This week, the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics (IOP) and The Atlantic magazine hosted a “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” conference, and we have to hand it to IOP Director David Axlerod for bringing in true experts on the subject. The conference featured some of America’s greatest purveyors of disinformation, such as Barack Obama, Brian Stelter, Anne Applebaum, and a few token conservatives, including Jonah Goldberg and Adam Kinzinger.
The media, government, and academia elites speaking at the conference weren’t expecting to be challenged as they self-righteously spewed more lies—but our team at the Chicago Thinker was prepared to hold them accountable.
Student journalists from the Chicago Thinker respectfully listened, asked honest questions, and reported. Our efforts soon went viral, garnering millions of views on social media. We successfully turned the IOP’s “Disinformation Conference” on its head and sparked a national conversation about the corporate media’s disinformation.
If this week has taught us anything, it’s that the regime media is incredibly fragile. If a couple hard-hitting questions from college students can rattle the elites to such a degree, just think what would happen if our peers at other universities follow our lead.
Here’s how we smoked some of America’s most corrupt, partisan liars.
We Recognized Them for Who They Are
Despite its stated objectives, this conference clearly wasn’t dedicated to rooting out disinformation or facilitating substantive debates. It was theater. When the partisan conference speakers referred to disinformation, they were really just referring to information they dislike.
Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and recent Nobel Prize recipient, suggested to her Wednesday audience that a destructive change to the “information ecosystem” occurred when information was democratized by social media. She lamented that, as a result,“journalists lost the gate-keeping powers.”
Ressa and her peers openly admitted that they want “elite” institutions of academia, government, and journalism to retake the powers they lost to social media.
Many of the conference speakers argued that the government should regulate the algorithms of social media platforms, which would effectively diminish the reach of people and ideas they don’t like. Meanwhile, none of them entertained the idea that a large portion of the country might just be justified in distrusting the narratives of woke academics, dishonest journalists, and criminal government officials and agencies.
Our team recognizes the stakes: if Ressa and her friends successfully entrench themselves as information gate-keepers, genuine truth-seeking will be forced underground or stopped completely. We can’t let them get away with this power grab.
We Respectfully Posed Tough Questions
Unlike our leftist peers at the University of Buffalo (who this week forced a conservative speaker to be escorted out by police from his campus lecture), Chicago Thinker student journalists respectfully posed hard-hitting but genuine questions.
On Wednesday, Senior Editor Daniel Schmidt asked The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum about the corporate-media and Big-Tech suppression of the New York Post story on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, zeroing in on Applebaum’s rejection of the laptop’s importance.
“Now, of course, we know a few weeks ago The New York Times confirmed that the [laptop] content is real. Do you think the media acted inappropriately when they instantly dismissed Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation?” asked Schmidt. “And what can we learn from that in ensuring that what we label as disinformation is truly disinformation and not reality?”
Applebaum dismissed the laptop story, explaining, “My problem with Hunter Biden’s laptop is, I think, [it’s] totally irrelevant. I mean it’s not whether it’s disinformation — I don’t think Hunter Biden’s business relationships have anything to do with who should be president of the United States. So, I don’t find it to be interesting.” Moderator David Axelrod quickly jumped in, ending the discussion.
On Thursday, staff writer Christopher Phillips asked CNN’s Brian Stelter a pointed question about his network’s journalistic ethics and its history of spreading disinformation. He began by highlighting several of CNN’s most notable fabrications, like the Russian collusion hoax, the Jussie Smollet hoax, and the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up. Phillips then slammed corporate media outlets, implying that the one-sided nature of these “mistakes” reflects their abandonment of journalistic ethics.
On Friday, Managing Editor (and co-author of this piece) Evita Duffy then pressed Sen. Amy Klobuchar on whether her “Health Misinformation” bill will ban saying “there are only two sexes.” The bill in question will punish platforms that use algorithms to promote “health misinformation.” Klobuchar responded by refusing to address the question. “I’m not going to get into what misinformation [should be censored],” Klobuchar said.
