What if the misinformation is coming from FEMA? (10-15-2024--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] So mainstream media, legacy corporate outlets have been very, very, very attuned, if you will, very sensitive to mis- and disinformation, right? They want to call it out everywhere. People aren't telling you the truth. We're telling you the truth. So first thing to do, take a step back. What are the incentives, right? So media has an incentive to protect its function as a person.

[00:00:58] As gatekeeper of information, okay? Now that's not to say that everything that every media outlet and every reporter tells you is false. I'm not saying that. But they do have an interest in steering you towards themselves. Because the more you rely on them for your news, the more money they will make. That's the business model. The more people that listen to this show,

[00:01:28] the more money they will make. The more you rely on them for your news, the more you rely on them for your news, the more you rely on them for your news, the more you rely on them for your news. And again, that's not to say that every single report by every reporter is to be dismissed. But you should always keep it in mind.

[00:01:54] So with a lot of the hyper-focus on myths and disinformation, there is a built-in self-interest that reporters and editors, and actually we talked a little bit about this last night on the live stream with Vince Coakley and Nick Craig and myself as part of WBT's Talktoberfest over on the Facebook, presented by Craft Body Scan.

[00:02:18] And we talked a lot of the people making these decisions on where to devote the scarce newsroom resources are themselves children.

[00:02:32] Like 22 years old. They're right out of college. They have no experience, no life experience.

[00:02:40] And they are determining what stories you see in your newscast.

[00:02:48] And that is across the board in all of these, particularly it's most prevalent in television news.

[00:03:01] So that's also part of this issue.

[00:03:05] And so when they're telling you what's really happening, of course, filtered through their newsroom prism of their own biases, what is news?

[00:03:14] I mean, that question, first and foremost, whenever you're going to devote resources to go cover a story, you're going to have to first determine, is it worth sending somebody to go cover the story?

[00:03:24] And in order to make that decision, you've got to determine first, is it newsworthy?

[00:03:29] Right. That's right out of the gate.

[00:03:30] You've got to say, is this news?

[00:03:33] Dog bites man.

[00:03:34] Nobody cares.

[00:03:35] Man bites dog.

[00:03:37] News.

[00:03:38] Why?

[00:03:39] Well, it's unusual.

[00:03:40] Right.

[00:03:41] So you have that you have you have criteria that you're looking for and you're filtering through.

[00:03:47] Because if you've got the, you know, the man biting dog.

[00:03:51] Sorry.

[00:03:52] Sorry.

[00:03:52] Could be a woman.

[00:03:53] Could be a person bites dog.

[00:03:56] OK, so you got that story.

[00:03:58] But then maybe you have some other story.

[00:04:01] But it's not as visual.

[00:04:03] Right.

[00:04:04] You can't get video of the dog.

[00:04:06] And everybody loves videos of dogs.

[00:04:09] Look at tick tock for crying out loud.

[00:04:11] So.

[00:04:13] You have to now weigh whether or not you're going to send your one reporter who is on staff during this six hour window to create a story for your newscast.

[00:04:23] Do you send them to go cover the man bite?

[00:04:26] Sorry.

[00:04:26] Person bites dog story.

[00:04:28] Or do you go send them to a government meeting where they may be discussing, you know, raising taxes on a million people.

[00:04:36] But that doesn't have good video.

[00:04:39] That's a tough call.

[00:04:42] And how a newsroom decides to devote its resources is bias.

[00:04:47] That's a bias.

[00:04:48] Right.

[00:04:49] If you're going to rule in favor of the dog video because it's cuter and it's going to get you more clicks and more views and people want to see it.

[00:04:58] We're going to give the audience what they want.

[00:05:00] It's not boring government.

[00:05:02] You know.

[00:05:04] That's a bias.

[00:05:06] So all of that.

[00:05:08] I try to keep all of that stuff.

[00:05:09] These kind of background thoughts.

[00:05:11] These but they're foundational.

[00:05:15] You try to keep this stuff in mind when you see the reporting on miss and disinformation.

[00:05:20] So yesterday.

[00:05:23] We got word that over the weekend.

