How Dangerous is Fake News?
What is fake news? It is exactly what it sounds like, news that is partly or completely incorrect. The following two examples are two different issues. Both issues have two different outcomes or answers. However, in most cases there is only one right answer.
First example, nutrition has become a widely debated subject. Many studies have linked processed foods to almost every serious health risk. Conditions Including: cancer, heart disease, depression, and obesity.
“Heavily processed foods are often high in sugar, fat and empty calories. Consuming lots of these foods has long been linked to an increased risk of a wide variety of health problems that can lead to heart disease or an early grave, such as obesity, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, cancer and depression.” (More evidence links ultra-processed foods to health harms | Reuters)
Given the information above, most would believe that Americans would avoid processed food.
“In recent decades, ultra-processed food intake has increased dramatically worldwide. These foods now account for 25–60%Trusted Source of a person’s daily energy intake throughout much of the world. (Processed foods: Health risks and what to avoid (medicalnewstoday.com)
However, when researching healthier or average eating habits, this is what is provided:
What does the average American eat for breakfast? According to TheTravel.com, two of the three most common breakfasts — “bowl of cereal and milk; According to Eat This, Shopkick surveyed 43,000 people living in the United States and found that 96 percent would purchase cereal every single time they headed to the supermarket. 41 percent said that they would get two boxes and one-third say one box. 29 percent of people involved in the study had avocado toast, Americans paid $890,500 for avocado toast in June 2017 and $17,000 in June 2014. (What Most Americans Eat For Breakfast (thetravel.com)
Lunch- Typical American food includes sandwiches, salads, pizza, and past. Most common meal in America — The most American food is probably burgers (almost always served on a bun) and fries. This dish has been around for a long time and is very popular in the United States. (What do americans eat for lunch? What American eat for dinner? (elsombreroseattle.com)
Dinner, here are 4 or the first 5 recipes that (50 Easy Dinner Recipes | Recipes, Dinners and Easy Meal Ideas | Food Network) offer — Penne with Vodka Sauce and Mini Meatballs, Shredded, Saucy BBQ Chicken Sammies served on a bun, Shortcut Chicken Enchiladas, Orecchiette with Greens, Garbanzo Beans and Ricotta Salata
6 common (healthy) dinners: 1. Rice + chicken + salad, 2. Potato + cheese + beans, 3. Bread + egg + bell peppers, 4. Fries + beef + tomato, 5. Quinoa + turkey + broccoli, 6. Couscous + pork + spinach (The 6 Most Popular Dinners in the U.S. Will Delight You (healthline.com)
So, what are the most common process foods:
White rice
Cornmeal
Polenta
Flour
White flour
Bread
Rolls
Buns
Muffins
Bagels
Bread sticks
Pizza crust
Pita bread
Tortillas
Croutons
Flat bread
Crackers
Macaroni
Pasta
Couscous
Orzo
AND Quinoa
Is Quinoa considered a processed food
Those dried seeds are covered in a chemical that, if not washed off first, would be very unpleasant. Cheryl Forberg, RD, “The Biggest Loser” nutritionist and author of Cooking With Quinoa For Dummies, says on her website that most modern-day commercial quinoa has been washed (aka processed). (What food category is quinoa? | — From Hunger To Hope)
Processed foods defined
According to the Department of Agriculture, processed food are any raw agricultural commodities that have been washed, cleaned, milled, cut, chopped, heated, pasteurized, blanched, cooked, canned, frozen, dried, dehydrated, mixed or packaged — anything done to t hem that alters their natural state. This may include adding preservatives, flavors, nutrients and other food additives, or substances approved for use in food products, such as salt, sugars and fats. (Processed foods: What you should know — Mayo Clinic Health System)
So, if processed foods are so harmful? Why are all of Healthline’s recipes centered around processed food options?
Why are so many Americans eating cereal or toast for every day breakfast?
Why do most health options mainly consist of processed foods?
Second example, CNN and the NY Times accuse Joe Rogan of pushing anti-vaccine information, at the end 2021. First, what does CNN say, the most trusted name in network
NEW POLL: CNN is Most ‘Trustworthy’ Cable News Network — While Fox News is Most ‘Untrustworthy’
“CNN was rated “Trustworthy” or “Very trustworthy” by 36 percent of respondents, while 40 percent rated the network “Untrustworthy” or “Very untrustworthy.”