The Media Regime Had a Meltdown
Following Schmidt’s viral question, Jonah Goldberg, one of the conference’s token conservatives, said on Thursday that he “doesn’t buy” that the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up had any impact on the 2020 election. This is in spite of the fact that a poll found 16% of Joe Biden voters would not have voted for Biden had they known about the FBI investigation into his family.
When Goldberg received criticism for dismissing the gravity of the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up, which undeniably impacted the 2020 election, he whined on Twitter about being “attack[ed].”
He was so rattled that he even started arguing on Twitter with Thinker staff writer and college sophomore Arthur Long, labeling Schmidt’s sincere question about Hunter Biden’s laptop as “trollishness.”
For asking genuine questions, Applebaum blocked the Thinker and Long on Twitter.
In a fitting end to the conference, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg referred to the Thinker’s reporting as a “disinformation” campaign on social media.
In calling our reporting a disinformation campaign, Goldberg proved our point: To the elites, “disinformation” is simply information that the establishment in media and government find inconvenient (or embarrassing).
The Chicago Thinker Will Keep Fighting and So Should You
Throughout our reporting, we did not misinform about anything; we posted clips of Applebaum, Stelter, and Klobuchar’s full responses to our questions.
We highlighted Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal, a story that has been underreported by members of the establishment media, like Applebaum, and needs more attention.
We skewered the establishment media for laughably lecturing on disinformation when they themselves are the greatest purveyors of disinformation and supporters of algorithmic censorship in our country.
Finally, we demonstrated that our generation is not a lost cause. There are many of us, at UChicago and beyond, who see the liars for who they are and aren’t willing to surrender the digital public square.
The best way to combat real disinformation is not gate-keeping and algorithmic censorship. It’s asking tough questions and having real conversations.
We students have a lot of power. We are more tech savvy than the likes of Stelter, Goldberg, and Applebaum. Thanks to the open internet, we’ve been able to expose the regime media and hold it accountable for its own words and actions. Our student-driven, viral reporting is exactly what the elites want to put a stop to, and that’s why we all need to keep fighting.
As we write in our mission statement, “Free discourse—which relies on the litigation of ideas through disagreement and the presentation of counterarguments—will die if conservatives and libertarians are denied a seat at the table or if we fail to speak when it matters most. The Chicago Thinker refuses to allow that to happen.”
Thank You!
You all have done a most awesome job of fighting misinformation. Down in the trenches.
I sincerely thank you!
Truly to be admired!!! Your courage is overwhelming!!! You give true Americans hope for the future!!!
Please keep speaking up for the American citizen, this is what made America Great…..Courage to speak up when no one else would……….Thank you!!!!!
From Eric Zorn’s substack Conservative students at the University of Chicago are patting themselves on the back for asking tough questions of panelists at the recent “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” conference. “The Chicago Thinker Staged a Media Regime Takedown This Week—Here’s How We Did It” is their version of events, and while their queries were relevant and interestingly pointed, I couldn’t help but wonder if these students hold Fox News and the right-wing media to similar standards. Did they refer to the Trump administration as “the regime”? Given their pearl clutching about Hunter Biden’s laptop, have they also been indignant about the sleazy doings of the Trump children? Can you answer that last question. Did you see what Kushner got from the Saudi’s. Are you going to question that.
The main difference here is that at least the Trump family has been in business for what 50+ years , and while their empire may not be well known to people, it certainly is not in the shadows like the Biden’s is. But do the Biden’s do that? One has to wonder.
Do the Trumps play on their name? Of course. They at least earned it. A question is this – what have the Biden’s really done to earn it, other than be elected officials in the nation? Did they build a company? Did they start a new industry? Did they invent a better mouse trap? Or do they control government (ie the taxpayers) money and government policy which we know can reward (and harshly punish) those it hates.
