In a recent blog post, I used my CiteIt Citation App to analyze quotes from Rachel Maddow’s July 30, 2024 show. (See Twitter thread) My investigation uncovered a troubling problem: Maddow’s portrayal of Donald Trump’s comments not only appeared to take his words out of context but may have deliberately misconstrued their meaning

Maddow’s producer, Steve Benen, had previously blogged that Trump isn’t literally telling Americans not to cast ballots, he’s instead arguing that he’s so wildly popular, receiving support from voters will be effortless as Election Day nears.

Yet just days later, Maddow warned viewers of what she called a “frightening truth”: “that He doesn’t think he needs to win the vote to win the election. He doesn’t think he needs to win the election in order to take power. 1

This stark discrepancy between Benen’s analysis and Maddow’s portrayal raises critical questions about accuracy and accountability in journalism.

Seeking a Correction from Maddow?

While I don’t consider myself a journalist, I felt it was important to seek a correction and answers for the public’s benefit. On November 17, I emailed Maddow’s team the following three questions:

1. Does your team conduct fact checks to ensure quotes are accurately represented?
2. Do you stand by the portrayal of these quotes as evidence that Trump lacked concern for getting votes?
3. Were you aware of Steve Benen’s analysis (July 26, 2024), which frames Trump’s comments as an expression of confidence rather than literal indifference?

To date, I have not received a response. That’s why I’m now asking for your help to amplify these questions and encourage Maddow’s team to address them directly.

The Cowboy Journalist’s Code of Honor

Walter Kirn recently spoke about a bygone era of “cowboy journalism”, when reporters adhered to a code of honor.

we’ve got honor when it comes to two things one we’re not out to hurt anybody we’re not out to hurt anybody who especially the weak we protect the weak right okay maybe we are out to hurt people who are hurting others you know cuz Cowboys do that too it’s like wait a second I’m gonna get that big bad blackheaded Rano yeah yeah yeah right we’re Cowboys and the other thing we’re not gonna do is We’re not gonna lie right because why should a cowboy lie he doesn’t claim to have anything but his horse his bed roll and his basic honor

Does today’s media have an equivalent code of honor? If you asked many Americans, I suspect their answer would be laughter, anger or tears.

Why This Matters

Maddow’s episode is emblematic of the broader challenges facing modern media. When quotes are taken out of context or misrepresented, the repercussions are far-reaching:

• It erodes trust in journalism.
• It deepens political polarization.
• It distorts public understanding of critical issues.

This isn’t just about one show or one quote—it’s about the broader responsibility of media figures to present facts accurately and fairly. With great influence should come great accountability.

What should we do about it?

I want to hear your thoughts:

1. Do you think Maddow’s show misrepresented Trump’s comments for dramatic effect?
2. How common do you believe it is for quotes to be taken out of context? Can you provide other examples?
3. How much do out-of-context quotations contribute to political polarization and distrust?
4. Lastly, what steps should the public take to hold the media accountable and ensure misinformation doesn’t fuel fear, anger, and distrust?

Is the time right for a conversation about how journalism can repent, become self policing, and restore a code of honor?

About CiteIt

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Related Documents:

Demo of Matt Taibbi’s Who Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipelines? “Russia, Russia, Russia!”

Is Matt Taibbi’s article more persuasive to skeptics when it uses CiteIt’s Contextual Citations?

Rachel Maddow Show: Request for Comment Screenshot:

DEBUNKED: Rachel Maddow’s Misreading of Trump’s “We Don’t Need the Votes” (Full Context)

Twitter thread:   https://x.com/CiteIt_net/status/1859470517901852718

Submit a quote to CiteIt:

If you have an example of a quote that you would like to be featured as a contextual demo, send an email to citeit@openpolitics.com, with:

• The URL of the source,
• the Quote,
• what is interesting, humorous, thought provoking, misleading, etc about the quote once the context is taken into account.

Cherry-picked quotations

CLAIM: “Maddow points out frightening truth about Trump’s lack of concern about votes”

On July 30, 2024, Rachel Maddow alleged that the “frightening truth”  is that when Trump said “We don’t need the votes,” he was suggesting he could seize power without winning the election:

He doesn’t think he needs to win the vote to win the election. He doesn’t think he needs to win the election in order to take power

But Maddow’s misconstrual depends on cherry-picked quotations that twist the meaning of Trump’s words. After reviewing the full context, it’s clear that in two of her five quotations, Trump was actually imploring his supporters to get out and vote!  Had Maddow begun the clips 45 seconds  before, her ‘frightening” clipped soundbites would not have supported her theory. Her own producer admitted the “theory” wasn’t true  4 days prior, saying that Trump isn’t literally telling Americans not to cast ballots, he’s instead arguing that he’s so wildly popular, receiving support from voters will be effortless as Election Day nears.

