That's the headline at WaPo, and I'm wondering how the 2 parts of the headline relate to each other. Why did the Stanford Internet Observatory collapse? Was it because conservatives attacked it? How much of a struggle is it for a research group that specializes in monitoring disinformation to handle attacks? The word "amid" fudges the causal connection. Did X happen because of Y or did X and Y just happen around the same time?
The word "amid" also appears in the first sentence: "The Stanford Internet Observatory... has shed most of its staff and may shut down amid political and legal attacks that have cast a pall on efforts to study online misinformation."
Have I ever gone on "amid" alert before? Yes! In October 2013, there was a NYT headline, "Obama’s Uncertain Path Amid Syria Bloodshed."
I wrote:
It's such an all-purpose excuse for the President's failures. And so weird. "Path Amid Bloodshed"... that's one of these concrete images that don't really look right in the mind's eye. "Path" is metaphor, but what is a "path amid bloodshed"? We're asked to picture him — what? — walking around pools of blood?
"Amid" suggests standing still and being confused. "Path" suggests he's going somewhere.
The word "path" seems to give too much credit.
The word "amid" seems to suggest that he's not responsible for anything.
The NYT's uncertain path amid presidential failure.Back to the new article about the Stanford Internet Observatory:
The study of misinformation has become increasingly controversial... Leading the charge has been Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whose House subcommittee alleges that the Observatory improperly worked with federal officials and social media companies to violate the free-speech rights of conservatives....
“Free speech wins again!” Jordan posted on X on Friday, calling the Observatory part of a “censorship regime.”...
The [Supreme Court] will rule within weeks on a case known as Missouri v. Biden, which includes claims against the Observatory....
So this "collapse" is occurring just before the Supreme Court case comes out. Odd.
What's the answer to my original question, how much of a struggle was it for the experts in monitoring disinformation to handle attacks from conservatives? Were the attacks well grounded, or were the attacks disinformation?
IN THE COMMENTS: Kate said:
I salute the name, "Stanford Internet Observatory." I think of astronomy and the clean pursuit of star systems, with the telescope instead focused on something infinite and microscopic: the galaxies of the internet.
However, it was just a run-of-the-mill political op, small and grubby, gussied up to sound fancy.
Yes, when I read "Stanford Internet Observatory," I pictured a building like the UW Washburn Observatory....
... something that could literally collapse.
Posts
75 comments:
"Students and scholars affiliated with the program say they have been worn down by online attacks and harassment"
"If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen."
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Jdo-qBUML._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
,,, which made me wonder if military battles were lost (or won?) amid anything.
Decisive battle for possession of New Orleans.
Confederates thwart attempt to destroy a canal.
Union forces capture town, Beauregard tricks Union in order to escape to Tupelo.
Inconclusive Civil War battle in Virginia.
Wikipedia
I salute the name, "Stanford Internet Observatory". I think of astronomy and the clean pursuit of star systems, with the telescope instead focused on something infinite and microscopic: the galaxies of the internet.
However, it was just a run-of-the-mill political op, small and grubby, gussied up to sound fancy.
I haven’t paid much attention to the tumult in the newsroom of the WaPo following the appointment of Will Lewis as publisher, mostly because I just don’t care. But it is interesting that the NYT seems to have engaged, with several oddly highlighted stories on Lewis’s past “issues”. It seems so forced.
What Kissinger said about the Iran/Iraq war.
Perhaps they have a listing of their accomplishments ?
re: all this - Read Matt Taibbi at Racket News. All this is connected to the Twitter files and the layer of protection that was freshly installed for the 2020 election.
TLDR: Most everything we think is true is defined by the SIO as mis or dis information. We are afflicted with "Lyin' Eyes", and they're just here to help. Hence, they should have been lionized, but we're too ignorant and hateful to agree.
Accomplishments? I’ll guess is that the “Observatory” provided some jobs for leftists and pushed lefty causes and politicians. In other words, it was a successful leftist grift that worked for years but has outlived its usefulness.
The job of the Observatory was to spread Intel propaganda, i.e., misinformation or outright lies, and to agitate for censorship of social media.