Anyways, I am willing to put good hard money down on the fact that these kids will ask the Trump family hard questions. The real question is will the ‘media’ ask any questions of the Biden family?
Were stories about the Trump family labeled as misinformation by all the legacy MSM, Twitter and FB and suppressed? How are your questions even relevant?
I hardly fit the demographic of your fine staff and readers, I’m 72 but I just wanted to thank you for your work. Please stay in the fight. The truth is too important to be left by the wayside, even when it is uncomfortable.
Thank you,
Rich McIntyre
richardmcintyre01@comcast.net
Similar age from England with American daughters at college – yes, great work! You politely punctured the self importance of these sick censors.
Wonderful! Great job and thank you for doing it! We see you and we stand together with you. Together we can!
Great work! A the lot of esteemed faculty that’s no longer with us (Friedman, Becker, etc.) would be proud.
What a great piece this is. I hope Chicago Thinker continues to shine a bright light on the cockroaches cynically hosting a symposium on their chosen field, disinformation. I have bookmarked your site and intend to check it regularly.
Great article, Audrey! Sorry to say I didn’t know about the Thinker until I saw your colleague on Tucker Carlson’s show the other night. I read your article on my Macbook Pro, and I don’t see a button for enlarging the type size. Am I just not seeing that button? Or is there no such option? If not, may I suggest you add that feature for older readers like me who are bound to add the Thinker to their must-read sites? Thank you!
If you’re using Chrome, press Ctrl-+ to enlarge text. On the Mac, it’s the Cmd-+ I think. You can also install “Dark Reader Extension for Chrome” which makes all websites use a dark background, which means they’re much easier to read.
You can press and hold your Cmd button and then press the (+) button. Each time you press the (+) button it will enlarge more, until you find the size that works for you.
If that doesn’t work, try these tricks:
https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-increase-text-size-macos/
We absolutely love what you stand for – freedom of all expression – and lift you up in our hearts and prayers. Thank you for having the courage to speak truth to power! It is very telling that you all received such immediate and vehement pushback – that means you are directly over the target. God Bless and God Speed.
I am the Illinois State Director for Stand for Health Freedom and have been saying that we need the youth — college students — to start standing up and fighting back in droves! So glad to see you brave and articulate students at the University of Chicago taking that lead! Keep up the great work! Stay strong.
I suspect I will be called names for this, but I need to ask a very simple question: Why are the great majority of the disinformation disseminators that made up the speakers list of this conference Jewish? Does anyone else think this is a very strange coincidence? Or is it?
Only through skeptical investigation and polite debate will the truth be discovered. I appreciate that you have this philosophy.
I am so impressed with all of you at the Chicago Thinker! You are a shining example of our future. I’m 62 yrs. old and I think it’s time for the older generations to step down from their thrones of power and let the young start leading. However, we need more young “thinkers” like those at your paper to step forward. I’m looking forward to watching you pull the brilliant young minds together. 🙏
Nothing like criticizing corporate media but then appearing on Fox News (totally not a corporation at all). Truly independent journalism. Also, the right’s concern over Hunter Biden’s laptop is totally understandable. What if he did actually benefit from his dad’s position of power? Good thing no family member of President Trump benefited from his presidency. Wait a minute. Does Jared Kushner ring a bell?
You’re good at missing the point, Sal. What other skills can you demonstrate?
The point about the laptop’s “treasures” isn’t that the broad-spectrum loser Hunter Biden benefitted from his dad’s sinecure. Instead it’s that the “big guy” himself is compromised from scarfing up the Chinese Communist Party’s dribbles of petty cash.
A “media regime takedown”? Seriously, how self-important can you be? I suppose I understand the impulse to milk this as hard as you can given that media attention is what will make or break your career, but in reality all you did was get them a bit of bad press and Twitter harassment. Soon enough, everyone will move onto the next thing to be outraged about (including you).