Here’s the truth behind those five misleading quotes

Contents:

1) Watch: Rachel’s “frightening” theory:

Trump’s statement, “We don’t need the votes,” was not a call for a power grab but a reference to his belief that his popularity would ensure a win—unless there was significant cheating. The real focus of his remarks was not on undermining the election process but on guarding against alleged electoral fraud. Despite his lack of evidence, and the possibility he was setting up a scapegoat for his potential failure, the context here is crucial: Trump wasn’t saying “he doesn’t need to win the vote in order to win the election,” but was invoking the “bandwagon effect” — everyone can see that we’re winning.  Look at all the yard signs! — and he was suggesting that the only remaining battle was against fraud, not voter turnout.

2) The Five Quotes — now with Full Context:

Click the quotes to play the videos and view the context for the 5 quotes cited by Maddow:

[Read more…]

Summary:

Several weeks ago, Walter Kirn and Matt Taibbi talked about the 60 minutes Kamala Harris interview “editing” scandal.

Walter said he avoids doing print interviews because his responses are easily taken out of context — they can take a statement you made and make it seem that it occurred in an entirely different context

• So what if readers could click on every quote in an article, like this, and lookup the context without having to leave the webpage?

CiteIt’s Contextual Citations

I created the CiteIt App to build reader trust and understanding, by looking up a quote’s context when the writer provides a link to a webpage or video transcript.

Print Solution:

1. When someone like Walter does an interview, the publisher must agree to publish the original transcript.
2. When a published article quotes the interviewee, it must use contextual citations to make the editorial process fully transparent to the reader.

(See Video Solution below)

Real-world demo:

You can view a real-life example of an article with contextual citations by reading Matt Taibbi’s Nord Stream pipeline article, as well as more examples further down this page.

MORE:

This 60 minutes “format is dead”

Kamala Harris: The 2024 60 Minutes Interview

After the 60 minutes interview, Water Kirn declared that the 60 minutes television format is dead because we can no longer assume the good faith of audience and integrity of the network.

Print Media is troubled too:

But its not just 60-minutes-style television that is troubled. Walter says he currently avoids print media because they can take a statement you made and make it seem that it occurred in an entirely different context than when you made it and there’s no way you know there’s no way for the audience to tell

When you expand one of Walter’s above quotes, you can  see the roughly 30 seconds of video and the YouTube transcript.

Copernicus’s Heleocentric Model inspires a Source and Expertise centered Model

A Copernican Revolution: A New “Center”:

In a similar vein, journalist Ken Klippenstein is calling out the way “mainstream” media act as gatekeepers, putting themselves at the center of everything, much like humans used to believe the universe revolved around the earth.  Klippenstein advocates a Copernican revolution for the news where media revolves around the source materials and expertise instead of other media commentary.

Martin Luther, 1528

Echoes of 16th century Reformation:

I majored in History before embarking on a career as a computer programmer, so this questioning of gatekeeping and the ad fontes philosophy (“back to the sources”) recalls my college Reformation History classes. Imagine if, in addition to the 60 minutes “director’s cut”, the show also published the Raw video of the interview.

Almost exactly 500 years ago, Europe was transformed by the mass reproduction of texts.  Gutenberg’s printing press was invented in  an environment receptive to reform, and was used to end the Catholic church’s monopoly on access to important texts.  This new technology revolutionized society, politics, scholarship, and the church.

Institutions might not like to provide more transparency by re-centering the focus on the sources (and expertise), but what if this is a necessary reform required to establishing society’s “social contract” with media?

Discussion: Proposed Changes

How might the path of reform or revolution be outlined?

A) Short-Term: Print

Flemish printer’s shop, Impressio Librorum,  Antwerp, 1580-1605 (British Museum, London)

Personally, I’ve been focused on the print revolution because it is easier to achieve results there in the short-term.  You can see the contextual popups featured in this article as an early implementation of print reform.

