Article

2022-04-11 Home Front: Politix

The Question Anne Applebaum Refused to Answer

By Daniel Schmidt

[CompactMag] The Atlantic last week hosted a conference titled “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” at the University of Chicago, where I’m a student. Barack Obama, Amy Klobuchar, Anne Applebaum, Jeffrey Goldberg, Ben Smith, Brian Stelter, and other boldface names studded the program, alongside many lesser-known members of the prestige press. They would gather, as a news release put it, to explore “the organized spread of disinformation and strategies to respond to it.”

The Atlantic gabfest was billed as a space for rigorous dialogue, where the light of truth would scatter the darkness of disinformation. But the dialogue and criticism, it turned out, didn’t extend to the blue-check media’s own role in proliferating disinformation.

Even before the event got underway, I was skeptical. The conference struck me as one more chance for America’s corporate class to collect fat honorarium checks in exchange for addressing obedient students keen to join that class. My suspicions were soon confirmed. Given the opportunity to ask questions, most of my fellow students lobbed softballs at the speakers, in worshipful tones more befitting a royal audience than a university.

I wondered if I would be able to ask at least one critical query and receive an honest, meaningful response. As it happened, I got a chance to question Anne Applebaum, the Pulitzer-winning historian and Atlantic staff writer, following her session with Obama consigliere David Axelrod. For nearly an hour, Applebaum had effused about how important it is to fight disinformation. So I asked her if she thinks the media acted inappropriately in immediately dismissing the New York Post’s reporting on the Hunter Files as Russian disinformation—a claim we now know to be completely false.
Read the rest at the link

Posted by badanov 2022-04-11 02:52|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ] Top

#1 I really liked Anne Applebaum's book on the Gulag. The scenes with the children were some of the sadiest I have ever read.

Posted by BernardZ 2022-04-11 06:14|| 2022-04-11 06:14|| Front Page Top

#2 From Insty:

"There is no such thing as disinformation. There’s truth and there’s lies. Any journalist who talks of disinformation has swallowed the idea that there is an “approved truth” instead of competing streams of disinformation. This is enough to condemn him in the eyes of any impartial observer."

Posted by Mercutio 2022-04-11 07:28|| 2022-04-11 07:28|| Front Page Top

#3 Power is self rationalizing and self justifying.

Posted by Procopius2k 2022-04-11 07:51|| 2022-04-11 07:51|| Front Page Top

#4 As a freshman, Mr. Schmidt is a thinker and author, soon to be an excellent journalist.

But not in Biden's America.

Posted by Bobby 2022-04-11 08:30|| 2022-04-11 08:30|| Front Page Top

#5 Anne Applebaum is a lying neocon cunt and insane NeverTrumper who is literally calling for us to declare war on Russia.

At the U. Chicago event the student describes, Applebaum responded to his question as to why she promoted the "disinformation" lie about Biden's laptop by saying she didn't find it "relevant" or "interesting."

Applebaum's studies of Stalin taught her how to tell big lies.

Posted by Spike Flegum1424 2022-04-11 10:35|| 2022-04-11 10:35|| Front Page Top

09:43 Mullah Richard
09:27 Warthog
09:11 Mercutio
09:07 AlmostAnonymous5839
08:52 Matt
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
07:22 NN2N1
07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker
07:03 NN2N1
06:58 NN2N1
06:58 Besoeker