[00:05:26] There was some double plus ungood, very bad miss and disinformation regarding two truckloads of armed militia that were going around trying to murder FEMA people.

[00:05:40] No.

[00:05:50] That wasn't true.

[00:05:52] It turned out not to be true.

[00:05:56] Did Donald Trump spread that lie?

[00:05:58] No.

[00:05:59] Did Mark Robinson spread that lie?

[00:06:00] No.

[00:06:01] Did some right wingers on Facebook or Twitter?

[00:06:05] Did Elon?

[00:06:07] Maybe Elon spread the lie?

[00:06:09] No.

[00:06:09] No, no, no, no.

[00:06:10] Wasn't wasn't anybody of a political bent from the right that that promulgated that lie?

[00:06:18] It was somebody.

[00:06:20] Affiliated with an agency inside the government or working with the government.

[00:06:28] It was misinformation and it was misinformation that prompted FEMA.

[00:06:35] FEMA to pull its personnel out of Western North Carolina, a couple counties.

[00:06:41] What Ash County and Rutherford County, I believe.

[00:06:46] And so I have right here two different stories.

[00:06:49] And this is representative of all of the coverage of this story.

[00:06:54] Which was that FEMA agents are standing down across parts of Western North Carolina, canceling some meetings because of threats to staff members, according to some local agencies in the region.

[00:07:05] This is Queen City News.

[00:07:07] Ash County Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency canceled events in the area due to threats received in other parts of the region.

[00:07:16] The Washington Post, and that is the original source for this misinformation.

[00:07:22] I read parts of the Washington Post story yesterday.

[00:07:25] The Washington Post reported concerns over, quote, an armed militia threatening government workers in the region, which led to FEMA staff stopping work and moving with one of the noted concerns centered in Rutherford County.

[00:07:42] Officials said a steady stream of misinformation has been part of the problem in getting to those affected by Helene.

[00:07:48] FEMA has set up a page on its website to address reported rumors and speculation.

[00:07:54] The Washington Post reported that it was, quote, unclear whether the quoted threat was seen as credible.

[00:08:00] But out of an abundance of caution, those FEMA workers will not be traveling to reach out to residents while the agency investigates the threats.

[00:08:10] So you notice what this article does here.

[00:08:13] It conflates misinformation that's being spread online by, you know, random people on Twitter or Facebook making up stuff, spreading rumors and the like.

[00:08:26] It conflates that.

[00:08:28] With this Washington Post misinformation and the Washington Post misinformation came from inside FEMA.

[00:08:38] That was then given to the Washington Post reported out.

[00:08:41] And then that became the story.

[00:08:44] But this was not some randoms.

[00:08:47] This was not some regular people, some victims of Helene that were pushing this stuff out.

[00:08:52] This wasn't some influencer on TikTok.

[00:08:55] God knows they've done enough damage with their, you know, lies that they've been spreading to.

[00:09:01] Sunday, Ash County Emergency Management noted that FEMA staff canceled events and meetings in two different areas due to the threats in the region.

[00:09:11] Although the Ash County Sheriff's Office noted that the threats were in other parts of the state, not Ash County.

[00:09:18] So why did they cancel in Ash County?

[00:09:22] Don't know the answer to that.

[00:09:25] WBTV.

[00:09:27] They've got a story as well.

[00:09:29] And the stories are all about warning against disinformation, misinformation.

[00:09:35] But again, not when it comes from inside the government.

[00:09:41] Why?

[00:09:43] Why wouldn't this also be of the same kind?

[00:09:47] It is right.

[00:09:49] If you are if you're attacking mis and disinformation, this fits the bill.

[00:09:54] Because there were not two truckloads of armed militia driving around the mountains.

[00:10:00] There was one guy with two guns, went to one place, made some threats and they arrested him.

[00:10:08] But that got that that got spun up in the rumor mill.

[00:10:11] And then he blasted out to all of these people inside the FEMA distribution system.

[00:10:18] Reading their emails and stuff.

[00:10:19] And people were like, get everybody out.

[00:10:22] Because of this one rumor spread by government agents.