I think it’s more than what you perceive. This “media attention” has given fresh exposure to this site as evidenced by the comments. In any case, I like their way of doing something vs. other people doing nothing. You know, they would probably be open to any productive suggestions/strategies you might offer. How about you pay them a visit.
Thanks for all you are doing, glad to see people challenging our corrupt media And the relentless propaganda. Thanks!
Great reporting, many thanks from an occasional reader in France. We also have, more than our share, of disinformation here.
These self-described “journalists” are nothing more than propagandists, and enemies of the first amendment. No ally of freedom of speech laments the death of information gatekeeping.
Thank you so much for fighting against these domestic ENEMIES of the Constitution of the United States. We are already in cold civil war—I pray it does not need to become hot.
“We skewered the establishment media for laughably lecturing on disinformation when they themselves are the greatest purveyors of disinformation and supporters of algorithmic censorship in our country.” –Kudos for your efforts at that symposium! Keep up the good work — America needs young people like you to secure the future of our country!! #MSMTheEnemyOfThePeople #FakeNewsMedia #LamestreamMedia #DemocratsAreLiars #RescueAmerica #TakeBackAmerica #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
Chicago Thinker.Thank you!! You are a breath of fresh, free air!! You are the epitome of what free discourse is all about.
Really impressed and appreciate your efforts. Keep holding up that mirror to media, government, and academia elites. Truth dies in darkness.
Thank you all for doing the honest reporting and ttruthfully exposing the hypocrisy of the criminal corrupt media.
You guys(and girls) ROCK!!!!
Thanks, Chicago Thinker, for doing the job American journalists will no longer do. A retired university professor, I committed journalism in my younger days (still do, part time) and recall the commitment to press freedom that used to be part of the DNA of reporters and editors in past decades.
Keep up the good work! Glad to see college students once again challenging entrenched power, rather than fall in line like good little Marxists. Bravo
The invitees were preaching to a choir of their fans. You were skunks at their picnic (with apologies for the mixed metaphors). But a number of metrics indicate that trust in media is at an all time low. Mainstream media continues to spend down the credibility equity in legacy news brands. In part, this is because the business doesn’t require an expensive printing plant or television studio anymore. Maybe that equity is already fully depreciated. Meanwhile, new competitors spring up constantly. Audiences are smaller and competition for eyes is fierce. So the big names in media have adopted the strategy of telling their audiences what they want to hear. How can that not be partisan?
Of the three responses, Anne Applebaum’s is the most pathetic. She didn’t find the laptop story interesting? Did she stop, even for one moment, to consider her biases that led her to consider it uninteresting? And then to block the Chicago Thinker – how childish. She is a woman who seems determined to live fully within her information bubble, and then proclaim that everything outside her bubble is disinformation. She should learn that the curvature of translucent bubbles distorts light (physics!) so that when looking out from within the bubble, things are not seen as they truly are.
How can anyone take what she writes seriously ever again?
Thank you for what you are doing. I thought that we had lost your entire generation to the woke side. I’m feeling better about that today than I have in some time. As the other person commented, I’m 73 and probably not your most likely demographic but, because of my age I have a longer view and was seeing some disturbing trends. However, your reporting is restoring my faith a bit. I will follow your progress closely. Thanks again.
I saw a clip of Christopher Phillips’ take down of Anne Applebaum. It was precious. Anne didn’t know weather to defecate or wind her watch.
Jonah Goldberg was reduced to using playground insults such as “stupid”.
The costal elites didn’t expect to be bested by undergraduates from the middle of the country.
Thank you for holding these folks accountable for their actions/inactions. The “news cycle” spins so quickly that most journalistic (I’ll be kind) mis-steps are simply glossed over and we move on to the Left’s next narrative-supporting shiny object … please continue your vital efforts and give ‘em hell!
“To the elites, “disinformation” is simply information that the establishment in media and government find inconvenient (or embarrassing)”
Isn’t it interesting that ‘fake news’ had traction as a criticism of left leaning media, so to counter it they started using ‘disinformation’ as their criticism of right leaning criticisms of the left. An Orwellian battle.
