look more broadly at the underlying action "punishing other platforms for comments", then there is definitely an inconsistency. Everyone should acknowledge that there is some inconsistency here, even if there are countervailing details that reconcile them.
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Friday, June 5, 2020
Doom and Gloom Media Wrong Again
When the April jobs report came out, most of the media were talking about however bad it was, the reality was even worse.
LA Times - May 8 "The Unemployment rate may be even worse than it looks"
Associated Press, May 8 - "[The Jobs Report is] Even Worse than it looks. Really."
Vox.com, May 8 - "20.5 million job losses recorded - and the real situation is even worse"
Politico.com, May 11 - "The jobs situation is worse than it looks"
Bloomberg Opinion, May 8 - "This Ugly Jobs Report is Just the Beginning"
CNBC - May 21 "May Unemployment looks worse than expected"
The print media were more balanced, but the internet and televised media all took the glass-half-empty view. Because 18.1 million people, 78%, expected their layoffs would be temporary, there was the possibility of better results in May, if things began to re-open. All of these media outlets, however, chose to expect worse.
What interests me most in this episode, is that again the media were all taking an unprecedented situation and were unable to envision what would eventually transpire. How is it that the media predictions can all be so certain of events that never come to be?
LA Times - May 8 "The Unemployment rate may be even worse than it looks"
Associated Press, May 8 - "[The Jobs Report is] Even Worse than it looks. Really."
Vox.com, May 8 - "20.5 million job losses recorded - and the real situation is even worse"
Politico.com, May 11 - "The jobs situation is worse than it looks"
Bloomberg Opinion, May 8 - "This Ugly Jobs Report is Just the Beginning"
CNBC - May 21 "May Unemployment looks worse than expected"
The print media were more balanced, but the internet and televised media all took the glass-half-empty view. Because 18.1 million people, 78%, expected their layoffs would be temporary, there was the possibility of better results in May, if things began to re-open. All of these media outlets, however, chose to expect worse.
What interests me most in this episode, is that again the media were all taking an unprecedented situation and were unable to envision what would eventually transpire. How is it that the media predictions can all be so certain of events that never come to be?
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Arguing with Strawmen; Avoiding the Issues
On the evening of May 27th and the following morning, TheHill.com featured prominently, this opinion piece by Marik Von Rennenkampff. While you disclaim that his views do not represent your own, by publishing it and featuring it you are promulgating an opinion untethered to good journalism or productive opinions. Mr. Von Rennenkampff’s piece is a one-sided, distorted interpretation of the facts of the Flynn case that is more propaganda than informed opinion and is more suited for a website like Slate.com than what I would expect from The Hill.
While I tend to lean more on the side of those who believe that the FBI and the highest levels of government over-stepped the boundaries of civil justice, I also recognize that this story is extremely complicated and nuanced, and I don’t begrudge those who believe the opposite. In many circumstances, the facts can be read in different ways and both sides have good arguments.
Mr. Von Rennenkampff’s arguments, however, ignore all of that. He takes the strongest arguments from the prosecution’s side puts them up against the weakest (and even non-existent) arguments from defense’s side all while twisting and pulling the facts of the case to suit his opinion.
For example, he twice points to the DOJ’s finding no evidence of political bias after an “exhaustive review.” By saying it was the DOJ finding no evidence and not mentioning it was a review by an independent watchdog within the DOJ he falsely gives the impression that even a politically-motivated organization found no evidence of bias. Additionally, he omits the fact that the DOJ explicitly did not try to determine whether there was political motivation. Their conclusion was basically that “the reasons given to us, pass a minimum threshold to support their decision to investigate.” This is similar to believing that even though a robber broke into your house and stole your jewelry, he said he was actually just looking for flour to make cookies.
If this was the only example of this abandonment of objectivity and sticking close to the facts instead of straying deep into partisan interpretation, it wouldn’t be worth discussing. He claims the Trump-Russia investigation was not based on “bogus information”, omitting any mention of the Steele Dossier and how the actual basis of the investigation – Papadapoulos’s claim to the Australian was fed to him from an untrackable source and the content of the discussion was not true.
He claims that Obama/FBI did not spy on Trump even though the FBI clearly listened in to Flynn’s phone calls, illegally surveilled Carter Page in an effort to investigate Russian collusion even if Carter Page wasn’t an official part of the campaign and completely omits the existence of the confidential informants. Given the facts, a normal person, not trying to spin the facts to suit his biases would not completely dismiss the allegation of spying.
He also tries to knock down a straw man that the FBI Investigation into Flynn was bogus. Only the most extreme are claiming that the investigation was totally bogus. The claims in support of Flynn are that the investigation was properly predicated but politically motivated (jury’s still out), that the FBI had investigated and found nothing for months and then pushed him in a corner where he lied and threw the book at him, and that the FBI bended or broke its own rules to prosecute him. The latter three charges are harder to tackle so Mr. Von Rennenkampff ignores them. He also assigns nefarious motives to an incoming administration official working in an official capacity (albeit before he officially should) to prevent the outgoing administration from blowing up an international relationship.
It is not my intent to condemn opinions that I disagree with, but only to point out unrestrained opinions that do more to activate their own side than to inform. Opinions such as these do nothing to persuade the other side but only strengthen the resolve of the most partisan. The Hill should be more deliberate in choosing what it publishes to inform and challenge instead of instigate.
