New poll shows more than half of Americans feel that the general public is “too sensitive” when it comes to speech.
QUICK FACTS:
The recent survey conducted by pollster Ipsos Mori on behalf of King’s College London.
The survey “asked 23,000 adults in 28 countries about their attitudes towards free speech,” according to The Economist.
Respondents rated—on a scale from zero to seven—”how they felt about using potentially hurtful words when speaking with people from different backgrounds to their own.”
Zero meant that respondents felt that “people are too easily offended.”
A seven meant they thought it was necessary to “change the way people talk.”
“More than half of respondents in America, Australia, Britain and Sweden rated themselves between zero and three (excluding those who answered ‘don’t know’),” explains The Economist, “meaning they were the most likely to feel that the general public are too sensitive when it comes to speech.”
“At the other end of the scale, Chinese, Indians and Turks were the least likely to say people were being too sensitive—fewer than one-fifth of the people from these countries responded with a scale of zero to three—instead believing it was necessary to modify their language.”
Survey respondents were also asked whether or not they agreed that “culture wars” were dividing their countries, notes The Economist.
“Americans and Indians were among the most likely to say that they were, with about three-fifths agreeing.”
“By contrast, fewer than one-tenth of Japanese and one-fifth of Russians and Germans thought that culture wars were divisive.”
Using an index of press freedom from Reporters Without Borders, we found a strong correlation between the extent of press freedom and individual attitudes towards language https://t.co/5Fy7qHH9yh
Twitter announced the two news orgs—with politically “left-leaning” tendencies—will help expand “efforts to identify and elevate credible information” on its platform.
QUICK FACTS:
Twitter has signed a deal with both Reuters and TheAssociated Press (AP) to help elevate what they deem “accurate information,” according to Townhall.
“Twitter said they will look to feature information from “reliable” resources, debunk circulating misinformation and explain the site’s trending patterns.”
This represents efforts by Twitter to “contextualize developing discourse” before such content goes viral.
WHAT TWITTER SAID:
“We are committed to making sure that when people come to Twitter to see what’s happening, they are able to easily find reliable information,” Twitter said in a blog post.
“Twitter will be able to expand the scale and increase the speed of our efforts to provide timely, authoritative context across the wide range of global topics and conversations that happen on Twitter every day.”
WHAT TOWNHALL IS SAYING:
Townhall—a popular conservative news source—has branded both Reuters and AP as “liberal media outlets” and “left-leaning.”
Townhall characterized the move by Twitter as one “that will not exactly ensure trust among individuals outside of the liberal sphere.”
BACKGROUND:
Reuters and AP are already fact-checking partners with Facebook, notes Townhall.
AllSides gives Reuters’ fact check section a “center” rating with the caveat, “though there may be some evidence of Lean Left bias, according to a July 2021 Small Group Editorial Review by AllSides editors on the left, center, and right.”
“There was some evidence of a slight Lean Left bias,” notes AllSides, “such as this article in which Reuters attempts to fact-check an opinion by adding more context. However, we did not necessarily identify a clear pattern of this because much of Reuters’ content is focused on international issues, not just U.S. politics, and our team is U.S.-based.”
Carey’s central Ohio win establishes President Trump as a “kingmaker.”
QUICK FACTS:
Mike Carey is a coal lobbyist who is backed by Donald Trump.
He will now face Democratic state Representative Allison Russo—a health policy consultant who won the Democratic nomination—in the GOP-leaning 15th Congressional District this fall, notesThe Associated Press (AP).
The political newcomer defeated a group of Republican candidates vying for the same spot in the Columbus-area race, some having the backing of the state political establishment.
“Carey’s race reinforced Trump’s status as GOP kingmaker,” comments AP.
Although Rep. Jeff LaRe (R) lost to Carey, he nevertheless called for Republicans to “all work together to keep central Ohio red for decades to come.”
Trump celebrated Carey’s win Tuesday saying in a statement, “Thank you to Ohio and all of our wonderful American patriots,” adding, “Congratulations to Mike and his family. He will never let you down!”
BACKGROUND:
“Most want Trump to have at least some influence over their party’s future direction,” notes AP.
“This election was a scam, and the Lamestream Media is doing everything in their power not to allow the people to see or read about what really took place.”
QUICK FACTS:
President Donald Trump released a statement on Sunday criticizing The New York Times and other media outlets who “always insert a clause into their stories, ‘WITHOUT EVIDENCE, that the election was decided fraudulently.'”
“As usual, this is FAKE NEWS,” said Trump.
He pointed to “massive and unconditional evidence that the election was shattered with fraud and irregularities” as a refutation of the claim that there was “no evidence of election fraud” in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Trump said Americans should “just attribute that statement to a crooked and collusive media (they work closely together with the Radical Left Democrats) that will do anything to hide the real facts of this election fiasco.”
President Trump called on state legislatures to reform their election systems “so that this will NEVER happen again.”
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
"The New York Times, and others, always insert a clause into their stories, “WITHOUT EVIDENCE, that the election was decided fraudulently.” As usual, this is FAKE NEWS. pic.twitter.com/jAlVow9dCi
The New York Times, and others, always insert a clause into their stories, “WITHOUT EVIDENCE, that the election was decided fraudulently.” As usual, this is FAKE NEWS.
