Fox News, Elon, and Neo-populists: Engines of Deliberate Disorder?

The Arabian Gulf, The Gulf of America, The Bay of Pigs, Lake Titicaca, and the unbridgeable Gulf between truth and neo-populism

You say potato… I say pototo… You say tomato, I say tomoto. Let’s call the whole thing off.

Frequently, however, what things are called is actually quite critical to their branding and meaning in the world.

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On his first day in office, Trump has proclaimed that he has ‘renamed’ the Gulf of Mexico as The Gulf of America.

Of course he doesn’t have the power to effect how publishers, school text book writers, and map makers across the world or even in America refer to this body of water? Is this clever branding, a wild overreach of Presidential powers attempting to change geography or actually just another piece of Trumpian misinformation?

To my mind, it is many things. But one of them is the neo-populist OBSESSION with image: never being wrong, always claiming to have done the right thing, always showing strength, never admitting to have lost or been bested at anything, always claiming that one’s country is the best and is the centre of the universe. Grappling with this principle embodied in Trump’s creation out of thin air of ‘The Gulf of America’ reveals a very very wide gulf between the impulses of neo-populism as it attempts to control all narratives, on the one hand, and the free flow of information which is supposed to characterize liberal and democratic societies, on the other.

Which impulse will win, I can’t say… but the battlelines are certainly drawn. It is worth noting that in Arabic, the Persian Gulf is called al-Khalij al-Arabi (the Arabian Gulf). But outside of the Arab World no one calls it this. Attempts by Gulf Arab nations to rename it in English as the Arabian Gulf would have little effect. Truth, history, and culture cannot be simply shaped by nationalist and neo-populists to their liking. Attempts to do so are however quite Disordering.

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Well this musing is all very very apropos of today’s Episode of Disorder about Misinformation (listen on Apple Podcasts here or on Spotify here.)

In 2022, Nina Jankowicz was appointed to a brand-new role within the US Government – Executive Director of the DHS's Disinformation Governance Board, a new body tasked with tackling disinformation. Within weeks, irony of ironies, she was the target of a mass disinformation campaign – driven primarily by Fox News – that put her life, family and career at risk.

In today’s episode, Nina joins Arthur Snell to tell that story – and look at the role of dis- and mis-information around the globe. The question is far from theoretical -- if the US under Trump turns into a deliberate disorderer in the information space, who will be left to order the disorder? In this scenerio, there is an argument that medium powers like the UK, Brazil and the EU will hold the key to stemming the tide.

Nina is an expert on Russia, Eastern Europe and Ukraine. Yet in the early 2020s, she became better known as an expert on disinformation. In her conversation with Arthur, she shares insights into the challenges of combating misinformation in the current political landscape; the role of media and big tech in amplifying disinformation; and the implications for democracy. Plus: the duo discuss shifting dynamics within the Republican Party regarding Russia, Elon Musk's influence, the rise of deepfake technology, and the gendered dimension to the violence that permeates online spaces.

And then as they try to Order the Disorder, they look at: Brazil as a place where disinformation regulation is starting to work; the importance of information literacy; and what’s been done educationally in Ukraine; plus – could smaller, stronger online communities be the answer?

(Listen on Apple Podcasts here or on Spotify here.)

For more on Nina visit:

https://www.ninajankowicz.com/

For her books:

https://www.ninajankowicz.com/books

For a CBS explainer on what happened to Nina and the role played by Fox:

Follow Arthur’s pod Behind The Lines:

Read recent report from the American Sunlight Project on Deepfake Pornography Targeting Members of Congress:

https://www.americansunlight.org/updates/deepfake-pornography-targeting-members-of-congress

Key Quotes from Nina

The way I describe it in one sentence is that it's changed the way that I, I move around in the world. The idea that somebody could show up outside my door when I'm, you know, bringing my son home from daycare and live stream us or or worse, um, it's something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. ..

In 2022, I was appointed to lead a body at the Department of Homeland Security called the Disinformation Governance Board. Uh, this board was meant to coordinate what DHS, which is a massive kind of Frankenstein of a government agency, was doing in response to disinformation. When the initiative was announced, unfortunately it was announced in a very opaque way. Critics of the Biden administration. They they all started to criticize the effort as a ministry of truth. They had no evidence for this. It was mere allegations. But the way the Internet works within 24 hours Fox News was talking about this as if it were fact and folks like Tucker Carlson were saying that I had the power, me, Nina Jankowicz, had the power to send men with guns to the homes of Americans with whom I disagreed, um, that I was going to be chief censor of the United States and nothing could have been farther from the truth. And it resulted in massive threats against me and my family. Tens of thousands of vitriolic messages sent to me. Some credible threats. I had to get a protective order against a cyber stalker that I have. I've been named in frivolous lawsuits. I don't think that this behavior. Has a place in democracies.

What I heard a lot, both in news reporting and conversations with, with Trump voters was that, you know, they know he lies, but they like what he was offering. Um, and that's not just with, with economics. I think there's this, you know, argument that you want somebody brash, you want somebody bold to represent America. Um, and the choice of, of candidates that Americans were afforded this time around, even though, you know, I'm a. Personally, a huge fan of Kamala Harris, and I think she's an inspiration for a lot of people that that just wasn't the case. And so when given that choice, some people either voted for Trump or stayed home. But for Trump voters, I think, you know, they, they, they chose disinformation. They recognize it and, and not necessarily like it, but they, it's just something that, you know, for them does not cut at the root of our democracy the way that I have seen it do in many other countries and I'm worried that the foundation that we're built on now is, is very shaky indeed.

When you are piping these vitriolic lies into the homes of over 100 million Americans and you're repeating them over and over and over. My face and my name were in 70 % of Fox News broadcasts on the hour, every hour, for the first couple of weeks after the announcement of the board. You become public enemy number one, and the consequences for that are, as a private security consultant that I hired told me, he was very against me going out by myself ever. I had talked to him while I was driving to a friend's house, and he said, Nina, you shouldn't be on your own right now. You shouldn't be in your car, do not get gas, do not get coffee on your own. If you do need to go out, 'cause I was like, I have to go to prenatal appointments every week now. I'm about to give birth. He was like, well, try to disguise yourself as much as possible because your face is everywhere and they know that you're pregnant, right? - Yeah. - And so it just becomes very scary. And that element, that accelerant that Fox News played then, which of course is amplified by social media. They share everything on social. It comes really out of control really quickly.

Nina is terribly charismatic and engaging… And Arthur is not so bad himself… In fact, I would say they are both better at video than I am… hence: I am saving videos of her recording with Arthur for our Paid for only subscribers :-)