1. New internal internal #TwitterFiles help explain why privileged reporter hate @elonmusk and Twitter 2.0.
Musk denied access to Twitter's formerly "trusted reporters" and allowed inside entree to more independent journalists.
2. During my trip to Twitter's HQ in San Francisco, I uncovered several documents that explain why reporters now hate Twitter 2.0
Musk fired their friends and cut off their privileged access.
3. For years, Twitter provided favoured access to "disinformation" reporters, giving them access to new products and silencing accounts.
4. Musk ended this access and brought in new reporters to go through the company's documents--something no CEO has ever done before.
5. When Twitter rolled out Birdwatch to label "misinformation" they gave NBC News Ben Collins @oneunderscore__ a demo and exclusive access.
Collins was actually part of the feature's "product development."
6. Collins was really loved inside Twitter, even suggesting him to moderate one of their panels. When they met w/ reporters in NYC, he admitted that Twitter helped propel his professional profile and helped him get on NPR and TV.
7. Musk has now unveiled "community notes" which allows more users to comment than Birdwatch. This hasn't worked out for "fact checkers" like Glenn Kessler at The Washington Post.
8. Reporters apparently also help Twitter by flipping them bills under consideration.
"Our DC-based tech reporters have gotten advance copies of at least five bills .... that would give more power to regulators."
9. Twitter dealt with bills to moderate them from suspending conservatives by ducking behind trade associations "to do the heavy lifting ... as engaging or commenting ... would give them more attention."
10. Twitter met w/ NYC reporters to "solidify key relationships, encourage intel sharing ... reinforce comm's network of trusted reporters."
(I was not invited)
11. One "trusted reporter" was Makena Kelly of Vox
"She'll be reporting out of a deep red state--will mis disinformation resonate?"
This implied Twitter & Makena knew the "disinformation" paradigm doesn't translate outside liberal talking circle.
12. Kelly showed no interest in Democratic Party "misinformation"
"Looking into 'Republican Party Hype House' on TikTok--tied to Turning Point USA?"
13. CNN glad hander Brian Stelter: "Willing to come to San Francisco, wherever to meet 1:1 with spokespeople even for introductory conversations."
CNN's Oliver Darcy: "Would love to hear pitches from us."
14. CNN also asked if Twitter could create a "read only mode" to protect their reporters from "harassment."
(How often to reporters ask a company they cover to modify company policies?)
15. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan: "Always interested in account enforcement such as Rep Marjorie Taylor Green."
Other Twitter Files show "disinformation" reporters obsessed with this Congresswoman.
16. Fox News producer for Dana Perino: "Is really eager to get us on the show .... Dana would be fair and not any more tough than the nicest person to question us in Congress." (I laughed when I first read this)
17. Fox News tech reporter Brook Singman: "I think we have a good opportunity to influence this coverage and potentially the reputations of congressional newcomers."
18. Many thanks to @TexasLindsay_ for helping collect and organise these #TwitterFiles. We read and read until our eyes bled.
1) WHO's leading vaccine official testified in court that she advised against #COVID passports & was ignored.
COVID vaccines didn't stop transmission; passports gave a false sense of security.
2) Dr. Hanna Nohynek is chief physician at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and serves as the WHO’s chair of Strategic Group of Experts on immunization.
3) Dr. Nohynek testified that Finnish Institute for Health knew by the summer of 2021 that the COVID-19 vaccines did not stop virus transmission. The EU implemented passports around this time.
2) @FullFact even tried to bolster confidence in Pfizer’s #COVID vaccine by pointing out that—while Pfizer paid an unprecedented $2.3 billion fine for healthcare fraud—everyone needs to calm the fuck down, none of Pfizer’s fraud involved a vaccine.
3) The regulator found that Pfizer began spreading vaccine misinformation in 2020 to promote their COVID vaccine, meaning Pfizer was misleading the public about their vaccine throughout the pandemic.
1) Allison Neitzel served as physician-expert on misinformation stories at NBC, Mother Jones, MedPage Today, & others, but was forced to apologise last week for spreading misinformation and defaming physicians.
2) In one incident, @AliNeitzelMD attacked physician @TracyBethHoeg as "Hoeg hag."
HOEG: “The fact [Neitzel] has not nearly completed her training but has appointed herself as an expert physician in pointing out misinformation strikes me as both odd and ironic.”
3) Here's a posting of Allison Neitzel's "Sorry if you were hurt" apology, where she explained spreading misinformation about multiple physicians.
1) A US Attorney's Office and the FBI are now monitoring public universities' release of #FOIA documents on sensitive science. What is going on?
The documents involve "disinformation researcher" Kate Starbird of UW & virologist Ralph Baric of UNC. pauldthacker.com/blog/#/
2) The Justice Department's involvement became public though a state FOI.
An AUSA emailed Kate Starbird about reviewing release of public documents. Starbird is a "disinformation researcher" at UW.
3) “[W]e would ask to have an extension of time before the records are produced so that we can have time to review them and assess whether we’ll have to file suit to protect them from disclosure.”
cc: @davelevinthal
@JimLaPorta
@gregorykorte
2) Cohen's awkward “most researchers say” article is classic science writing. What science writers label “reporting’ is just calling up the known experts and then quoting them as experts.
Science writers report for, not on science. #sciomm
3) Day after Cohen's "most researchers say" article appeared, Kristian Andersen sent this email to Anthony Fauci.
“[S]ome of the features (potentially) look engineered .... Eddie Bob, Mike, and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.
1) Four years ago this week, published Taylor & Francis published a commentary claiming it was a “conspiracy theory” to speculate if COVID started in a Wuhan lab.
2) The purported authors of the commentary are:
Shan-Lu Liu, Ohio State University
Linda J. Saif, Ohio State University
Susan R. Weiss, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Lishan Su, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
3) But ghostwriters included Ralph Baric at UNC and Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.