The DisInformation Chronicle Welcomes You to 2025
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6 minute read
Hello readers,
Welcome to a new year with even more stories of corruption and general nonsense waiting to be uncovered. We’ve now increased to over 31,000 subscribers, with readers and fans found across the planet. We’re also entering into a completely new era with incoming Trump officials pledging to end the censorship industry, and to dig up and air much of the corruption that accumulated during the pandemic.
The first year of the Trump administration will be most interesting to watch.
In the last 12 months, we’ve reported on a broad range of stories, some which still shocked me as I looked back over the coverage:
Exposing a British political front trying to manipulate American elections
Scientific American fired their awful editor (with a little help from me)
Whistleblower details disinformation firm that spread disinformation
Interview with incoming NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya
CDC caught hiding own study that finds masks don’t stop viruses
FDA helps Big Pharma market vaccines off-label
Science writers helping Fauci break the law
Misinformation academic ridiculed for spreading misinformation
Elites freak when Zuckerberg apologizes for censorship
Media lies about Substack to save their own skin
Stories in The DisInformation Chronice have been co-published by DeSmog, the Journal of Scientific Practice and Integrity (JoSPI), Matt Taibbi’s Racket, and the Brownstone Institute. News first reported here has also been picked up by an incredibly number of media outlets including The Times, ZeroHedge, the BBC, The Spectator, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Telegraph, The New York Times, The Independent, New York Post, NPR, and The Daily Mail.
Readers include members of Congress and the British Parliament, reporters around the world, and many average people who are just trying to stay informed and figure out what is happening in a media environment filled with lies and false narratives.
However, we’re still trying to grow this community through paid readers, so please take out a paid subscription if you can afford it. And please, please, please continue reading and sharing these stories with friends.
Thank you for a great year!
Paul
SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF 2024 BELOW
Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
Collaborating with Matt Taibbi, we exposed a dark money nonprofit called the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) created in England but that now operates in the United States to attack opponents of the Democratic Party. Internal documents handed to me by a CCDH insider proved explosive, ricocheting across both American and British news sites, and even ending up on the BBC’s morning program.
Scientific American Ignored Years of Editor Laura Helmuth’s Appalling Conduct, Then Scalped Her After I Circulated Her Own Tweets
I’ve written several pieces about the editor Laura Helmuth’s destruction of Scientific American, turning America’s oldest magazine into her personal blog of political wokery. None of what I wrote seemed to stick. But the day after the election, I started puttering around on Bluesky, the social media app for liberals, and screenshot some unhinged posts by Helmuth calling the American electorate Nazis for voting for Trump. I spread Helmuth’s posts on X and the criticism took off, eventually forcing Helmuth to resign. Thank God.
READ STORY HERE: Support for Helmuth’s hatred and bigotry further exposes science writers’ political bias, meager reporting skills, and distaste for the American public.
WHISTLEBLOWER: Insider Details How "New Knowledge" Cybersecurity Firm Created Disinformation in American Election
Spurred by lies and media distortions, a whistleblower released internal documents from New Knowledge, a firm that once employed “disinformation academic” Renee DiResta. Documents showed that New Knowledge engaged in disinformation, instead of preventing it, and had worked with several left of center organizations including Brookings. The story rocketed across social media, exposing multiple lies in the disinformation industry.
Interview on Mask Science With Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya
Stanford’s Jay Bhattacharya interviewed me for his podcast “The Illusion of Consensus” about several investigations I’ve published on masks, uncovering lies by the federal government and journalists who claim masks stop viruses. Bhattacharya will soon be running the National Institutes of Health, so this interview will give you some insight into his thinking.
READ STORY HERE: Everything you need to know about mask madness (or at least most of it) in one hour.
INVESTIGATION: CDC Upset Their Own Expert Advisers Not Recommending Masks, Demands They Recommend Masks
Digging through some CDC meetings, I uncovered several CDC scientists explaining that masks don’t do much to stop viruses. I even uncovered a draft systematic review agency scientists wrote proving that masks don’t do much. However, CDC officials have hidden this mask review on their own website instead of publishing and announcing the results. It’s further evidence that federal agencies have a political agenda to promote mask use, despite scientific findings by their own researchers to the showing they don’t do much.
FDA Commissioner Promotes Products Off-Label, an Illegal Pharma Marketing Scheme Long Criticized by Democrats
The FDA is charged with protecting the public from corporations promoting their products for unapproved uses—what is called “off-label promotion.” So I was shocked and alarmed when I caught both the head of the FDA and the CDC promoting COVID vaccines off label. Neither the FDA nor the CDC would explain why this is happening.
READ STORY HERE: With both the FDA Commissioner and CDC Director now promoting COVID vaccines off label, have companies been greenlighted to violate the law?
Why Is KFF Health News Helping Hide Fauci’s Emails From the Public?
Despite evidence to the contrary, Tony Fauci has testified under oath that he did not violate the law and use private email to avoid federal transparency laws. However, two reporters who cover Fauci know that he lied, one of which I caught—a reporter at KFF Health News who Fauci contacted using his private email. It’s another example of science writers serving as PR agents for Fauci instead of reporting on his misdeeds.
Misinformation Researcher Sander van der Linden Caught Lying and Spreading Misinformation
Oxford researchers Sander van der Linden is one of the most celebrated “disinformation academics” yet editors at Wikipedia have caught him using fake accounts to spread misinformation. Van der Linden also publishes research that fails to hold up to even the slightest critique, a sign that this entire disinformation field is inhabited by quacks.
READ STORY HERE: Aimed at fools, misinformation research suppresses dissent and launders partisan opinions into a fake consensus on controversies.
Mark Zuckerberg Apologizes for Biden Administration Censorship, Sending Liberal Elites Into Denial
After Mark Zuckerberg published an apology for caving to Biden administration pressure to censor certain pandemic topics, several reporters and pundits flew into a rage and began to deny his apology. In reality, Zuckerberg was only confirming by letter what had already become public in a congressional investigation, with emails showing he and other Meta officials were alarmed by Biden White House pressure to censor.
READ STORY HERE: Misinformation “experts” show once again they’re just partisan hacks.
The Great Substack Nazi Scare Is Legacy Media’s Latest Moral Panic
Several left-aligned media types freaked out during the summer over allegations that Substack was rife with Nazis—a claim that turned out to be completely fabricated. One of those reporters was Taylor Lorenz, a disreputable Washington Post journalist who I caught working with Twitter to censor her critics. A few months after I wrote this piece, the Washington Post finally had enough of Lorenz and pushed her out the door. Lorenz now writes for Substack, the platform she once falsely criticized for an infestation of Nazi writers.
READ STORY HERE: You're about as likely to get struck by lighting as run into a Nazi on Substack, but hey ... Let's all freak out!!
What a mind-blowing year 2024 was. Thank you for covering it and taking us along for the “glad to be informed” ride. And I still sit back in amazement at the seamless Helmuth takedown. It was so utterly satisfying.
Thank you, Thacker!
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.