There is massive and unconditional evidence that the election was shattered with fraud and irregularities at a level that our Country has never seen before. Much of it is already public, and a great deal more is coming out in the very near future. Every time you read a statement that there is “no evidence of election fraud,” about the 2020 election scam, just attribute that statement to a crooked and collusive media (they work closely together with the Radical Left Democrats) that will do anything to hide the real facts of this election fiasco.
After seeing the irrefutable evidence from numerous states, others are talking about doing deep forensic audits. This election was a scam, and the Lamestream Media is doing everything in their power not to allow the people to see or read about what really took place. We no longer have a free and open media (they don’t cover the truth), but the word is getting out stronger than ever before.
Even the Justice Department has no interest in the crooked and corrupt 2020 Presidential Election. They are only interested in hurting those who want to reveal how totally dishonest it was. The Justice Department should be looking at the people who rigged the election, not the Patriots of our Country who are seeking to find how our Nation was defrauded.
We must also look to the future and fight for State Legislatures to reform their elections so that this will NEVER happen again. In the end, truth will WIN!
BACKGROUND:
Mike Lindell is offering $5 million to anyone who can disprove his allegations of voter fraud taking place during the 2020 election.
Earlier this month, Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann announced that the audit of Maricopa County’s general election ballots had in fact found discrepancies.
Yesterday, Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers called for the arrest of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and executives of Dominion Voting Systems for their refusal to comply with Senate-issued subpoenas, according to USA Today.
I would have arrested all of these people already if I had the power to do so. I vote to arrest. Arrest and put them in solitary.
The Biden Justice Department (DOJ) warned jurisdictions across the country currently conducting or considering undertaking post-election audits or recounts like Maricopa County, notesThe Washington Times.
But the DOJ’s warning “really represent the Biden administration’s latest attempt to squelch investigations into potential voting irregularities, silence critics of the 2020 election, and cement forever the free-for-all COVID voting ‘procedures’ implemented last voting cycle,” argues Margot Cleveland for The Federalist.
Last week, the Arizona state Senate requested election materials from Maricopa County and Dominion Voting Systems. However, county officials and voting machine manufacturers refused to comply with the Senate’s latest subpoenas, arguing that they are “invalid.” Earlier, the US DoJ yet again warned the states against conducting 2020 election audits.
Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors and Dominion Voting Systems have resolutely defied the Arizona state Senate’s subpoenas requesting the election-related materials necessary to complete the audit of the 2020 election results in the state’s most populous county.
On 26 July, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and Judiciary Committee Chairman Warren Petersen issued two subpoenas particularly seeking ballot envelopes or ballot envelope images, voter records, security keys for election machines, user names, passwords, routers or router images, and splunk logs.
However, in response, Maricopa County officials claimed that they do not have the user names, passwords, or security keys requested for the machines. They also refused to hand over routers or router images, or splunk logs, insisting that doing so would constitute “a security risk.” Ballot envelopes and voter records would be produced only if there’s confirmation “that appropriate security measures are in place”, highlighted the county’s attorney Allister Adel, as quoted by the Epoch Times.
Both Adel and Eric Spencer, a lawyer representing Dominion Voting Systems, noted that the Arizona GOP’s subpoenas were “legally defective”, as they were issued while the state Senate was out of session.
“Because the Subpoena is illegal and unenforceable, Dominion hopes that litigation over the Subpoena will not be necessary,” Spencer wrote. “Should litigation result, however, Dominion intends to pursue all remedies available to it, including (but not necessarily limited to) recovery of its attorneys’ fees, expenses, and damages.”
According to The Epoch Times, the Arizona state Senate is unlikely to vote on formalising the subpoena request in the near term, because, first, the Senate is still not in session and, second, two Arizona state Republicans have recently signalled that they now oppose the audit, which means that any such vote would fail.
However, the refusal of Maricopa officials and Dominion to deliver requested materials does not basically stem from the fact that Fann’s subpoena appears “invalid”. The Maricopa Board of Supervisors similarly refused to fully comply with the state Senate’s previous subpoena request, recognised as legit by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason in February 2021.
For its part, Dominion has made it clear that it “is not a public officer or public body and, therefore, has no obligation to make its records available for public inspection”. The company refused to either produce or allow the inspection of any election-related materials owned by it in response to Senate President Fann’s 23 July public record request.
The complete disrespect to the Arizona Senate and to the Arizona Voters is disturbing. It's time people are held accountable for this continued obstruction. 🇺🇸🗽🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/RyvO49arCL
Meanwhile, Maricopa Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers minced no words in his categorical statement urging the state Senators to “be prepared to defend any accusations of misdeeds in court”: “It is now August of 2021,” he wrote to Arizona Republican senators. “The election of November 2020 is over. If you haven’t figured out that the election in Maricopa County was free, fair, and accurate yet, I’m not sure you ever will.”
While the Arizona Senate is reportedly preparing a formal response to the county and Dominion, Axios has drawn attention to the fact that the refusal to comply with the subpoenas came just days after the US Justice Department issued a “second warning” to states conducting audits of the 2020 election, called by the agency “the most secure in American history”.