Another 14 percent of respondents said CNN was “Neither trustworthy or untrustworthy.”
Even with their lead in trustworthiness, however, CNN’s net trustworthiness was still minus 4.” (CNN Most Trustworthy Cable News, Fox News Most Untrustworthy (mediaite.com)
CNN claims: 250 doctors and nurses wrote a letter to Spotify requesting to stop disinformation. (Scientists call out Spotify for misinformation on Joe Rogan’s podcast — YouTube)
Two questions:
Did the group of 250 scientist listen to this podcast, before writing the letter?”
Are these 250 scientists all legitimately qualified to argue with a specialist; such as, Malone’s Wiki page suggests?
For example, can a podiatrist argue with a cardiologists about the triggers of myocarditis in children?
Second, what does The New York Times have to offer?
New York Times “Mr. Rogan, a wildly popular podcast host, and his guest, Dr. Malone, a controversial infectious-disease researcher, offered a litany of falsehoods over three hours.”
The catalyst for much of the controversy was a December episode of his podcast that featured Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist and vaccine skeptic. Hundreds of public health officials and professors, citing the promotion of “several falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccines,” urged the service to crack down on misinformation about the virus. (Fact-Checking Joe Rogan’s Interview With Robert Malone That Caused an Uproar — The New York Times (nytimes.com) Written by Linda Qiu
Linda Qiu (born 13 August 1945) is a Californian politician and lawyer who served as Minister of Minority Rights from 2006 to 2014.
She went on to attend the University of Berkeley, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1967. Qiu then enrolled in Stanford University and graduated with her juris doctor in 1970. She worked as a corporate attorney in Los Angeles for several years, creating her own law firm in 1985 and working there until beginning her political career in 2002. (Linda Qiu | Deli’s America Wiki | Fandom)
Is Linda Qui honest or bias, several media outlets claim she is bias:
Linda Qiu, fact checker for The New York Times, bad English (leftyliars.com)
Will Linda Qiu of the NY Times try real journalism on the “Migrant Caravan”? | 24Ahead
New York Times Fact Check Media Bias | AllSides
These are six websites on the first page, that populate when you search “Is Linda Qiu bias?” Signally, that much of the country believes, Linda Qiu fact checker for The New York Times, taints her writing with opinion.
However, on the same first page, four other websites that advocate for Qiu, also populate. If the New York Times website is counted, along with Linda Qiu Fandom Wiki page. These four pages speak highly of Qiu.
Can you trust the New York Times (Can You Trust the NY Times? — YouTube)
This video claims, “The NY Times” has a long history of misinforming the public, mostly due to a bias, held by the writers and the paper.
Can You trust CNN?
In a survey held in February 2022, 20 percent of Americans said that they found CNN to be a very trustworthy source of news and information. Opinions regarding the network’s trustworthiness varied, with 23 percent of respondents saying that they did not trust CNN at all. (Trustworthiness of CNN in the U.S. 2022 | Statista)
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Who is Joe Rogan?
Short answer: Rogan — accomplished entertainer, who built a multi-100-million-dollar business and helped launch the podcast industry. Rogan, also helped Dana White create a multi-billion-dollar industry, the UFC. Acting as a fight commentator and one of UFC’s biggest promoters, Rogan used his podcast platform to help make the UFC a major sporting event. Also, he is soon to be club owner in Austin, Texas
Who is Doctor Robert Malone?
