Joel Kaplan, associate dean for professional graduate studies and professor and acting director of online master’s in communications in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, points out how integrally involved news media are in the unfolding investigation of the Trump presidency and possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The decision by the special counsel’s office to expand its Russian collusion investigation into the area of “fake news” is a fascinating and unprecedented criminal inquiry over whether purposefully using social media to disseminate false information about one’s opponent could lead to criminal charges. As everyone knows, the phenomenon of fake news has grown exponentially with the rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets that allow anonymous trolls to spread false and damaging information. There is very little that can be done about this, though if the spreaders of the fake news can be identified, they may face civil liability in the form of libel or invasion of privacy lawsuits.
This new inquiry indicates that the spreaders of disinformation, particularly those who collude with foreign hackers, may actually face criminal charges. It would be the supreme irony that the president of the United States, who has falsely and repeatedly accused respected media outlets of spreading fake news, might see his own friends, relatives and allies jailed for doing just that.
If there had ever been any doubt of the vital role the press plays in our democracy, that was completely dispelled by the series of scoops in the New York Times[nytimes.com] over the past four days. The Times exploded the year-long denials that no one in the Trump campaign or Trump administration had colluded with Russian officials in an attempt to influence the presidential election.
The Times’ disclosure of the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney and the subsequent release of the email thread indicates just how vital the media is. According to CNN, even the special counsel investigating Russian collusion was only recently made aware of the meeting and had not seen the emails. The Times’ thorough reporting was so complete that it forced Donald Trump Jr. to release the email to the public in order to get ahead of the story. But the emails themselves were so devastating that the fallout has just begun.
According to the U.S. Millennial Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey, the first-ever 50-state survey on Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Generation Z (adults aged between 18 and 39), almost half (48%) could not name a single concentration camp or ghetto established…
Maxwell School Professor Bill Coplin has worked with undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs) in his courses since 1974. Their assistance has become more valuable, given the shift to online courses in the spring and hybrid instruction this fall. TAs provide real-time…
The United Nations human rights chief called on Monday for “urgent and profound action to combat systemic racism” in the U.S. during her opening speech for the Human Rights Council in Geneva. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet,…
Recognizing their significant scholarship and thought leadership, as well as their excellence in teaching, Dean Craig M. Boise has re-appointed Professor Shubha Ghosh as Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and appointed Professor Lauryn Gouldin as Crandall Melvin Associate Professor of…
The Trump administration’s new eviction ban faces a slew of legal and political challenges that could undercut an ambitious and unorthodox attempt to save tens of millions of Americans from homelessness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on…
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