Tag: social media

Thought Crimes

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Katie Aguilera

Recently, an article entitled “Conspiracy theorist given important role in reviewing child deaths,” written by Molly Young, was published on the Oregonian’s OregonLive website.  The article discusses the social media activity and public advocacy actions of Jennifer Wynhausen, an employee of Oregon Department of Human Services.  The point of the article seems to be that Wynhausen’s behaviors make her suitability for her job questionable.

This article is a follow-up piece to another OregonLive article, also written by Young, that discussed how the Oregon Department of Human Services lacks transparency and fails to issue reports in cases of children who die as the result of abuse and neglect.  That article was certainly excellent reporting about a very important and troubling issue.  However, Young’s second article reads like a personal attack that essentially accuses Wynhausen of committing thought crimes.

In case you don’t know, thought crime is a reference from George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four.  In that book, they are the “criminal act of holding unspoken beliefs or doubts that oppose or question Ingsoc, the ruling party.”

So what thought crimes has this “conspiracy theorist,” Jennifer Wynhausen, that Young writes about committed?  “Wynhausen expressed support for activists who questioned the [9/11] attacks and opposed the military response to them.”  She shared a video in which Jesse Ventura “criticized the federal government for spending so little on investigating the attacks.”  And, “she often questioned the political motives of both Republicans and Democrats…”

The article does describe other thought crimes Wynhausen is guilty of that most people would consider pretty far out there. For example, she liked a video that suggests a government research project caused the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, among other things.

The article offers no evidence that any beliefs Wynhausen holds about any subject matter, whacky or not, have had any effect on her job performance.   However, the article seems to imply Wynhausen’s behavior makes her unsuitable for her position with the Department of Human Services.

The Oregonian spent some time pouring through Wynhausen’s social media history.  Young concludes her article by describing a shirt Wynhausen expressed an interest in.  The shirt says, “I have a beautiful daughter.  I also have a gun, a shovel, and an alibi.”  According to Young, Wynhausen wrote, “I need one of these,” in reference to the shirt.  Young writes, “within weeks, she [Wynhausen] was managing the state’s child fatality reviews.”

When an ordinary public employee likes what is just a variation of an old joke, that’s a problem and she should lose her job.  When the president of the United States makes what is essentially the same joke, it’s hysterically funny.  (“I’ve got two words for you, Predator drones.”  Hahaha.)

The article is disturbing for all these reasons.  To think every single action taken on one’s social media accounts could be considered cause to question one’s job qualifications, mental competence, or character is alarming.  It is also concerning that expressing dissent to empirical war and questioning the 9/11 Commission’s narrative about the attacks are considered cause for public shaming by anyone in journalism.  Perhaps that is the line of reasoning that is to blame for the lack of extensive reporting on the many, many facts that have emerged about the attacks and related history since September 11, 2001.  (No, I’m not talking about holograms and controlled demolition here, see below for more resources.)

This isn’t to suggest that social media posts are never an indication of a person’s mental state or their potential to commit violent behavior.  They certainly can be, as has been seen in countless cases.  But questioning the actions of one’s government, or liking or sharing weird or unconventional theories, is far from hate speech.  It shouldn’t be considered proof of unstable mental health without more corroborating, real-world indications.

In addition to writing about Wynhausen, Young also writes about another activist, Jon Gold, in what can only be read as a disparaging way.  Young wrote, “Wynhausen met with outspoken 9/11 doubter Jon Gold…Gold runs several social media pages dedicated to Sept. 11 ‘truth’ and ‘justice’ and believes the U.S. government has withheld evidence about its role in the attacks.”  Gold posted a response in the comment section of Young’s article, but it was removed.

Gold posted his comment publicly, and also sent it to Young.  He also sent a letter to the editor.  Gold’s entire comment can be read here.  He wrote, “I’ve done my absolute best to try and be supportive of the 9/11 Families seeking truth, accountability and justice, in a court of law.  Many of the families have KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] in the courts as we speak.”  He goes on to discuss his anti-war advocacy and his advocacy for 9/11 first responders.  Gold concludes with, “these are all good things in my mind.  And yet, you tried to use me in an effort to try and paint Jennifer in a bad light.  I just wanted you to know.”