Robert Wallace Malone (born 1959) is an American physician and biochemist. His early work focused on mRNA technology,[3] pharmaceuticals, and drug repurposing research. During the COVID-19 pandmic)
He received his BSc in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis in 1984, his MSc in biology from the University of California, San Diego in 1988, and his MD from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 1991.[9][10][11] He attended Harvard Medical School for a year-long postdoctoral studies program.[12]
In the decade after earning his MD, Malone taught pathology at the University of California, Davis and at the University of Maryland.[7]
In the late 1980s, while a graduate student researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, Malone conducted studies on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, discovering in what Nature has described as a landmark experiment that it was possible to transfer mRNA protected by a liposome into cultured cells to signal the information needed for the production of proteins.[3][13][4] With Philip Felgner, he performed experiments on the transfection of RNA into human, rat, mouse, Xenopus, and Drosophila cells, work which was published in 1989.[3][14] In 1990, he contributed to a paper with Jon A. Wolff, Dennis A. Carson, and others, which first suggested the possibility of synthesizing mRNA in a laboratory to trigger the production of a desired protein.[15] These studies are recognized as among the earliest steps towards mRNA vaccine development.[3][16][17][18]
While Malone promotes himself as an inventor of mRNA vaccines,[1][7] credit for the distinction is more often given to the lead authors on the major papers he contributed to (such as Felgner and Wolff), later advances by Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman,[3][19] or Moderna co-founder Derrick Rossi.[13] Ultimately, mRNA vaccines were the decades-long result of the contributions of hundreds of researchers, including Malone (Robert W. Malone — Wikipedia
After that long introduction, hopefully we can all agree that Malone is a real doctor. And he did contribute, at least a little, with the invention of MRNA vaccines.
In Rogan’s one earlier podcast, #1756 with John Abramson. Abramson talked about how big Pharma broke America. Abramson and Malone were attempting to show another side of the Pandemic
John Abramson is an American physician and the author of the book Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine. He has worked as a family doctor in Appalachia and in Hamilton, Massachusetts, and has served as chairman of the department of family practice at Lahey Clinic. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow and is on the clinical faculty of Harvard Medical School, where he teaches primary care and public health policy.[1][2]
He graduated from Harvard College. In 1974, he received a BMS from Dartmouth Medical School followed by his MD from Brown Medical School.[3] (John Abramson — Wikipedia)
Abramson pointed out, how Pfizer was recording record profits, as result of the COVID vaccine:
Pfizer Expects $65 Billion in Sales for COVID mRNA Shots
Pfizer’s revenue from 2009 to 2021. In 2021, the revenue doubles from 40 billion to 80.
Pfizer Revenue 2010–2022 | PFE | MacroTrends
2021 - $81,288
2020 - $41,651
2019 - $40,905
2018 - $40,825
2017 - $52,546
2016 - $52,824
2015 - $48,851
2014 - $49,605
2013 - $51,584
2012 - $54,657
2011 - $61,035
2010 - $65,165
2009 - $49,269
Who do we believe:
the journalists, podcast personalities, other media outlets, or doctors with specialized degrees, that helped invent the technology debated?
In the first example, processed foods: observing normal eating habits and random internet searches, processed foods, appear winning the argument. They are included in almost all diets advertised. Many diets that claim to be healthy are centered around processed foods.
However, consider the following
“Nearly 2 million cases of cancer likely to be diagnosed in 2022”
‘Nearly 2 million new cases of cancer are expected to be diagnosed and some 609,000 people will likely die from cancer in the U.S. in 2022, according to a new report published Wednesday.” Nearly 2 million cases of cancer likely to be diagnosed in 2022: Report — ABC News (go.com)
What dose this mean for our future?
In example two, CNN and The NY Times state: Joe Rogan and Doctor Malone (podcast#1757) distributed false anti vaccine rhetoric, accompanied by list of other falsehoods. Based on the internet research, majority are agreeing with CNN and The Times, disregarding the scientist with specialized degrees.
However, CNN can claim 250 scientists are outraged and The NY Times can assert their widely disputed fact checking. There’s no easily assessable method, confirming the accuracy of Linda Qiu and CNN. As of now, the public has to take them at their word.
Considered the following two items:
1. Doctor Malone’s Wikipedia page was updated after that podcast to include one new fact about him: Malone has promoted misinformation about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.[1][4][5][6][7]
2. In 2021, 34 million Americans tested positive for COVID-19, up 70% from 20 million in 2020. (State of US COVID-19 Pandemic & Health | 2022 State of the Union Facts (usafacts.org)
Questions people should ask:
Do politicians ever lie?
Do lawyers ever lie?
Do Journalist ever lie?
Do doctors ever lie?
And how often.
Two different examples of what is or could be presumed fake news.
Both examples yield dangerous results.
