News coverage from September 2023 about the Center for an Informed Public and CIP-affiliated research and researchers.
- NBC Montana (September 12): “UM class gets attention for ‘Calling BS’ name”
Calling Bullshit, a class at the University of Washington co-developed and co-taught by CIP faculty members Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West (who co-authored a 2020 book with the same name), has inspired similar classes at other universities, including at the University of Montana. “I have a friend who is a professional fact checker, and we were commiserating recently about her struggles correcting misinformation about tofu shrinking brain tumors,” University of Montana journalism professor Lee Banville told NBC Montana. “It’s not easy trying to debunk bad information. It’s a ton of work.”
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- PolitiFact (September 12): “What are ‘smart cities’ and why are conspiracy theorists linking them to wildfires?”
CIP research scientist Mike Caulfield was interviewed for an article about conspiracy theories around wildfires. “When you look at something like Maui, there’s the weather, there’s — possibly, but not definitely — climate change. There’s land management issues, response issues, infrastructure issues, communication issues,” he said. “Some people have trouble looking at a sizable event like that and seeing it as a confluence of factors. It seems unsatisfactory.”
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- The Associated Press (September 15): “To TikTok or not to TikTok? One GOP candidate joins the app even as he calls it ‘digital fentanyl’”
CIP co-founder Ryan Calo, a School of Law and iSchool professor, was interviewed by The Associated Press regarding the legality of proposals to ban TikTok, which would infringe on First Amendment rights. “It’s political theater,” Calo told the AP. “It wouldn’t accomplish what anyone wanted, other than scoring political points.”
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- USA Today (September 22): “How the Supreme Court could alter the way Americans interact on the internet”
CIP co-founder Ryan Calo, a UW School of Law and iSchool professor who serves as faculty co-director of the Tech Policy Lab, was interviewed by USA Today in a preview of the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term. “These cases, depending on how they’re decided, could really reshape speech on the internet,” Calo said.