As Walter Kirn suggested, would readers and writers be more likely to engage in media which is more complete, transparent and contextual:

1. publishing the full interview transcripts and
2. building capacity into websites for displaying the context of their quotations.

B) Longer Term: Video

I’d be interested in hearing Ken sketch out more of what he envisions a Copernican Revolution would look like.

Diagram showing a multicam setup

I’m prioritizing work with “print”, but I’d like to describe how I imagine video would look like if the full contents of each camera were available, unless it has been explicitly  and “transparently redacted.”1  This proposed video format would mean that 60 minutes would be transparent about the full version of:

1. The over the shoulder video of Kamala
2. The over the shoulder video of the interviewer
3. The side video of both together.

Bill Whitaker: Interviewer, 60 minutes

The viewer could choose to watch the “director’s cut,” or toggle between cameras at their discretion. 2

Software could also be developed to simultaneously display multiple video sources from a crowd, taken from hundreds or thousands of camera view-points, aggregated on a map locatable from the camera’s GPS coordinates and orientation.

This sort of transparency of media fits well with the American sports tradition of instant replays where spectators can review the referees call and judge for themselves.

About the CiteIt App

3

I built the CiteIt App for writers in the belief that the inadequacies of the old model necessitate new tools to build reader trust and understanding.  CiteIt makes it easy for writers to conveniently demonstrate a quote’s context:

• without requiring extra room within the article to display transcripts and video, and
• without interrupting the reader and their reading process by making them leave the page.

Feedback?

1. What do you think of Walter Kirn & Matt Taibbi’s conversation about 60 minutes video?  Is the 60 minutes interview format dead?
2. What do you think of Ken Klippenstein’s concept of a Copernican Revolution about the centrality of sources in journalism?  What would this revolution look like?
3. What feedback do you have on the concept of CiteIt contextual citations and their implementation?
4. Would you like to see the option of using CiteIt’s contextual citations built into Substack?

Examples: Contextual Citations

Readers may want to use contextual citations because:

• • they want to verify a quote, or
  • it gives them a new medium for expression, much like emojis and animated GIFs, or
  • they are curious and want more information.

1) Kamala on guns:

Readers may be curious about how the topic came up, even if there isn’t suspicion that the quote was taken out of context:

Many news reports quote Kamala as saying: I have a Glock

2) FDR: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first Inaugural Address is remembered for the line: the only thing we have to fear is fear itself

If you cite the source with CiteIt, the reader can explore the historical context, so that the quote lives on, connected to its historical context, rather than as a disconnected soundbite.

3) Oscar winner “Refutes his Jewishness”?

Isn’t it outrageous that this year at the 2024 Oscars, an Oscar winner Jonathan Glazer went on stage and said: Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness .  What a disgraceful thing to say!

No, the director of Zone of Interest did not disavow his Jewish identity at the Oscars (Vox)

CiteIt can be a convenient option for a writer who  wants to show readers this contextual video and transcript, without having to devote the time and screen real estate to provide a contextual background.

4) Donald Trump Warns of a “Bloodbath!”

A lot of the media carried a quote in which Donald Trump says: if I don’t get elected it’s going to be a blood bath. Television is seldom able to present the whole context of a quote, given space limitations and incentives for soundbites and sensationalism.

Substack writers could exploit this flaw because CiteIt enables interested readers to have the option of pursuing a quote’s context without commandeering the attention of all viewers.

5) JFK: Inaugural Address

In his inaugural address John F. Kennendy said ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.

What else did Kennedy’s famous inaugural address say?

6) When Context is stripped away ..

Rabbi David Wolpe:

I think that Judaism has the same problem that any thick civilization has in a world in which as you say context is stripped away and not only is context stripped away but but attention to any one thing is is scanter and less than it used to be

7) Did Biden call Trump Supporters “Garbage”?

• With Trump’s election, I expect the need for contextual citations in media stories to grow.
• (The transcript was autogenerated by Google)

8) Did Trump call Liz Cheney a “War/Chicken Hawk” or Call for a Firing Squad?

Authors who cite a quotation should share the context from the most complete video they can, rather than a short clip.  Snopes described Trump’s rhetoric as violent but concluded that he did not threaten Cheney. In a second Trump term, one can expect writers have the need to easily contextualize those they are critiquing.  This is how an excerpt of Mary Trump’s post could be mocked up using CiteIt:

“Last night, in conversation with fascist and Russian stooge Tucker Carlson, the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States said this about Liz Cheney, somebody he considers a political enemy:”

Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with 9 barrels shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.