Gold also attempted to post the contents of his letter to the editor on the OregonLive article comment section in which he wrote, “as for Jennifer, I don’t agree with everything she says but who does agree with everything someone has to say?  People are entitled to their beliefs.  If a person’s beliefs are skewed, use information to help someone with their beliefs, don’t try to take away someone’s job because of them.”  His second comment never posted to the site.

In response to an emailed question as to why Gold’s comments were not posted to the comment section, the Oregonian stated, “we in the newsroom are not in charge of monitoring comments on our news stories and deciding which go public. Our company hires a third-party firm that specializes in moderating comments to ensure they comply with web site terms of use.”  It is unclear what terms of use Gold’s comments may have violated.

The Oregonian also published a significantly edited version of Gold’s letter to the editor in a Sunday edition of their print newspaper.  It can be found online here.   A comment from Gold does appear in the comment section of another letter to the editor posted on OregonLive on December 1, 2018, that expresses disapproval for Young’s article.  To date, Gold says he has received no response from Young or the Oregonian and his original comment doesn’t appear on the site.

So, move along.  Don’t question anything your government does.  Or some newspaper will write a scathing report about you, calling into question your character and your suitability for your unrelated job.  You will be publicly shamed for daring to oppose the actions of those in power.  And the ease of internet censorship will ensure any defense of yourself goes unnoticed by the masses.

That’s always worked out so well throughout history.

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Update: 12/11/2018 8:59 a.m.  This has been updated to note that Gold’s edited letter to the editor has been published on OregonLive.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am acquainted with Jon Gold, I consider him a friend, and I have previously written about his book, We Were Lied to About 9/11.

*If you want to know more about why I question the official narrative of the September 11, 2001 attacks and related history, I recommend the following books and websites, for a start.

Informative bonus episode of Michael Isikoff’s podcast Conspiracyland, Khashoggi and the 9/11 Lawsuit.

The Watchdogs Didn’t Bark by John Duffy and Ray Nowosielsksi

Who Is Rich Blee?, Duffy and Nowosielski’s interview with former counter-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke.

9/11 Press For Truth, documentary film by Nowosielski and Duffy

Disconnecting the Dots:  How 9/11 Was Allowed to Happen by Kevin Fenton

Triple Cross:  How Bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, The Green Berets, and the FBI and Cover Up:  What the Government is Still Hiding About the War on Terror by Peter Lance.

The Commission:  the Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon

We Were Lied to About 9/11:  the Interviews by Jon Gold.  The interviews are also available to listen to on YouTube.  The first one can be found here.

28pages.org

historycommons.org

floridabulldog.org

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Broken

 

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America, we are broken.  Own it.

 

So, what are we to do?  Scream at each other in the streets?  Gun each other down in our places of worship and education?  Bomb each other?  Run cars over each other?  Should we barricade ourselves in basements and dark rooms, armed with multiple guns and a computer to spew more fear and divisive hatred at each other from the safe, impersonal distance of the internet?  Curl up in a ball and wait for the inevitable new civil war to come and go and hope to survive?  Is that what we really want?

No?

Then stop acting like it.

Step out onto the street.  Shake the hands of your neighbors.  Look people in the eyes.  Keep your phones in your pockets and interact with people in real life because social media doesn’t represent reality.  Help strangers.  Welcome them into your life.  Forget your biases and truly listen to each other.  Hear each other’s stories.  Remember everything you have ever stood for, fought for, sacrificed for, taken a knee for, worked for, and loved.  Then accept that others have done so too for reasons different than your own.  Accept it and tolerate it.

We are more than our politicians.  We are more than political parties.  We are more than our religions, our races, our genders.  We are humans, and only our humanity can fix us.  So own it.

America, it’s time.

STOP THE HATE.

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Image courtesy of Pixabay.