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[00:11:29] The Rutherford County Sheriff's Office has arrested a man and charged him with going armed to the terror of the public.

[00:11:36] After security threats prompted a pause in some FEMA operations around Western North Carolina.

[00:11:42] Now, I'm going to skip ahead to the very end of the WBTV article where it says,

[00:11:47] In a press release, the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office said reports of militia units were unfounded and that Parsons, the guy arrested William Jacob Parsons, 44, from Bostick, North Carolina.

[00:12:00] He's accused of acting alone.

[00:12:02] There's one guy who made threats and he was arrested.

[00:12:07] There was no caravan of gun-toting militia members, let alone, you know, two truckloads of them.

[00:12:14] Well, I guess that would be a caravan.

[00:12:16] How many vehicles do you need for it to be technically classified as a caravan?

[00:12:20] I don't know.

[00:12:21] But I did find this piece of information very helpful in the WBTV story.

[00:12:30] There is an inspection service.

[00:12:32] They go around, it's like, you know, like a home inspectors, you know, when you're going to buy a house and you pay for an inspector to come and take a look at it and they give you a report so you can go into the sale trying to, you know, negotiate for things to get fixed and whatnot.

[00:12:48] You know what the name of the inspection agency is?

[00:12:51] It's a contractor that works for FEMA in these disaster zones and these are home inspectors, basically.

[00:12:57] Do you know what the name of the inspection agency is?

[00:13:02] Vanguard.

[00:13:07] Well, no, actually, hang on.

[00:13:08] No, no, no.

[00:13:09] It's just, it's called Vanguard Inspection Services.

[00:13:13] But this was one of the other pieces of misinformation that was spread in the last two weeks.

[00:13:19] That the investment company, you know, the mutual fund like BlackRock.

[00:13:25] Vanguard.

[00:13:26] They're like, why is Vanguard going around buying up all the properties?

[00:13:31] That's not, it's not even the same company.

[00:13:34] It's an inspection.

[00:13:35] They go around doing inspections on the houses so you can get money.

[00:13:42] How is it we have all the information that man has ever known in the palm of our hands and we are still so stupid?

[00:13:49] I'm sorry.

[00:13:50] All right.

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[00:15:03] Let me go over and talk with Lisa.

[00:15:06] Hello, Lisa.

[00:15:07] Welcome to the program.

[00:15:09] Hello, Pete.

[00:15:10] Nice to meet you.

[00:15:11] Nice to speak with you as well.

[00:15:14] So, I have an idea regarding the FEMA and based on all the uncooperative actions that I've ever heard of people on videos.

[00:15:26] And they said, oh, you know, FEMA's here, but they refused to go into this area.

[00:15:30] Or they only gave my daughter out of the $750.

[00:15:33] She only got $350.

[00:15:35] Just people saying, I can't go in there.

[00:15:37] Or they said, somebody came in, FEMA came in and said, what do you need?

[00:15:42] We're like, we need water and baby formula.

[00:15:44] And they said, okay, and never came back.

[00:15:46] So, based on all of those stories that I've heard, I suspect that FEMA themselves is the one that put out that story so that they don't have to cooperate.

[00:15:56] And like you said, they weren't even in the area where they pulled the threats weren't even in the area of Ash.

[00:16:01] Maybe they don't want to be in that area.

[00:16:03] So, they just made something up.

[00:16:05] Oh, we're afraid for a lady.

[00:16:07] Like the cops in L.A.

[00:16:08] I'm from L.A.

[00:16:10] If you're afraid to go in there, you shouldn't be in this job.

[00:16:13] Okay, so how is this yarn that you're spinning any different than the yarn spun by FEMA?

[00:16:23] That's what I'm saying.

[00:16:24] Maybe FEMA spun their own yarn.

[00:16:26] Right, but you're spinning one too.

[00:16:30] Because you don't know that.

[00:16:32] No, I don't know that.

[00:16:33] Right, right.

[00:16:33] That's what I mean.

[00:16:34] Like, so this is all, it's all speculation, but it is promoted, at least with the allegation that there were militia units rolling through.

[00:16:47] Rumor that just got promoted and spread.