Article: Did Trump threaten Liz Cheney with Firing Squad?

9) Trump: A dictator on day one?

Snopes did an article about Trump denying that he would be a dictator except for day one.

• See how simple it is to dismiss this claim with CiteIt.

10) Poetry is language against which you have no defenses

Its not just out-of context quotations that prompt inspection, Readers may be curious about quotes like David Whyte’s quote on poetry:

I always say that poetry is language against which you have no defenses.

11) They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats

It’s not just out-of-context quotations.  Contextual citations can be used to surface related, sometimes humorous material.  After the Trump-Harris debate, the internet responded with songs and remixes of the Trump line

• CiteIt offers the reader the control of maintaining their focus within the article, while allowing them to sample media they are curious about.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS:  ..  And I’ll tell you something, he’s going to talk about immigration a lot tonight even when it’s not the subject that is being raised. And I’m going to actually do something really unusual and I’m going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies because it’s a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams, and your, your desires. And I’ll tell you, I believe you deserve a president who actually puts you first. And I pledge to you that I will.

DAVID MUIR: Let me just ask, though, why did you try to kill that bill and successfully so? That would have put thousands of additional agents and officers on the border.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: First let me respond as to the rallies. She said people start leaving. People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go. And the people that do go, she’s busing them in and paying them to be there. And then showing them in a different light. So, she can’t talk about that. People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. That’s because people want to take their country back. Our country is being lost. We’re a failing nation. And it happened three and a half years ago. And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War 3, just to go into another subject. What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country. And look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don’t want to talk — not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame. As far as rallies are concerned, as far — the reason they go is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again. It’s a very simple phrase. Make America great again. She’s destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn’t have a chance of success. Not only success. We’ll end up being Venezuela on steroids.

Source: ABC News Transcript

12) Malcolm Gladwell: There are no bad neighborhoods

One curiosity-provoking point Gladwell made was that there are no bad neighborhoods there only bad blocks. By this Gladwell meant that crime is concentrated in small areas (blocks), which require a concentrated response, rather than a blanket “stop and frisk” policy that affects whole neighborhoods.

13) Matt Taibbi: How do you regain Trust?

My thesis is that the journalists who differentiate themselves, including by sourcing transparency and accountability, are the most likely to regain trust:

In an interview on Rising, Matt Taibbi said how does science recover from this how do you regain trust and it’s similar to what happens in journalism after an episode like for instance the WMD affair or even Russia gate I would argue uh you know once the public is betrayed and they see that they’ve been betrayed it’s very hard to win that trust back and in science it’s it’s the same thing

14) New York Times: “institutional lack of skepticism”

The New York Times doesn’t feel the need to be transparent or accountable:

Judith Miller says the New York Times found that the paper had lacked skepticism, but they did not interview any of the editors or name specific reporters as responsible.

Miller disagrees that there was insufficient skepticism, but that we were accurately conveying wrong information.

15) Stacy Plaskett: ‘Not The Free Speech That I Know Of’

In a hearing on the weaponization of government, Congressional Delegate Stacy Plaskett took issue with Robert F. Kennedy’s statements about Covid 19 vaccinations saying: this is not the kind of free speech that I know of

I can imagine Matt Taibbi or Michael Shellenberger putting this quote in one of their stories.  Contextually citing the video, makes a “money quote” golden:

16) Jack Nicholson: You Can’t Handle the Truth!

With CiteIt, writers can evoke the Jack Nicholson line:

You can’t handle the truth! — by pulling in the context from a YouTube video.

• In this case the usage of CiteIt is not to verify, but for the viewer to revisit an old and favorite memory.

17) The Princess Bride – “Get used to Disappointment”

Do you remember the context in which Wesley tells Inigo: Get used to disappointment?

• Substack could get a referal fee for all the readers who saw the quote and then rented or bought the video.
• This referral fee, from people who want to view more that just the quote, could be employed for both single article print purchases, audio, and video, and would, in effect, allow any media creator to become a paid “affiliate Substack creator” for their non-Substack-platform work.

18) Putin: “collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century”

I think I’ve heard this quote been alluded to, but with the emphasis on restoration rather than trauma:

Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century.