They were exposed.
It’s performance, at best, was amid.
If they’d have kept to just observing, there’d have been no attack. It’s telling that the alleged attacks are from conservatives and not progressives.
correlation does NOT mean causation
In FACT! not understanding that is DANGEROUS!
100% of people who don't understand the difference between causation and correlation will die!
The collaborators at Stanford Internet Observatory had devised a great formula to determine if information was "dis- or misinformation". If it was information that was critical of the left or exposed the crimes of a Democrat then it was "disinformation" and had been debunked. There is also "malinformation" which I believe is information that is obviously true, but could obviously harm those on the left, so cannot be mentioned or reported. Reporting articles harmful to democrats was considered 'mal'icious reporting.
Matt Taibbi (along with others) has done a great job exposing the coordination between SIO and government agencies in suppressing information harmful to the left and promoting information harmful to the right. One of the most important cases we are still awaiting a decision from SCOTUS this term is Murthy v. Missouri.
"Amid" is similar to "following" or "on news that..." EG, the entire market goes down 7% and you will see a headline "Megacorp shares down 5% following release of detailed executive bonus information."
"Misinformation research"? Lies are studied and analyzed all the time. I do accept that turning truth into lies requires training, maybe research.
Contemporary "news" writers use the "A" word to construct blurry run-on sentences. I run away.
“Amid” is evidently a shorter form of the more commonly heard journospeak “comes at a time when.” Used when the reporter (or editor) wants to suggest there’s a causal relationship but doesn’t want to do the work to find out whether there’s actually any relationship at all.
Information is equally information whether it's true or false. It's only when it's random that you don't learn something.
Biden is really sharp behind the scenes for example tells you that he's not. Buy gold tells you it's not a good deal.
Any study of misinformation has to go into the mathematics more than anything.
Yes a small and grubby political operation cloaked in what’s left of the legitimacy of Stanford. Perfect…
I guess the people running the thing didn’t want censors on their resumes, along with the associated liabilities…
I mean nothing identifies an Obama operation better than losing the court case on appeal. Nearly a perfect indicator…
Follow the money. All EDU posturing is done in the midst of a sea of slush fund cash dumped on them to buy the appearance of insider knowledge.
That was Epstein’s best trick spreading Intel community Cash among select Professors to appear important. And we can interview Epstein about that trick as soon as he is mysteriously raised from the dead.
Read this yesterday and timely amid this discussion.
Winston Churchill: "Men (people) occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
It is great to see Althouse dismember misleading headlines, statements, etc., as she is a very serious wordsmith.
Amid my pleasure at seeing that photo of the Washburn Observatory is mixed in some sadness at the absence of that beautiful rock. Maybe one day it will be brought back.
The Stanford Internet Observatory was launched similarly to the Hubble Space Observatory (i.e., telescope) with defective optics. The Hubble was corrected but the Stanford was not.
Just recently I became much more attuned to headline writers’ use of passive voice to suggest agency where there is only correlation. It was after the Israeli hostage rescues, when newspapers shamelessly suggested Israel committed a mass murder of civilians by talking about Palestinian deaths coming “as a result of” the rescue. You had to wait a few days to find out Hamas did most of the killing.
If a misinformation bureau is wilting under the weight of (“amid”) scrutiny, perhaps it’s because they can’t actually defend what they are doing. If they were honest purveyors of truth, the scrutiny wouldn’t bother them.
"Students and scholars affiliated with the program say they have been worn down by online attacks and harassment"
So Lefty. Worn down because someone doesn’t love them.
Funny how ‘caved to political pressure’ is the best spin provided…
"Students and scholars affiliated with the program ..... "?
Students? Scholars? Disappointed they did not list the 51 intelligence officials in their program.
If they were honest purveyors of truth, the scrutiny wouldn’t bother them.
Yes, the description of their upset makes them sound like the young people - young adults, I mean - who fly with a stuffed animal for comfort.
There is "information warfare" and part of information warfare is when the other side says something true, that the leaders on your side would rather you not know, well then, that is "mal-information" because it has the tendency to lead you to a conclusion that your "leaders" would prefer you not discern. This is when the "fact-checkers" rate something "true, but misleading." Misled from what? The conclusion that we would come to if we did not have all of the facts?