That Twitter Email

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This is a portion of an email that was in my (and many others’) inbox this morning.  My first reaction was, no big deal.  I have no doubt I’ve encountered any number of bot accounts (Russian or otherwise) on Twitter.  I am constantly following stories and topics that expose some of the things our government does wrong, and has vested interest in keeping out of sight.  The sort of stories a foreign government wishing to sow dissent within our nation would undoubtedly want to push on social media.

War, protest, surveillance, injustice…

I also know that I have been susceptible many times to social media memes that are considered anti-government because I happen to disagree with many of the things my government is doing, both here and abroad.  And, I do question the established, official narrative more often than not.  This leads me down many strange internet paths.

After thinking about this email more, however, I find it to be more than a little disturbing.  It’s like an early warning of greater surveillance to come.  A sort of, “we know who you’ve been talking to and what you’ve been talking about,” message, and if I’m not careful in the future, that can be used against me.

As if to warn me away from disagreeing with anything the government does, or agreeing with anyone who presents opinions or ideas that oppose the government approved narrative.  As if to warn me that my activity on social media is monitored 24/7 for any sign of treason.

Not that it comes as a surprise that any (all) social media activity is monitored.  This email that so many received this morning is just such a friendly reminder of that fact.  An officially sanctioned admission of that fact.

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When You Don’t Make the Cult

Why I No Longer Support Newsbud

Katie Aguilera

Two years ago, I was involved in the early stages of the development of Newsbud, an online news and media platform with the stated goals of being 100% people funded, unbiased, and non-partisan.  My involvement, like that of many others, was short lived.  Recently, I publicly made some comments about my change of heart regarding Newsbud, and I have also decided to remove nearly all content from this blog that promoted the organization*.  As a result, I feel that I should explain why I no longer support Newsbud.

I have been hesitant to discuss my experience with Newsbud, and have told few people the details behind my decision to leave the team.  It is not my intention now to pen a vindictive, personal attack on Newsbud or its founder, Sibel Edmonds.  I know that I have readers who support Newsbud, and I’m not writing this with the goal of changing anyone’s mind based solely on what I have to say.  People need to come to their own conclusions.  I am writing this to explain why I no longer endorse the site, why it has lost credibility in my view, and why I feel guilty for promoting it and supporting it in its early stages.

The Beginning

Several years ago, the research I was doing for the novel I am writing led me to a series of interviews [no longer available at this link] posted on YouTube with James Corbett and Sibel Edmonds.  That was how I first discovered Boiling Frogs Post, or BFP, and Sibel’s work.  Her story in her book, Classified Woman, aligned really well with the sort of things happening in the plot of my novel, and I began to follow the work at BFP.

When Sibel announced the idea for Newsbud, I contacted her and offered to help any way that I could with the project.  I explained that I didn’t have much to offer, I had no related experience, and wasn’t sure what I could do, but I wanted to help if I could.  I knew that I can write, but at that point I had yet to even start my own blog.  I don’t consider myself an expert of any sort, and I had never published anything.

I was surprised by the offer to be a regular contributor to Newsbud, and I jumped at the chance.  First and foremost because I genuinely believed in the idea of what Newsbud was supposed to be, based on how it was presented.  Also, because I was excited to get to know and work with Sibel Edmonds, who I had come to respect and admire greatly.  And, of course, it was an opportunity to get published and earn some extra money.

Newsbud launched a series of Kickstarter fundraising campaigns, the first one on February 14, 2016.  The goal of the campaign was nearly one million dollars, and ultimately it was unsuccessful.  It was during this campaign that I experienced my first hint of doubt about the direction Newsbud was going.

First Doubt

It started with this article in which Sibel makes some startling claims.  I was asked to do some research and fact checking on the suspicious letters discussed in the article after it was published.  I researched, I made phone calls, I spoke by phone with an FBI spokesperson about the matter, I attempted to contact Sheriff Glenn Palmer.  He never returned my phone call.  I found a phone number for the person who sent the suspicious letters, and I passed the information on to Newsbud.  I thought the logical next step would be to contact the letter sender but I was unwilling to do that from my private phone.