19) Hamish: Why do they still call it “New” York?

Song lyrics or podcast audio can be quoted in print media.  With CiteIt, they can be transparently demonstrated and  writer, Substack and musician can profit from any affiliate sales.

Hamish’s Note: 

Why do they still call it “New” York? It has been around for ages.
Phisto Sobanii: Here’s an explainer, Hamish!

even old New York was once New Amsterdam
why they change it I can’t say people
just like it better that way

20) Trump: “Very fine people on both sides” (Charlottesville)

While most people have heard that Trump said there were very fine people on both sides in Charlottesville, many have not heard the full context, in which he also said:

21) Ken Klippenstein’s Home Visited By FBI Agent

In an interview with The Young Turks, Ken described the FBI agent who visited him over the JD Vance dossier as a young blond guy who might have tripped over his umbilical cord on the way over [and] looked stumped when I asked him what the point of the visit was.

Substack Notes:

P.S.  I’d like to see Substack add contextual citations to both Articles and Notes.  This would create “Twitter” with context! (example) 

Feedback:

I’m interested in hearing feedback on Solutions to Reform Journalism and Contextual Citations.

Email me your feedback, leave comments below, or reply on Twitter.

• View CiteIt homepage

Philosophy of Journalism:

Do you know about Ken Klippenstein’s philosophy of bringing the receipts?

• I see the publication of the entire JD Vance dossier as a high profile application of this philosophy.

Here’s a short 1.5-minute video that outlines the concept, and the next step in its implementation.

Next Step: Bringing the Receipts for Quotations?

• Ken’s Twitter ban and retraction could serve as an opportunity to take the next logical step of expanding the “bringing the receipts” philosophy by providing the context of  inline quotations
• To enhance reader trust, I’ve created CiteIt, an app that pulls 500 characters of surrounding context from original sources—whether from websites, PDFs, or YouTube transcripts. This lets readers verify sources without interrupting their reading, boosting trust and engagement. By using CiteIt, writers can also hold themselves to a higher standard of transparency and preempt criticism.

Feedback Request:

Take a look at these three mockups and let me know what you think.  If you’re interested, I can even do a demo of the current WordPress implementation.

• 3 Mockups of Ken’s Articles

My goal is to get feedback from readers and writers before I pitch it to Substack, with the goal of making the feature available to all Substack writers.

Example Quotes:

Lord Ismay on why NATO was created.

Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay was NATO’s first Secretary General.  He once said that NATO was created to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.

Admiral Kirby: Let’s keep these documents secret from US public

Admiral Kirby said: There’s no excuse for these kinds of documents to be in the public domain, they don’t deserve to be in the public domain

Oscsar winner “Refutes his Jewishness”!

Isn’t it outrageous that this year at the 2024 Oscars, an Oscar winner Jonathan Glazer went on stage and said: Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness .  What a disgraceful thing to say!

No, the director of Zone of Interest did not disavow his Jewish identity at the Oscars (Vox)

When Context is Stripped Away

I think that Judaism has the same problem that any thick civilization has in a world in which, as you say, context is stripped away. And not only is context stripped away, but attention to any one thing is scanter and less than it used to be.

New York Times: “institutional lack of skepticism”

Judith Miller says the New York Times found that the paper had lacked skepticism, but they did not interview any of the editors or name specific reporters as responsible.

Miller disagrees that there was insufficient skepticism, but that we were accurately conveying wrong information.

Jane Austen Quote: Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth

Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” draws its title, in part from a line where the books’s main character, Elizabeth says: I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.

Jack Nicholson: You Can’t Handle the Truth

With CiteIt, writers can evoke the Jack Nicholson line:

You can’t handle the truth! — by pulling in the context from a YouTube video.

‘Not The Free Speech That I Know Of’

Delegate Stacy Plaskett said: this is not the kind of free speech that I know of

Donald Trump Warns of a “Bloodbath!”

A lot of the media carried a quote in which Donald Trump says: if I don’t get elected it’s going to be a blood bath.

Very conducive to armor operations

In Racket News, Matt Taibbi described a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in which “TV News Won’t Identify Defense Lobbyists” who are identified by their former government titles.
In the Ukraine War, former General Jack Keane went on Fox News, “applauding $800 million” in spending, “saying areas like the Donbass are very conducive to armor operations, which surely has nothing to do with the fact that he served for years as chair of armored vehicle maker AM General.”