I was thinking about Psaki’s answer to Fox News’ Peter Doocy when he asked her if Pelosi’s kiss on Joe Biden could have given him the COVID she currently has. Psaki quoted CDC as saying that close contact was defined as being within 6 feet of a person for fifteen minutes. Based on that definition none of us should have had to wear masks or social distance in any indoor location such as the grocery store or most other commercial business. For example, never in my life have I been to a grocery store and stayed within six feet of anyone for fifteen minutes including when standing in the checkout line.
You exposed the dominant media for what they truly are: Propaganda organs for the swamp. Asking thoughtful questions in the court of public opinion is an important journalistic function. It is the antithesis of disinformation. Your work is a bright ray of sunshine in a profession that has almost completely been lost in the intellectual darkness. Please keep asking uncomfortable questions to those who are rarely challenged… so the people can see the truth.
Bravo, Chicago Thinker! Thank you.
I think clowns like Appelbaum and Stelter had uncool leftist parents who were picked on by students like me during high school, and that bitterness was passed on.
It is particularly gratifying to see young white college educated women, whom due to the Woke trend I had written off as politically/emotionally/intellectually hopeless, fighting for facts. Keep it up, you’ve changed my mind.
Classy presentation, well thought out questions posed in pointed yet still respectful tone, and the fact that this all came from the generation it did supplies the impact that you have had. There is no courage in the absence of fear, and your generation has every reason to fear cancellation. Good on you for forging ahead with such determination and in the face of the mob.
Kudos to these students, who have far more integrity, curiosity and ethics at a young age than any of these “journalists” can ever claim to have
Your courage and intellectual integrity in confronting this destructive ideological groupthink and the lies it spreads are inspirational — and essential if our nation is ever to return to honest discussion about our political issues.
As someone of a conservative bent who spent 20 years writing and editing for newspapers starting with my college weekly, then working at three metro dailies before leaving the field in the late ‘80s, I saw this insidious cancer spread long before the Trump era. Your organization needs to be cloned on every college campus.
Are you organized as a 501c3? I’d like to send a contribution.
I’ve always heard that the University of Chicago was a great school. You folks proved it. Nice going.
Your attitudes give me great hope for a new generation that can cut through the left leaning group think!
Thank you so much for giving me hope for the future! So many have been brain washed into thinking that if it is on CNN, then it must be true….when nothing is further from the truth.
I love that college students are questioning these media oligarchs, who before now had a league of worshipers that never questioned them!
May you continue this important fight for truth and light, and declare loudly, “The Emperor has no clothes!”
Kudos to all of you! It’s refreshing to see people of your generation standing up and taking notice of what’s been going on.
You are not alone! Thanks for your courage and principles. Tyranny persists in darkness. (and for some reason when I try to post I get a message in German, and possibly other languages, that seems to say my reply must be at least 100 characters. Not sure)
TCT = awesome! So much of my old home town of Chicago is lost in the swamps of corruption and communism; it is absolutely fantastic to see a new generation of sharp journalists. Chicago has an old – very old – tradition of hard-hitting journalism, going way back to Ben Hecht in the 1920s, continuing through Mike Royko in the 1960s. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley sparred with the media in daily press conferences. But in recent decades, the “establishment media” seems pretty toothless and supine. So it’s really exciting to see these ballsy new guys and gals.
Hi Richard,
I’m 73 and live in Hollyweird Ca, and I couldn’t agree with you more.
My G-son is starting SLO-Cal, and I worry about his political views, which leans socialist. I hope he will eventually come around?
College indoctrination is a very important matter, and it also is in lower education, so these fine young people at the Chicago Thinker gives me some hope.
I am most proud of all your group did at the conference last week. Some extraordinarily important work and most enjoyed how unaware the purveyors of disinformation were of their own vulnerability.
