{"id":1449044,"date":"2022-04-21T12:33:01","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T16:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1449044"},"modified":"2022-04-21T12:33:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T16:33:12","slug":"obama-keynotes-disinfo-meeting-alongside-allies-associated-with-fake-news-scandals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obama-keynotes-disinfo-meeting-alongside-allies-associated-with-fake-news-scandals\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Keynotes Disinfo Meeting Alongside Allies Associated with Fake News Scandals"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fobama-keynotes-disinfo-meeting-alongside-allies-associated-with-fake-news-scandals%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1449044&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Former president Barack Obama will speak Thursday at a Stanford University forum on media disinformation alongside a group of allies linked to fake news scandals, including his former aide Ben Rhodes.<\/p>\n<p>Obama will give the keynote speech at the symposium as part of his personal crusade to fight disinformation in the digital domain. He <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BarackObama\/status\/1516519230820212743\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> this week that the Obama Foundation will work with experts to combat disinformation, which he said poses &#8220;real challenges&#8221; for democracy. Obama <a href=\"https:\/\/puck.news\/can-laurene-powell-jobs-save-the-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reportedly<\/a> joined the fight after discussions with Apple heiress Laurene Powell Jobs, who <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/why-is-laurene-powell-jobs-funding-fake-news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has funded<\/a> a network of fake local news sites that push Democratic talking points.<\/p>\n<p>Obama&#8217;s foray into the debate comes as Democrats have pressured social media companies to aggressively combat disinformation. Speakers at the Stanford <a href=\"https:\/\/cyber.fsi.stanford.edu\/events\/challenges-democracy-digital-information-realm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">forum<\/a> will discuss the role of tech companies and the U.S. government in reducing political polarization.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the speakers, including Obama, have themselves been accused of pushing false, politically divisive information, raising questions about their participation in a disinformation event.<\/p>\n<p>Obama was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/article\/2013\/dec\/12\/lie-year-if-you-like-your-health-care-plan-keep-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">awarded<\/a> the 2013 &#8220;Lie of the Year&#8221; for declaring, &#8220;if you like your health care plan, you can keep it,&#8221; in order to sell Obamacare to the American public. Rhodes, a national security adviser to Obama, admitted in 2016 that <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/ben-rhodes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he manipulated journalists<\/a> in order to push favorable but misleading stories in the media. Rhodes bragged about creating an &#8220;echo chamber&#8221; of reporters who amplified White House spin. Rhodes also said he &#8220;largely manufactured&#8221; a narrative about the timeline by which the Obama administration began negotiating with the Iranian government about its nuclear energy program.<\/p>\n<p>Two lesser-known panelists have been at the center of disinformation firestorms. Rashad Robinson, the president of the civil rights group Color of Change, <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/aspen-disinformation-group-includes-twitter-exec-who-censored-hunter-biden-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">repeatedly pushed<\/a> the false claim that actor Jussie Smollett was the victim of an anti-gay, anti-black hate crime in Chicago in 2019. Robinson pushed the hoax even after evidence emerged that Smollett lied to police about the attack. Renee DiResta, a Stanford researcher moderating a session with Obama, <a href=\"https:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:0oOorXm1NPEJ:https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/technology\/secret-campaign-to-use-russian-inspired-tactics-in-2017-alabama-election-stirs-anxiety-for-democrats\/2019\/01\/06\/58803f26-0400-11e9-8186-4ec26a485713_story.html+&#038;cd=2&#038;hl=en&#038;ct=clnk&#038;gl=us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">advised<\/a> a technology company that created fake Russian bots in order to influence Republican voters in the 2017 Alabama special election. DiResta <a href=\"https:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:0oOorXm1NPEJ:https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/technology\/secret-campaign-to-use-russian-inspired-tactics-in-2017-alabama-election-stirs-anxiety-for-democrats\/2019\/01\/06\/58803f26-0400-11e9-8186-4ec26a485713_story.html+&#038;cd=2&#038;hl=en&#038;ct=clnk&#038;gl=us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> the <em>Washington Post<\/em> she knew the tech company was involved in the Alabama race, but she denied knowing about its deceptive tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Robinson and DiResta are speaking on a panel about the U.S. government&#8217;s role in &#8220;facilitating consensus and reducing polarization at home.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In addition to a post at Stanford, DiResta <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emersoncollective.com\/partners\/ren%C3%A9e-diresta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">is a fellow<\/a> at the Emerson Collective, the media investment company owned by Jobs. The company has invested in outlets like the<em>\u00a0Atlantic<\/em>, <em>Axios<\/em>, and <em>Ozy<\/em>, a failed pop culture website <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/taxpayer-dollars-flowed-to-media-company-now-under-fbi-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">under investigation for fraud<\/a>. Jobs <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/politics\/powell-jobs-weinstein-smollett\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently hired<\/a> a public relations firm, Sunshine Sachs, that has worked for Jussie Smollett and disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former president Barack Obama will speak Thursday at a Stanford University forum on media disinformation alongside a group of allies linked to fake news scandals, including his former aide Ben<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1449044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1449044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}