[00:16:52] Right, that's what I'm saying.

[00:16:53] Maybe FEMA promoted that, like, took an inch and ran a mile with it.

[00:16:57] Right, but you're, okay.

[00:16:58] But you're, do you not see that you're doing the same thing?

[00:17:05] Possibly.

[00:17:06] I'm hearing an idea.

[00:17:06] Right, right.

[00:17:07] Well, but yeah, but you don't know that.

[00:17:09] I think it's true.

[00:17:10] Right, that's what I mean.

[00:17:11] Like, you don't, okay, so this, all right, so this is, this is what I'm talking about, is we don't know the information.

[00:17:16] And so you're filling in the gaps by ascribing a motive, right?

[00:17:21] You're, because at the heart of that is a motive that they don't want to be there.

[00:17:25] So you're ascribing that motive to them, and so that's why they're making stuff up, right?

[00:17:30] So there's a motive behind the out.

[00:17:31] Based on the fact that from everything I've heard so far, they haven't been very helpful at all.

[00:17:36] Well, I've heard, I have heard reports that they are not helpful as well, but I've also heard reports that they have been helpful.

[00:17:43] So what am I to make of that?

[00:17:47] I don't know.

[00:17:48] Yeah.

[00:17:48] I mean, this is, I mean, right, I know this is, I mean, this is part of the problem with any kind of disaster is that you've got different accounts because people have different interactions.

[00:17:59] I'm aware of, you know, some people that haven't gotten any money from FEMA, like they've tried to get the $750.

[00:18:04] We had the morning guy from Asheville on, I think last week, Mark Starling, and he had told us that people were getting hung up on the app,

[00:18:15] and that they couldn't get their apps or their applications for the $750.

[00:18:20] They couldn't get those approved over the app, and so they were recommending go down and talk to somebody in person because those people are getting approved for the funding, right?

[00:18:32] So, and I don't know why that is.

[00:18:33] Or they didn't have, or they didn't have internet.

[00:18:36] Correct.

[00:18:36] That was what I heard first is that they couldn't apply because everything was gone.

[00:18:40] They didn't have computers and they didn't have internet or phone service to apply in any possible way.

[00:18:48] They couldn't apply.

[00:18:49] Right.

[00:18:50] And so this was part of the problem with the destruction of the communications networks over such a large area.

[00:18:59] I don't think that anybody ever contemplated that that would occur, you know?

[00:19:04] It is an unprecedented disaster.

[00:19:07] And so I think we have to be careful about ascribing motive to things when we don't know for sure because it has a great potential to then become, quote-unquote, true.

[00:19:23] Much like this FEMA story, you know, about somebody inside one of the agencies or their subcontractors or somebody who sent this email saying,

[00:19:32] oh, yeah, I just talked to somebody and they said there were trucks of militia units that were out hunting FEMA personnel.

[00:19:38] And that wasn't true.

[00:19:39] But they told everybody that and it prompted FEMA to actually pull out of two different counties.

[00:19:46] And, like, that's the power of information, wrong or right.

[00:19:52] So, yeah, like, I appreciate the call, Lisa.

[00:19:56] And, like, I don't know.

[00:19:57] Maybe it does turn out that that is what happened, that somebody didn't want to be in that particular county.

[00:20:02] And so they did something like that.

[00:20:04] I don't know.

[00:20:05] Here's another explanation or another – not explanation, but another possible factor is that maybe some of the people –

[00:20:12] and I think Lisa kind of touched on some of this – is that maybe a factor is that some of the people who are coming into Western North Carolina

[00:20:21] have never had direct one-on-one contact with the type of person who generally lives in Western North Carolina.

[00:20:31] And I say that with all the love in my heart because – and I'm not talking about Asheville.

[00:20:35] I'm not talking about trustafarians, okay?

[00:20:37] I'm not talking about the drum-beaten people in the drum circle.

[00:20:41] I'm not talking about them, okay?

[00:20:43] I'm talking about the people living in the hills, okay?

[00:20:47] They tend to walk around armed just normally, let alone after a disaster area and there are looters around.