Propaganda is to a democracy what the truncheon is to the totalitarian state. In a democracy, the electorate must have true information, from which to make decisions. Otherwise it's just a democracy in form, not in substance. Since Obama has seeded all of the institutions with long term partisan operatives who have seized all of the commanding heights of our republic, the judges, the police, the press, the elections officials, etc, etc, we are a "democracy" in the same sense that the UK is a monarchy, in lip service only, the real power resting elsewhere.
Anyway, on to war with China! What's holding it up! We want for entertainment here!
First thing I thought of was Kendri X. Grifter's Boston U. anti-racism program going bust under the weight of its own un-seriousness.
My God! They are pouncing on Stanford now! What unholy acts are yet to be perpetrated?!
Yes, if you read through the Twitter Files (or X Files?) and the work of Matt Taibbi, Michael Schellenberger, Bari Weiss and others, you'd understand that the Stanford Internet Observatory was front and center in a mass censorship effort across the US. It was a supremely political operation, with a nice scientific sounding name, and the moniker of a prestigious university behind it.
It was a disease in the Republic. Like many diseases, it is only in remission. It will reappear somewhere in the body politic. We have to be vigilant in watching for such operations and organizations. That is, if you want to keep your Republic.
bull amid shards of china
They keep trying to find a way around this problem:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Broadly interpreted as no government body can restrict the right to speak freely, even if it is called “conspiracy theory.” And even the Government funds an independent group that hands back a list to the Government, which then “suggests” to a publisher that such things not be published. It’s still censorship. The SCOTUS said so. Why can’t Progressives follow the law?
"Stanford’s top disinformation research group collapses
========
all well and good to sidetrack us with 'amid' while 'top' make get-away in the headline!
Why can’t Progressives follow the law?
It must be frustrating for them to see their friends from Davos without impediments to criminalizing inconvenient speech back in their home countries…
THIS is why I start every day by reading Althouse. Oh sure, the political nonsense gets my attention, but a close look at amid is the real draw.
"...collapses under pressure..."
A cunningly chosen phrase, amid other more truthful terms and phrases avoided, like fled, flown, escaped, turned state's evidence, flipped, and seeking plea deals regarding possible charges relating to Title 18, U.S.C., Section 241.
It would be nice if this started a trend.
Mike (MJB Wolf) writes, Why can’t Progressives follow the law?
Silly man, haven't you yet understood? The law is the enemy of social justice.
PS
One day you ought to expound on that parenthetical. Seems mysterious.
Jamie:
Yes, the description of their upset makes them sound like the young people - young adults, I mean - who fly with a stuffed animal for comfort.
Or take their parents (~30%) to job interviews.
That they, both parent and child, don't understand that the interviewer nods nicely, listens quietly then after they leave immediately moves the resume to the circular file just enforces that they are profoundly stupid (again, both parent and child).
Too many people are believing their lying eyes is the basic complaint by the SIO.
For about the 100th time- none of this would be public had Elon Musk not spent a fortune to buy Twitter. Musk has done more for the hygiene of our constitutional republic than any man in my lifetime.
gilbar said...
"100% of people who don't understand the difference between causation and correlation will die!"
gilbar, I want to thank you for raising awareness of this issue. I've been to rallies and protests, put awareness ribbons in my bio and puke emojis in emails, but too many people still won't listen.
I have a modest proposal: let's start our organization to monitor this issue. Since it won't produce anything of real value, we'll have to organize as a 503(c). For seed money and funding, we should hit up the usual sources: the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, the Ford Foundation, the Guttmacher Institute, the Gates Foundation, etc.
As a non-profit, we will have to make do with salaries in the mid-six figures range, which is far less than what talented and gifted men (I know, sorry) like us would command elsewhere.
For offices, I have already found an abandoned strip mall in Gnaw Bone, IN that was anchored by a Pottery Barn. We can call our organization the Roc-bar Monitoring Post at the Northern Pottery Gnaw Center.
