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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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Richard Hanania thinks that if everything can be faked, (we'll be forced to trust the establishment)[https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/deepfakes-will-make-the-establishment] CNN has more to lose by lying with a deepfake than John Q Anon on your message board of choice.

If he got the incentives right, then CNN wouldn't have torpedoed it's credibility to where it is now.

Even if we grant that they would be able to vet the footage they get, I don't see how much would change, since most internet commentary disagrees with MSM on interpretation, not facts. But I don't see a reason to grant that, because there's no reason to believe MSN would be better at vetting the material than internet randos.

I once again am confused why anyone ever took Hanania seriously.

CNN hasn't torpedoed its credibility. Almost everyone still believes them, even those who claim on polls they don't trust them. CNNs credibility doesn't come from telling the truth. It comes from being part of a network of "credible" institutions all of which will back them up. It's inexhaustible in practice.

To the extent this is true, deep fakes will have zero impact on the credibility of CNN, so again Hanania is just wrong.

No they won't - why should anyone believe, say, Andy Ngo started uploading deep fakes all of a sudden, instead of personally captured video?

I thought Ngo tended to upload his own footage? Anyway what makes you think MSM won't uncritically cite a deepfake? In the past they've cited completely made up nonsense many times. And if they're able to vet it, why wouldn't Twitter nobodies?