It’s hard to believe we’re through the first quarter of the year already, and the fractious election year issues are just getting warmed up.
Last column I wrote about the two biggest threats to our democracy: threats of violence from extremist factions and the war on truth waged by those wielding organized disinformation campaigns.
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Recently, a sitting federal judge, District Judge Reggie Walton, weighed in on the rhetoric from Donald Trump and his supporters after Judge Juan Merchan issued a gag order in the wake of continued broadcast attacks on Merchan, as well as members of his family and court workers. Merchan is hearing one of the criminal cases against Trump in New York.
“It’s very disconcerting to have someone making comments about a judge,” Judge Walton said, “and it’s particularly problematic when those comments are in the form of a threat, especially if they’re directed at one’s family.”
The former president has also railed against District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of what could be the first criminal trial of a former president.
The list of indictments and lawsuits coming to bear on Trump are daily news, and will continue well into the presidential campaign season.
Connected to the issue of gag orders on Trump and his attorneys; claims of trying to censor ‘free speech’ by the former president and conservatives.
The New York Times reported that those efforts have been all too successful at times in blurring attempts to protect our elections from the wave of disinformation being weaponized online and even in Congress, as somehow free speech rights trampled by the government trying to police such content.
The officials concerned with the impact of such criticisms and blatant or thinly veiled threats have dealt with similar threats against law enforcement, election officials, and public servants in the process of simply doing their jobs as required under the Constitution. Most agree it’s a growing problem that will only worsen in the months ahead of the election.
Consider that tactic, and what many mainline media see as a continuing effort to wield disinformation. This was often done during the COVID-19 pandemic to create doubt and push crazy conspiracy theories about the vaccines that were saving lives and protective measures like wearing masks and isolating. Now, it’s used as a political weapon to try to blunt government attempts to hold accountable the social media purveyors of 2020 election lies and conspiracy theories.
The New York Times recently detailed how the hard-right conservative operatives have tried to discredit the work of researchers in identifying the many sources of online falsehoods about the 2020 elections. Their goal; to turn it into another phony theory that some social media platforms and the administration were working to smother free speech by conservatives, perhaps counting on this confusing voters.
It included the formation of a committee led by Ohio Republican Jim Jordan last year to supposedly probe actions by social media companies to censor conservatives. After a federal judge agreed with the argument the government was overstepping in working with social media or groups monitoring the flood of election disinformation, a ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals scaled back the earlier ruling. The case is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Many experts fear such organized disinformation could be used to great effect by the extreme right unless voters become more aware and able to recognize it.
Then there’s the political controversy that dominated much media recently over the hiring of recently fired Republican National Committee head Rona McDaniel. She’s been replaced by Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law. Ms. McDaniel was offered a job by NBC as a commentator on MSNBC.
What followed was a rebellion of sorts by various network program hosts and producers angrily condemning this management decision on the basis of her support for the Big Lie that the 2020 election was rigged. In the wake of these protests, the bean counters in NBC management quickly reversed their ill-conceived decision.
Not that it won’t cost them. McDaniel was apparently hired for a two-year contract at $300,000 annually. Lawyers have already said since they, not she, wanted to end the contract, she’ll need to be paid in full. There are also indications further lawsuits could follow against the network, and perhaps some management heads will roll over this fiasco.
Eager to try to create political fodder over it, some GOP members said she was fired just because she’s a Republican, not because of her past support of the Big Lie and for the attempted insurrection on Jan.6, 2021. Disinformation once again.
Then there’s the tragedy involving the massive collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after an out-of-control huge container ship slammed into it.
You would think that there would be overwhelming and immediate bipartisan efforts to aid the community and those most affected by the fatalities. In addition, there is a heavy economic burden on Maryland and the nation over the shutting down of one of our major maritime shipping centers, as well as an interstate highway. But not, apparently, when hard-right administration foes try to stir political controversy with more disinformation, outright lies, and threatened delay tactics on funding what will be a very long recovery.
But no, some of the extremists on the right are putting forth loony conspiracy theories on the cause of the accident and signaling they’ll try to delay this vital restoration work over the farcical claims they concoct.
The impact of deliberate disinformation cannot be underestimated, nor the involvement of those who see the lies as a way to gain a political advantage in a contentious election year.
Even the recently debunked claims of illegal migrants on buses coming to our county and increasing crime and budget impacts will not stop the efforts to bamboozle public opinion with these inept claims (thank you, Sheriff Spezze, public health officials and county department heads). It’s a falsehood campaign reflecting one side’s rejection of truth, trying to win by any means necessary.
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