Please hit the 'Like' or 'Subscribe' button and venmo some money to our GoFundMe page.
Thank you.
Smell that?
I'm getting a whiff of Soros.
You know there's a perfectly good observatory in Lake Geneva. Doesn't the university have it's own observatory?
Well, Quaestor, it appears you identified my rhetorical question accurately, even the hopelessness of asking it. So many here are willing to answer by demonstration of the very crime to which I allude.
As for the parenthetical it is my pen name/internet handle made up of my initials and the name of the band I have been in for about four fifths of my life with several friends, some of whom are unfortunately no longer alive. I chose it as a pen name for its brevity and the allusion to other authors with the same format of three initials and a last name.
There's the expression muddle through, but you never hear the expression muddle amidst. Muddle amidst, however, sounds more descriptive of Biden. He muddles amidst the addled words. Some people think he's paddling down Shit's Creek but it's more like a pool of backed up septic waste that he's muddling amidst.
It's very gratifying to see this coverage, and to see how many of the commentariat here have been following this story, and following the excellent reporting of Taibbi, Shellenberger, Weiss, and others. I am struck by how the reporting on this has been subjected to a pretty successful ringfencing, to limit the damage. You don't see much about the Twitter Files story, outside of substack and the more eclectic sites like this one. There is little coverage of the Congressional hearings and the Missouri court case. And then we have this particular news item, which is tailored to provide a quick, easy exit to the Stanford Observatory efforts. Thank Goodness that's over.
It wasn't just Twitter.. It was, and still is, a story about internet censorship across the Social Media landscape. It is still going on - only Twitter is making an effort to end content control. Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc etc are still hard at it, censoring content indiscriminately and hoping that censorship will become invisible as routine background noise.
And lest we forget, nearly all of these players have military and/or CIA career segments in their bio, and a history of staying in touch. The Stanford Internet Observatory hasn't gone away - they're just closed for re-location, renovations, and a name change. Track the players, and see where they pop up next, because they aren't done yet. This is authoritarian perfidy at its absolute worst.
@Rocco:"For offices, I have already found an abandoned strip mall in Gnaw Bone, IN that was anchored by a Pottery Barn. We can call our organization the Roc-bar Monitoring Post at the Northern Pottery Gnaw Center."
"Will this have any impact on parking in Nashville? We have questions." - Brown County Development Council
"Disinformation" doesn't mean false, it means counter to the narrative. This outfit was about information management and control on behalf of power that doesn't want truth spoken to it or about it.
Don't think for a minute these people or their mission have gone away. They have simply scurried under the base boards and out of the light.
Is there any credible "research" coming out of university settings any more? Evidence points more to an intersection of circle jerks perpetrated for grant money.
”Students and scholars affiliated with the program say they have been worn down by online attacks and harassment amid the heated political climate for misinformation research, as legislators threaten to cut federal funding to universities studying propaganda."
It’s simple, really. The words “misinformation” and “disinformation” bear the same relationship to the word “information” as “inflammable” to “flammable.”
During the COVID pandemic people died because real data was labeled “misinformation.” Real people are not going to forget that.
“Why did the Stanford Internet Observatory collapse? Was it because conservatives attacked it?”
Conservatives don’t attack. We pounce.
I appreciate such analytical takedowns provided by the Althouse Newspeak Observatory.
"have cast a pall on efforts to study online misinformation"
Translation: have outed prog gaslighting that presented publicly-funded censorship and propaganda as "studying online misinformation."
I use Starlink, and was shocked this morning to find a link to the official Russian account of a meeting between Russia’s foreign minister and Blinken, from the days leading up to the war, blocked. I guess it’s because the Biden Administration would never lie, so what is the point in double checking the Western media account of the meeting anyway? Why should I worry my pretty little head about matters that I can’t possibly understand.
I just went to Esty and had a badge made for myself--Disinformation Expert.
The Observatory was conceived, deemed unworthy... nonviable, an actual "burden" of state, then aborted, curtailed by Democratic Choice in a diverse progression of one-offs.
There may be some truth to observation in the near-domain, but progressive myths beyond where assumptions, assertions about state and processes run rampant in secular theology.
