“Misinformation” and “disinformation” are words that probably once meant something, but the way politicians and the news media wield them these days, the words are now meaningless.
It’s important to understand the recent background of this word. “Misinformation” is now a trigger word. It’s supposed to suppress anyone’s instincts to protect free speech. Tech companies that believe in free expression and debate, and who don’t want to be seen as speech police, will make an exception for “misinformation.” Media outlets that want to rein in these competitors will accuse them of promulgating “misinformation.” And politicians who want to abridge the freedom of expression will do so by branding some expression as “harmful” and some expression as “misinformation.”
“Misinformation” is a buzzword that means “speech we really shouldn’t allow.”
But of course, because politicians and the press are very censoriousness and far from neutral, a lot of what gets labeled “misinformation” is perfectly true.
Remember last year, when Big Tech and Big Media both derided as “misinformation” the idea that the coronavirus might have leaked out of a Chinese lab? Remember, right before the election, the media peddling the false notion that Hunter Biden’s laptop hadn’t actually been found, but it was all a “Russian information operation“?
In that light, we should be totally unsurprised at Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, who broke her own mask mandate. She attacked the reporting, all of which was backed up by photos and videos, as “misinformation.”
This shows you what the word means now. Misinformation, when coming from a politician or a reporter, often means “something totally true that I find politically inconvenient.”