Anthony Kennedy in “Citizens United”

Anthony Kennedy in “Citizens United” arguing that corporations should be allowed to spend unlimited money in elections because they have valuable information to contribute to the debate:

Corporations have lots of knowledge about environment, transportation issues, and you are silencing them during the election.

McConnell and Feinstein represent our dying democracy

This week when the world really got to see how robust our democracy is our 81 year old Senate minority leader one of the most powerful people in the entire country freezes for 20 seconds on camera

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Trump and I were both New Yorkers

Trump and I were both born and raised in New York City you know he has that New York Swagger about him that I can relate to I feel comfortable with that kind of bravado that he has 

World’s Strongest Man Attacks Front Doors

Over 60 of the break-ins come through the front door so I guess that this is why labors steel door started out is because they got fed up and getting break-ins with a local area they wanted something that was reliable affordable and robust and that lasted time I see

John Stewart’s “Daily Show” had to ask Corporate Sponsors for permission to make fun of them

I was surprised that Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” had a staff person call show sponsors to ask permission to make fun of them:

There was a certain person who was in charge of if the show wanted to make fun of a corporate sponsor or someone under the umbrella of one of the corporate sponsors, this person who worked for the Daily Show would call that company and try to convince them it’s cool to be made fun of. It’s okay to be made fun of on the Daily Show. The clear implication was if that company says no, it’s not getting on there. So imagine the level of corporations that are somehow tied to Viacom, Comcast, all of those, every entity. If they don’t want to be made fun of on the Daily Show, then they’re not going to be. Well, then the Daily Show can’t critique half of what owns this country.

(Click on grey YouTube quote below to view contextual citation)

Emily Jashinsky: The state department alleged that you had taken things out of context and actually they you know threw a whole bunch of accusations against you as a journalist how do you respond to their the substance of their arguments to discredit you

CiteIt enables responsible authors to demonstrate quote context and earn reader trust.

If they accuse you of taking things out of context use a tool like  CiteIt to, demonstrate the context of your quotations and  challenge them to match your level of transparency!

Can the NYTimes or the State Department match this level of transparency?

Next Steps:

1. View CiteIt Homepage
2. View Demo: Matt Taibbi’s Nord Stream Pipelines Bombing article
3. Writers give Tim (CiteIt creator) feedback and he pitches App to Substack.
4. Substack creators can use text and video citations to differentiate themselves even more!

(This video is a placeholder until after the script has been finalized and recorded)

Video Transcript

In an increasingly polarized world, how can independent media buck the trend of:

• declining trust and
• establishment gatekeeping?

Take for example, this piece that Matt Taibbi and Matt Orfalea did about the Nord Steam pipelines bombing. — a piece which challenges the Overton Window (what is considered politically acceptable to say).  When I shared this article with friends, I found that the less politically-aligned readers experienced barriers that prevented them from accepting Taibbi’s thesis 1234.

To help inform readers and build trust, I’ve developed CiteIt — a citation app that looks up a quote’s context when the quote has been linked to a web source.

If you scroll down this page, you can click on the “Majority Report’s” suggestion that independent writers need editors so they can avoid the type of mistakes that gatekeepers like Mehdi Hassan have charged Taibbi with.

Life is unfair.  Typos are bound to happen, as are misrepresentations of mistakes and one can’t always reach all subsequently misinformed partisans.5 A productive response is to innovate, defending one’s record, 6 and demonstrating a higher standard of transparency 7 that discloses conveniently a quote’s context in a way that is not possible in print or television, and which mainstream media will find difficult to match. 8

See what a demo of Taibbi’s Nord Stream article looks like after I manually linked the sources, enabling CiteIt to look up the context, and pull from an auto-generated YouTube transcript.

CiteIt is not a panacea. 9 The potential of quotations to be taken out of context constantly undermines authors seeking to use quotations to challenge and inform their readers.   By using CiteIt’s contextual citations, Substack could,

1. give writers a tool to better inform readers
2. help writers win over skeptical readers
3. establish features that differentiate Substack from competitors like Twitter and Threads, and
4. build a positive reputation that helps combat critics and gatekeepers.

I propose that Substack try CiteIt first with Long-form Articles, and if this is successful add the feature across the Substack product line:

1. Long-form Articles, 10
2. Notes, 11
3. Video, and. 12
4. Podcasts,  13

To see the Nord Stream Demo article for yourself, click the green button underneath the video.

