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VETERAN’S DAY
Special Edition
O PINION
November 7, 2018
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Calibrating for Fake vs. Real News
Document and
consider sources
for reliability
t oM h. h astings
I teach between
300-400 students ev-
ery year and one of the
most frequent concerns
expressed by them is
source reliability.
Welcome to the era
of mass gaslighting.
Infowars. Trump. Putin. Bin Sal-
man. Fox News.
My advice to those inquisitive
students is to consider following
or subscribing to at least three
sources and making them ideo-
logically different from each other
and note the difference in cover-
age, the contrasting frames and
facts.
Then, for particularly close
questioning of gnarly issues,
check with factchecking sites like
Snopes or the Annenberg Public
Policy Center’s factchecking site.
By the time the curious citizen
has read from liberal, conserva-
by
tive, and mainstream sites, and
gone to reputable factchecking
sites, that citizen is operating with
a fairly high degree of reliabili-
ty, and when you cantilever that
over years of experience, validity
threats are minimized.
So, for instance, when
I read extreme lefty dis-
tress over the link be-
tween the Trilateral Com-
mission and “chemtrails,”
I can (eye)roll my way
past that fairly quickly.
Reading rightwing hyste-
ria over George Soros paying pro-
testers may take an extra few min-
utes, but I can now confidently say
that the gasp-reflex rightwing rage
on this is needlessly combustible,
as many social movements rou-
tinely cover activists’ traveling ex-
penses and, for potential resisters,
even bail money, as we learned in
the Civil Rights era. Of course, all
the gains from the Civil Rights era
are pretty much what many of the
Soros traducers seek to roll back.
This is not to claim that no ne-
farious schemes, even conspira-
cies, exist, but it is to note that they
should be thoroughly investigated
before declaring them convincing.
That investigation may come from
independent journalists, indepen-
dent government investigators, or
even from opinionated but sincere
sources.
The key is to document and cite
actual evidence, not to cite Alex
of critical thinking and common
sense to the admittedly massive
raw data stream coming at us 24-
7, a person can develop a decent
sense for authenticity.
But I still caution that the need
to (in the words of Ronald Reagan)
trust but verify never evaporates. I
strands of argument and analysis.
In short, yes, I hope we can at
least avoid the spectacle of a bitter
partisan debate over whether the
sun rises in the east, but let’s at
least allow for some context and
nuance when judging our oppo-
nents’ views.
After some years of engaging in information
verification at a sincere and non-ideological
level, and after applying the principles of critical
thinking and common sense to the admittedly
massive raw data stream coming at us 24-7, a
person can develop a decent sense for authenticity.
Jones or Snoop Dog or anyone at
all from the Trump organization,
Mohammed bin Salman, Kim
Jong-un, or Vladimir Putin. Sorry,
no cred for you.
After some years of engaging
in information verification at a
sincere and non-ideological level,
and after applying the principles
like Rachel Maddow but on some
issues I follow up to check. I like
Anderson Cooper—same thing.
Jake Tapper—him too. National
Public Radio is my go-to daily
news but I factcheck them before I
make a claim based on their anal-
ysis and I often listen with chagrin
as they miss seriously important
I believe Trump is a peerless
disgrace, but I get his survival
techniques and can let them just
roll into the dustbin of lies without
letting them catch my hair on fire.
Dr. Tom H. Hastings of Port-
land is director of PeaceVoice and
on occasion an expert witness for
the defense in court.
Killing Thousands and Enriching Arms Sellers
The lives lost in
Saudi-led war in
Yemen
by a lex
p otter
The other day,
over 20 people
died in an airstrike
in Yemen’s coastal
city of Hodeidah.
The
bombs,
dropped by a Saudi-led coalition
hit a farmers market where men
from neighboring villages sold
their goods, hoping to at least
break even and bring some food
home to their families. In the af-
termath of the attack, families
gathered to pick up the pieces of
their loved ones and hitchhiked to
the local general hospital in search
of the wounded.
These were only a few of the
uncountable thousands of civilian
casualties in Yemen’s war, which
I’ve followed closely since living
there for years as a journalist.
The frequent strikes on mar-
kets, school buses, and hospitals
seldom make news in the United
States. Is it because Yemen seems
so far away, that the blood of chil-
dren doesn’t seem to reach our
fingertips?
Or is it because arms sellers’
profits from Yemen’s war are so
substantial, we don’t dare
cut ties?
Yemen’s been on a down-
ward spiral since a failed
transition period after the
Arab Spring led to a civ-
il war. Since early 2015, a
Saudi-led coalition backing
Yemen’s exiled president
family in their sleep.
All of these airstrikes were
supported by the U.S., which sup-
plied training, targeting support,
in-flight refueling, and the bombs
themselves. Yet American politi-
cians mostly stay silent. Why?
Is it because the war in Yemen is
so complicated? This is a cop-out
— it’s our elected officials’ job to
understand these intricacies, and to
act when situations are unjust.
I would argue it’s the cost-ben-
Carrying even greater weight,
especially by President Trump, is
the financial benefit of this war.
The U.S. sells billions of dollars’
worth of weapons to the Saudis.
Deaths for dollars. The lives of
tens of thousands of Yemenis for
the financial gain of a few corpo-
rations. While there are obviously
more reasons for the ongoing con-
flict than this, it’s an undeniable
component.
Yet this last month has brought
As the tragic details of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s
abduction and death emerge, more lawmakers
are calling for direct and tangible action against
Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi’s death, first denied then
whitewashed by Saudi officials, has brought together
a bipartisan group calling for a cancellation of arms
sales to the kingdom.
has rained down air raids on the
country — more often than not,
hitting civilian targets.
A school bus bombing in July
killed 40 children. A hospital
bombing in August killed over 50
civilians. An early attack on the
capital Sana’a wiped out an entire
efit ratio.
Leaving the on-the-ground
fighting to Yemenis paid by their
Gulf counterparts, and leaving the
actual air-striking to Saudi pilots,
American officials are separated
by enough degrees to not take di-
rect responsibility.
more change from one man’s
death than the deaths of thousands
before him.
As the tragic details of journal-
ist Jamal Khashoggi’s abduction
and death emerge, more lawmak-
ers are calling for direct and tan-
gible action against Saudi Arabia.
Khashoggi’s death, first denied
then whitewashed by Saudi offi-
cials, has brought together a bipar-
tisan group calling for a cancella-
tion of arms sales to the kingdom.
“With the murder of Jamal
Khashoggi, it’s time for the Unit-
ed States to halt all weapons sales
and military aid to Saudi Ara-
bia,” said Rep. Jim McGovern,
D-Mass., who introduced a bill to
do just that. “Our democratic val-
ues are on the line here — and we
need to step up as a country and do
the right thing.”
On the other hand, President
Trump so far refuses to stop arms
sales, even though the Saudis now
admit Khashoggi’s murder was
premeditated. “We don’t like it,
not even a little bit,” Trump said.
But canceling the sales “would not
be acceptable to me.”
The war in Yemen will continue
until those in power decide their
costs outweigh the benefits — and
until the rest of us insist on a cost
for civilian lives.
Alex Potter is a photojournalist
and nurse from Minnesota work-
ing mostly in the Middle East.
She’s lived and worked in Yemen
since 2012. Distributed by Other-
Words.org.