In the end, my research led me to the conclusion that there really was no more to the story than what had been reported in the local news, and with no comment from Sheriff Palmer, I couldn’t confirm his reported version of the event.  I was unable to find any evidence that would prove his claims, or that there had been any sort of substance in any of the letters.  I was also unable to find evidence that the letter sender was targeting Palmer specifically.

Pretty quickly I was informed that my conclusion wasn’t satisfactory and to stop researching the story.  Shortly thereafter, this video of an interview with Dr. Fred Whitehurst was released.  When that video aired, initially I felt that what I had reported to Sibel about my conversation with the FBI spokesperson was misrepresented.  Much later, when I watched it again, I also felt as though Dr. Whitehurst was manipulated in the interview because he wasn’t given all the information.  I didn’t understand why they did not mention any attempt to contact the letter sender, or Sheriff Palmer.  So, I messaged my concerns to Spiro Skouras of Newsbud, and asked why they had pursued the story the way they did.  I got no response from him that night.

Not long after, I received a request via email from Sibel to schedule a Skype conference call with her and Spiro.  I don’t remember all of the ways in which I was informed that I had failed during that call, but I do remember the main point, that I had missed the big piece of the story.  Sibel explained her reasons for that, and shared some links, and she was right, I hadn’t found what she had found online.  Upon reflection, I didn’t see it as proof of her claims, though I didn’t say so.

Perhaps I did miss a smoking gun, perhaps Sibel knew much more than she had published in her article and video.  However, what continued to bother me was that there was never any follow up, they never published any further evidence to support her startling claims.  They never informed me, or publicly stated, that they ever tried to contact the letter sender.  While attempts other than my own may have been made to contact Sheriff Palmer, there was no public mention of it from Newsbud.

After what felt to me like sensational claims that begged for further proof, that was basically the end of it.  That left me feeling as though the purpose of the story was to draw clicks, to capitalize on the related media furor occurring at that time over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation, and Sheriff Palmer himself.  This would become a pattern I have since noticed repeatedly with stories discussed at Newsbud.

Staying In

Unfortunately, I ignored my instincts.  I still believed in Newsbud, and I didn’t want to admit that my faith in Sibel’s credibility had just taken a significant hit.  I convinced myself that, with my lack of experience, I had screwed up, and I moved on.  Newsbud launched a second Kickstarter campaign for a significantly lower goal, and with a very different team, because many on the original team had already left for reasons I didn’t fully learn until later.  This time it was successful.  This is when I began receiving payment from Newsbud, and I published an article a week for about two months.

Around this time, the attempted coup in Turkey took place, and Newsbud launched its “Confront NBC” campaign.  I was supportive and helped to promote this because I felt (and still do) that it is really important for news outlets and journalists to retract erroneous reporting.  I also agreed that the timing of the false information was suspicious with regards to the coup attempt.  (Not to mention this very real problem.)  But, the entire thing began to feel like a publicity stunt.  Looking back, it felt like a publicity stunt that went too far, and felt uncomfortably too pro-Erdogan.  And, it led to this attack on FAIR.org.

I was asked to email FAIR, and follow up with a phone call, requesting comment from them on the Confront NBC story, and also information about their sources of funding (something I would like to see more transparency on from Newsbud).  I truly did not want to do this.  I have a lot of respect for FAIR.org and other organizations that work to hold news outlets and journalists accountable.  I was embarrassed to be involved in an attack on them.  However, I made the call, and I’m sure I sounded like a complete idiot to the man at FAIR that I spoke with.

A Way Out

This was the point that I finally began to lose, or let go of, some of my belief in Newsbud.  I realized I no longer wanted to tell anyone that I wrote for Newsbud.  I increasingly felt that, in order to fit the mold, I had to find some sort of “conspiratorial angle” to everything I wrote for Newsbud, and even here on my blog.  I was going along with things I didn’t always agree with, in order to stay with Newsbud.  It felt dishonest, like I was putting on an act.  I wasn’t being honest with myself.  I wasn’t being honest to all the people I was promoting Newsbud to.  I wasn’t being honest with Newsbud or Sibel either, because I didn’t address these concerns with them.

