My good friend Robert Stacy McCain has frequently written, “I watch CNN” or sometimes MSNBC, “so you don’t have to.” Well, I created an account and check Bluesky, the liberal version of Twitter, so that you don’t have to. And checking this morning I found the very lovely Amanda Marcotte complaining that Mark Zuckerberg, the creator and owner of Facebook, is no longer going to apply liberally-oriented ‘fact checkers’ to posts on Facebook.
Facebook ditches its fact-checking program in favor of Elon Musk’s army of disinformation zombies
by Amanda Marcotte | Wednesday, January 8, 2025 | 8:00 AM EST
In part because of his goofy appearance and in part because he doesn’t engage in fascist trolling like fellow billionaire Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg is rarely seen as a sinister character in modern American life. But Zuckerberg’s announcement that Facebook and Instagram will soon cease fact-checking is such a stellar model of villainous doublespeak that George Orwell would have thought it was a bit much. Zuckerberg insisted it’s in the name of “free speech” that he must unleash uncontrolled disinformation on his platform, adding, “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech.” Continue reading →
Fortunately, lawsuits are moving forward in states from Hawaii and Montana to New York and Vermont to hold corporate actors accountable, seeking millions or billions of dollars to pay for damages caused by climate change. These cases include a Feb. 24 lawsuit filed by farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for deleting vital climate data from their website.