Brilliant reporting and encouraging words from your staff.
(Found the links to your stories at Powerline blog).
I hope you get as much attention from your own generation as you are now getting from mine.
One of the most disheartening things to occur in the last century is the retreat of the (supposed) free-speech liberals (of my college years) from their (alleged) principles into the authoritarianism they (theoretically) deplored in the sixties and seventies.
They were running a scam all along.
Keep up the fight – we need you!
Great reporting. I hope your paper does well. I donated to your paper to help out. Good luck in the sea of leftist craziness in your industry. We are the silent majority, that’s why Fox news out preforms all the other networks combined. There is a big audience out there.
BRAVO!!!!!!! Well done, young men and women. The truth has no allegiance to ideology or partisanship, it is enough for it to simply to be what it is.
My family is supportive of what you are doing to bring honesty, truth, and freedom of speech back into the center of discourse. Fight these self rightous Tyranists and other high paid people in the Idiocracy. You are the Future so take it back. FIGHT THEM, that will be your high purpose. God bless you.
Bravo Chicago Thinker! Bubblehead opinionoids beware: You can lie to us and presume our stupidity at your own peril.
Keep thinking, CT, we need more of you.
Very sophisticated work, staff of The Chicago Thinker. Your poise and preparation outshone the conference attendees by far. Well done, well done. Keep up the good work. Looking for the donate button now. Thank you for a ray of sunshine in the gray mists of lies.
It is said that “the university of chicago, where fun comes to die”. Sure looks like you folks are have a great time and providing us, some great entertainment. Full speed ahead!
What’s the life cycle of a CNN noire-attive?
(That’s like a narrative only darker and sleazier)
I’m guessing it starts with a Stelter-esque question: who’s Evita Duffy?
Then; what colour is Evita Duffy?
is Evita Duffy a racist?
is Evita Duffy showing all the hallmakrs of Russian Collusion?
Who is Eivta Dffy’s lawyer?
can we back up any of these allegations?
Finally how much have we go pay Evita Duffy?
Can we stop saying things about Evta Duffy?
You guys do excellent work! Thank you, and keep it up! The facade is starting to crack. The dam is starting to break. Common sense and truth will prevail!
How interested would the “journalists “ be if the names Trump and biden were reversed in this example?
Although I saw clips of each of these takedowns from different sources, I did not realize until now that it was all the same event, and the student journalists were all from The Thinker. Congratulations for rescuscitating actual journalism!
Outstanding work, thank you. I was a student in the 70’s, today’s censorship wouldn’t fly then. Freedom of speech and ideas is of the upmost importance in our republic, not to mention guaranteed by the 1st amendment. It’s great to see there are still young people willing to argue respectfully with the left. Keep up the great work.
Good for you “kids” to unmask the elite leftist hypocrites at long last! And being a “labbie” from years gone by, I thought all the students at the UofC were following the leads of their socialist professors, like sheep. SO glad I was mistaken! You all have figured out how to call those “journalists” out and expose their biases once and for all. Kudos to you all, and keep up the good fight. It’s not over, and I fear it won’t be over til we can expose these lefties for what they are, people who wish to take away all our freedoms, and punish us for free thinking! Next elections can’t come soon enough! Thankyou!
Keep up the great work! Great to know the young generation dont buy the BS our media claims to be facts but merely only for their own narratives!
Great stuff! Getting even worse up here in Canada! The Trudeau government is now “licensing” journalists – and of course, they denied Rebel News, who now will no longer be permitted into their news conferences. Meanwhile, the CBC gets over a billion of taxpayers’ money each year to peddle their leftist twaddle over the airwaves. Their coverage of the Truckers Convoy was appalling and a deliberately crafted smear campaign. We desperately need the likes of your group up here!!!
Fabulous questions – you were respectful even though none of these people deserve respect for the way they perform their jobs. This was the highlight of my year … I don’t know if anything will surpass it! Keep up the great work!
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