Not that I had any illusions, but I thought I'd give the SIO the benefit of the doubt. I went to their site to see their work on the origins of the Covid virus. They have nothing, as far as I can tell (I would welcome anybody who could point it out to me if it does exist).
Seriously? Millions of people dead, a heated controversy as to its origins, and you ignore it? Pathetic.
Blogger Humperdink said..." Disappointed they did not list the 51 intelligence officials in their program."
Oh, that's another good one. What's the SIO's treatment of Hunter's laptop and the 51's letter?
Only the “top” organization was affected. The subs and junior varsity of true believers and unpaid volunteers will continue to work with the CIA and FBI to deliver the desired results amid the obscurants and miscreants. The Stanford partner at University of Washington is still dedicated to the cause.
This was serious stalinist shit, right up there with the Stasi.
Brought to you (of course) by the democrat party.
This should scare even liberals but it won't.
Rational minds (of which there are few) would conclude that this whole "malinformation, misinformation, disinformation" stuff is a steaming pile of horse dung.
It's a recent invention. I didn't hear anyone use any of those terms prior to the surprise win of the Bad Orange Man in 2016. The words are an invention of the left; and are no more based in reality than a bratty six year old sticking his or her fingers in their ears and screaming, "nyah nyah I can't hear you!"
Our progressive friends have a lot to answer for.
Interesting: Nary a lefty/LLR-democratical (also lefties) in sight on this thread.
Apparently, no gaslighting lies were provided to the Althouse lefty/LLR-democratical (also lefties) NPC foot soldiers as of yet.
But the day is young. Let's see what unfolds.....
The collapse happened becase people aren't ready for a Ministry of Truth. At least not yet.
Jonathan Burack said...
"Amid my pleasure at seeing that photo of the Washburn Observatory is mixed in some sadness at the absence of that beautiful rock. Maybe one day it will be brought back."
Now, if the rock were to be carved into George Floyd's likeness, then placed back where it was, the irony would make some heads explode.
Living within 20 miles of Stanford:
Any mention of Stanford brings to mind the doxxing, beatings, cancelations, stores forced out of business in the area.
As it was several years ago, don't remember if it was related, to MAGA, LBGQ, BLM, Trump, Kavanaugh, or other.
Expect more of the same beginning in October and continuing through Trump administration..
Mass transportation info
24 minutes by car, 1.5 hr by bike- 2hrs, 20 minutes by bus.
Brown County Development Council asked:
"Will [the Roc-bar Monitoring Post at the Northern Pottery Gnaw Center] have any impact on parking in Nashville? We have questions."
@mezzrow - Thank you for your interest in our project. I am happy to answer your concerns.
Columbus has already agreed on a public-private partnership for them to run a light rail line parallel to State Route 46 from Columbus to Gnaw Bone with some key stops along the way. I am sure with just some modest investment on your part, they can continue the line into Nashville. We have plenty of surplus parking on site; and for just a modest parking fee and a 6 minute rail ride from our site, shoppers, office workers, and tourists could come straight into downtown Nashville.
The rail line is all-electric green energy locally sourced from Carthage, IN, which has agreed to partner with EDP and further invest in additional development to expand their wind power capacity to meet the increased demand.
Let me send a package to your office with some details. I will include the keys to a Cybertruck so you can truly experience the smooth quiet ride that only the all-electric wind-powered vehicles like the rail cars can offer.
I look forward to partnering with you on this exciting new phase of the project!
Students and scholars affiliated with the program say they have been worn down by online attacks and harassment
Tough. Shit.
Is there any credible "research" coming out of university settings any more? Evidence points more to an intersection of circle jerks perpetrated for grant money.
P. Boghossian, J. Lindsay, H. Pluckrose to the white courtesy phone, please.
You'd be surprised how difficult it can be to write headlines that say something inviting and still fit in the available space (more critical on dead trees). The brainy wordsmiths at my college newspaper had a lot more trouble than I, a mere math major pasteup artist, did. "Amid" is a brief and easy way to affix more tantalizing tidbits.
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