Misinfo, The AP, and My Older Brother

 This was a Facebook post that I didn't feel like publishing

My older brother Jeffrey took me to task yesterday for spreading disinformation. I found his argument that the information I shared was fake convincing enough to believe I got suckered. Though neither of us knows if that really is the case.

At the end of the conversation, he referred me to the Union of Concerned Scientists and their webpage on combatting disinformation. Step 2 on this list is to amplify accurate and credible sources. OK, who are they?

The Associated Press, surely they are a trustworthy source, right? But I'm reading an article by them entitled: Minutes after Trump shooting, misinformation started flying. Here are the facts, where I came across this near the middle of the article:

Moments like this are ‘cannon fodder’ for extremists
Conspiracy theories quickly emerged online that misidentified the suspected shooter, blamed other people without evidence, and espoused hate speech, including virulent antisemitism.

“Moments like this are cannon fodder for extremists online, because typically they will react with great confidence to whatever has happened without any real evidence” said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “People will fall into spirals and will advance their own ideologies and their own conclusions.”

What caught my eye was the statement about "cannon fodder", which is a nonsensical statement that the editors, writer, and person all thought added insight. That is crap. Cannon fodder is the exact opposite of the thing being described. What they attempted to describe is not something worthless to be casually wasted; it is instead a target-rich environment for spreading misinformation. The article is a mess that jumps all over the place.

How in the heck am I supposed to trust anything the AP or any other left-leaning publication puts out. They suck. That is reality. They are the authors of their own demise because they traded fairness, competency, and journalistic integrity for diversity, equity, inclusion, and leftist dogma. The shit stinks. There is no hiding it. Sure they can fool those who bow the knee and drink the Kool-Aid, but that will never be me. The left makes too many obvious mistakes and takes very little if any accountability when they do screw up.