While I tend to lean more on the side of those who believe that the FBI and the highest levels of government over-stepped the boundaries of civil justice, I also recognize that this story is extremely complicated and nuanced, and I don’t begrudge those who believe the opposite. In many circumstances, the facts can be read in different ways and both sides have good arguments.
Mr. Von Rennenkampff’s arguments, however, ignore all of that. He takes the strongest arguments from the prosecution’s side puts them up against the weakest (and even non-existent) arguments from defense’s side all while twisting and pulling the facts of the case to suit his opinion.
For example, he twice points to the DOJ’s finding no evidence of political bias after an “exhaustive review.” By saying it was the DOJ finding no evidence and not mentioning it was a review by an independent watchdog within the DOJ he falsely gives the impression that even a politically-motivated organization found no evidence of bias. Additionally, he omits the fact that the DOJ explicitly did not try to determine whether there was political motivation. Their conclusion was basically that “the reasons given to us, pass a minimum threshold to support their decision to investigate.” This is similar to believing that even though a robber broke into your house and stole your jewelry, he said he was actually just looking for flour to make cookies.
If this was the only example of this abandonment of objectivity and sticking close to the facts instead of straying deep into partisan interpretation, it wouldn’t be worth discussing. He claims the Trump-Russia investigation was not based on “bogus information”, omitting any mention of the Steele Dossier and how the actual basis of the investigation – Papadapoulos’s claim to the Australian was fed to him from an untrackable source and the content of the discussion was not true.
He claims that Obama/FBI did not spy on Trump even though the FBI clearly listened in to Flynn’s phone calls, illegally surveilled Carter Page in an effort to investigate Russian collusion even if Carter Page wasn’t an official part of the campaign and completely omits the existence of the confidential informants. Given the facts, a normal person, not trying to spin the facts to suit his biases would not completely dismiss the allegation of spying.
He also tries to knock down a straw man that the FBI Investigation into Flynn was bogus. Only the most extreme are claiming that the investigation was totally bogus. The claims in support of Flynn are that the investigation was properly predicated but politically motivated (jury’s still out), that the FBI had investigated and found nothing for months and then pushed him in a corner where he lied and threw the book at him, and that the FBI bended or broke its own rules to prosecute him. The latter three charges are harder to tackle so Mr. Von Rennenkampff ignores them. He also assigns nefarious motives to an incoming administration official working in an official capacity (albeit before he officially should) to prevent the outgoing administration from blowing up an international relationship.
It is not my intent to condemn opinions that I disagree with, but only to point out unrestrained opinions that do more to activate their own side than to inform. Opinions such as these do nothing to persuade the other side but only strengthen the resolve of the most partisan. The Hill should be more deliberate in choosing what it publishes to inform and challenge instead of instigate.
Compare and Contrast: Flynn Edition
On Friday, the transcripts of Flynn's discussion with Kislyak at the center of the entire Flynn story were declassified. This is the conversation that Flynn was accused of and admitted to lying about the contents and was not provided to Flynn's defense team despite numerous requests.
The New York Times says it proves Flynn "discussed sanctions at length" during conversation. Conversely, Margot Cleveland of The Federalist says the transcripts show the opposite.
I encourage everyone to read both, but start with Ms. Cleveland's take. Then, compare and decide which is the stronger case.
It is surprising to me that Cleveland's relies much more on facts and explanations than does the New York Times. The latter, for example, does not mention the difference between sanctions and expulsions. This question seems to be the crux of the discussion. Was Flynn talking about one but not the other, as Cleveland suggests, and are they actually distinct issues where the distinction matters. At least Cleveland points out this difference and makes the case; the Times story doesn't broach it at all.
Notice, too, how the New York Times, while claiming Flynn discussed sanctions, they never quote Flynn as ever saying sanctions, they just imply that Flynn's statements regarded the sanctions, not the expulsions (or both).
It is definitely possible that the Times authors believe them to be the same thing. It's also possible that Mueller's team believed them to be the same thing. But again, Cleveland makes a strong case that they are different, and her case is definitely strong enough that it should be a point of discussion and not omitted entirely.
The New York Times says it proves Flynn "discussed sanctions at length" during conversation. Conversely, Margot Cleveland of The Federalist says the transcripts show the opposite.
I encourage everyone to read both, but start with Ms. Cleveland's take. Then, compare and decide which is the stronger case.
It is surprising to me that Cleveland's relies much more on facts and explanations than does the New York Times. The latter, for example, does not mention the difference between sanctions and expulsions. This question seems to be the crux of the discussion. Was Flynn talking about one but not the other, as Cleveland suggests, and are they actually distinct issues where the distinction matters. At least Cleveland points out this difference and makes the case; the Times story doesn't broach it at all.
Notice, too, how the New York Times, while claiming Flynn discussed sanctions, they never quote Flynn as ever saying sanctions, they just imply that Flynn's statements regarded the sanctions, not the expulsions (or both).
It is definitely possible that the Times authors believe them to be the same thing. It's also possible that Mueller's team believed them to be the same thing. But again, Cleveland makes a strong case that they are different, and her case is definitely strong enough that it should be a point of discussion and not omitted entirely.
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