[00:20:55] Like, if anything, they're strapping up even more so.

[00:20:58] Like, this is – like, this is the moment where they can roll heavy.

[00:21:02] You know, they can carry multiple guns all over the place.

[00:21:07] It's – so, yeah.

[00:21:09] So – and that might be the first time that some folks coming from out of town would have the first kind of exposure to that cultural norm, you know?

[00:21:20] And see, they get a little bit anxious, you know?

[00:21:24] That's possible.

[00:21:25] I don't know.

[00:21:26] I don't know.

[00:21:27] It's possible.

[00:21:27] But we don't know that.

[00:21:28] But we don't know that.

[00:21:30] What we can surmise, though, is that this rumor came from inside of the government agencies.

[00:21:37] And my only point is that you've got a media apparatus that is hyper-focused on, you know, calling out myths and disinformation.

[00:21:48] Yet I've seen no call out on myths or disinformation by people inside FEMA, by people inside the response.

[00:21:58] Because that's where this came from.

[00:21:59] That's what the reporting indicates.

[00:22:01] But nobody is calling that out.

[00:22:03] In fact, now we've got, you know, Governor Cooper saying we're going to make sure we protect all the first responders.

[00:22:08] Like, they're like doubling down on this.

[00:22:10] Because the myths and disinformation narrative is an important part of the Democrats' electoral strategy.

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[00:22:58] Sign up at ALZ.org slash walk and then just look for my team, Pete's Pack.

[00:23:03] And there's also a link in the podcast description here.

[00:23:06] Also, I'm going to be emceeing the Gastonia Walk on October 5th.

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[00:23:29] Will you come walk with me for a different future, for families, for more time, for treatments?

[00:23:34] This is why I walk.

[00:23:36] So this story about two truckloads of militia units who were driving around in western North Carolina

[00:23:46] trying to hurt FEMA officials turns out to be disinformation.

[00:23:51] Not true.

[00:23:53] But the story was reported in the Washington Post.

[00:23:57] And it prompted the evacuation of FEMA personnel from two counties.

[00:24:06] And the rumor apparently originally started in an email from a FEMA contractor or it may have come from the Forest Service.

[00:24:20] I'm not sure.

[00:24:21] They didn't.

[00:24:22] I mean, they didn't clearly identify where it came from, but just that somebody working like some official working with FEMA

[00:24:29] sent this information out citing some anonymous source.

[00:24:33] Oh, I talked to some, I think they said National Guard or active duty military or something.

[00:24:38] And that prompted the reaction that we've now seen reported for the last, you know, two days.

[00:24:46] And it turns out that that disinformation came from inside FEMA.

[00:24:51] And my only point in all of this is to question why we are not getting the kind of admonition and, you know, finger pointing here about let's not spread disinformation.

[00:25:05] Why are we seeing that directed towards the agencies from whence it came, you know?

[00:25:13] Craig, I have about 30 seconds.

[00:25:15] So if you can make your point very quickly, Craig.

[00:25:18] Just the point you just said, I think FEMA invented that.

[00:25:21] I think they lied about it because they're intentionally slow walking this.

[00:25:24] They don't want that part of the state voting because the Piedmont and the coastal plain are pretty much blue.

[00:25:30] You'd knock out that part of the state, the western part of the state, and North Carolina turns blue in this electoral election.

[00:25:36] And I don't think the FEMA ground workers have any clue how evil the higher up people are that are working this thing are.

[00:25:42] That are just intentionally trying to slow walk it.

[00:25:45] They don't want to slow walk it too much because it'll become obvious.

[00:25:47] But they want to slow walk it enough that enough people can't vote either through just despair or whatever so that this state turns blue.

[00:25:54] So, again, you've presented me no evidence to support that claim.

[00:25:59] It's an extraordinary claim.

[00:26:01] It requires extraordinary evidence.

[00:26:03] So ascribing motive when none is evident and no evidence is presented makes it hard for me to believe that.

[00:26:10] I'm not saying it's not true.

[00:26:11] I just require the evidence.

[00:26:13] All right.

[00:26:13] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:26:15] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:26:30] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.