The final straw (or straws) came after I published this story here on my blog.  I submitted a shorter version of the story to Newsbud, and initially was told it would be published.  Later, I was told that it wouldn’t be published for several reasons.  I was disappointed, but I understood that Sibel didn’t like the story and she had the ultimate say on what was published on Newsbud.  I moved on.  However, shortly after that, I received an email that finally ended my willingness to remain on the team.

In that email, Sibel questioned my recent sharing of a GoFundMe campaign by someone that she didn’t like, and she informed me that I shouldn’t be following a certain journalist on social media.  Basically, what it came down to was that my behavior was reflecting negatively on Newsbud, and I was damaging Newsbud’s credibility.

I replied that I had no desire to cause Newsbud any harm, and if she didn’t want me on the team that was fine.  It was a way out, and I took it with relief.  I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t hurt by the things Sibel said to me, but I did not, and do not, have any desire to argue with her, or defend myself to her.  It wasn’t worth it to me to be told who I could or could not follow, who I could or could not share support for, who or what I could write about.  I had already watched other team members leave, even just disappear from the team, with no explanation.  What Newsbud had become was absolutely not what I supported in the beginning.

Ironically, after I responded that I didn’t want to harm Newsbud, I was told my behavior not only reflected negatively on Newsbud, but on myself, that it would hurt my credibility.  That was indeed true, but not about the behavior Sibel was referring to.  What would reflect negatively on me would be to continue to support what I no longer believed in.  Continuing to work with and promote Newsbud would hurt my credibility.

It is my opinion that Newsbud has gone the way of another well-known alternative media (infotainment) site that thrives on click bait, unsupported sensational claims, and false information.  I know Newsbud has deleted negative and oppositional comments from their site in what looks like attempts to shield their supporters from anything contradictory.  I know they asked numerous dissenting commenters to unsubscribe.  I see no integrity in this.  There are other things I could point to, but that and skepticism born out of my own brief experience working with Sibel, are the most important reasons why I no longer support Newsbud.

Coming Clean

It has taken me a long time to decide to write about all of this.  It took some time to admit to myself that the entire experience felt very cultish, and even longer to feel ready to admit it publicly.  I held a cult-like faith in Sibel, and that affected my judgement.  I don’t blame Sibel or Newsbud, I blame myself.  At the time, as I was still trying to make sense of the overwhelming information I was searching through online, I was especially susceptible.  But, I know that I have learned a lot from this experience.  In the chaos of today’s news cycle, the fake news, the social media trolling and bot manipulation, and endless sites spreading misinformation for profit, my experience at Newsbud, even though I regret it, does have value for me.

The following, from an International Cultic Studies Association article titled, Characteristics of Cults and Cultic Groups, describes how I feel about my experience with Newsbud perfectly:

“…the group claims to pursue lofty goals (e.g., salvation, bringing enlightenment to the world for the sake of peace, or solutions to specific world problems and injustices), …but a close look at the group’s accomplishments will invariably show that these publicly proclaimed goals are not reached, or that they mask less noble goals, such as massing monetary wealth, gaining power and control over the followers, and feeding the leader’s need for adulation.”

So, when I saw this tweet which reads, “they’ve been throwing fits due to not making the cut when it comes to Newsbud,” I laughed.  I knew immediately that I had the perfect title for this story.  I didn’t make the cult, and for that, I am so thankful.

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*This decision was made because I can’t in good conscience keep content posted that promotes Newsbud.  If that bothers you and you want to know what those posts contain, just ask me.  I’ve kept copies of them all.  Also, I recently noticed that all of my work has been removed from Newsbud’s site, for which I am grateful.  I have reposted most of the articles here on Seeking Redress.

Update 4/29/2018: the above link to the Dr. Whitehurst video no longer works.  Here is a link to Newsbud’s report about the video.  The video isn’t available there either.

 

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