A footnoted transcript of this video is also available.

Links:

• Main Pitch (back)
• Demo Article: Nord Stream Pipeline 
• Slide that outlines Proposed Next Steps

Footnotes:

Featuring article and video by Matt Taibbi and Matt Orfalea

A) Watch this Video first: (This video is a placeholder until I finalize and record my script)

C) Below: Items #1-5

1) The Problem:

Many Substack writers, such as Matt Taibbi and Matt Orfalea, stretch the Overton Window (what is considered politically acceptable to say) 1

Unfortunately, while Racket News’s existing subscribers are receptive to it, when it is shared with others, it meets resistance that prevents Substack outlets like Racket News from broadening their subscriber base. 2

I’ve developed the CiteIt Citation App to address 3 stumbling blocks faced by Substack writers:

1. Skeptics suspect that quotes have been taken out of context, 3 while also being ..
2. too busy and dismissive to investigate whether their suspicions or a the writer’s negative reputation are warranted.4 5
3. Gatekeepers for the establishment  nitpick,6 censor, shadow-ban, throttle, or even threaten perjury charges when independent writers challenge establishment interests or perspectives. 7
   • Adding to these stumbling blocks, partisan allies react to the arguments of partisan gatekeepers, arguing they pretend that they’re being censored when in reality they just don’t want editors but they need them

2) How CiteIt Works:

Let’s look at an example article — Matt Taibbi’s Nord Stream article — containing what I call “naked quotations” — that is quotations that have no surrounding context.8.  These type of quotations are regarded with suspicion by non-aligned non-subscribers.

Now, lets see the same article, only with the writer using CiteIt to:

• link to their sources, 9
• lookup the context, and 10
• display it to the reader (see: right-side popup dialog: “Quote Context by CiteIt.net“):

CiteIt Looks up Linked quotations:

Video and Transcript have been looked up from link: (right side popup: “Quote Context by CiteIt.net”)

Using the current WordPress implementation of CiteIt, the plugin adds 2 custom buttons to the editor.

The writers click on the “CiteIt inline popup button”, and paste in the source URL just like a traditional editor “link” button. 11

Add 2 CiteIt buttons to Editor:

The Writer enters the link URL after they select the quote and click the “CiteIt inline popup” button

Then when the article is published, the CiteIt plugin locates all the cited web sources and YouTube video transcripts.1213

The CiteIt webservice then finds the 500 characters of context before and after the quote and saves that information to display when the reader requests it.

Contextual citations are about more than policing cherry-picked quotes or disinformation.  Contextual Citations give readers a better understanding of the source.  This can clearly be seen when readers are able to dive into the context surrounding quotes like The only thing we have to fear is “fear itself“.

3) What Success Would Look Like:

I want Substack to establish a reputation for a higher standard of transparency and trust in media by:

• better informing their readers, 14
• build trust, and  15
• helping to differentiate Substack from platforms like Twitter and Threads,
• defending reputations from gatekeepers and partisans. 16

If I aim higher, I will know we’ve been maximally successful when I hear the concept of contextual citations discussed in general conversation:17

• associated with Substack, trust, innovation, and independent writers, 18
• described as a solution to “naked quotations“1920, and
• used as a critique of establishment media that does not provide contextual transparency.21

4) Working with Substack

I anticipate that I would best be able to realize my vision for contextual citations by working with Substack.  CiteIt technology could be deployed first for long-form writing22, and later across the platform:

• notes, 23
• podcasts  242526
• video 27

5) Watch Demo: (A Writer’s view)

D) Next:
Watch Video: How to Create Contextual Citations using the WordPress Plugin

Documentation: how to use the WordPress plugin

  username: public
  password: demo22

Footnotes:

The Future of the Censorship Industrial Complex

I just got finished listening to Matt Taibbi’s podcast with Walter Kirn from July 7 that discusses the Missouri v. Biden Court ruling in which Biden appointees requested that social media companies censor so-called “disinformation” on a wide variety of topics. 1

Co-host Walter Kirn speculated that this “censorship industrial complex” will not end with a court loss, but once established, may seek to work around new constraints.

So what are independent journalists to do to counter this new concentration of power?

I’ve been working on an App called CiteIt that may help with this ..

Is talk of US involvement in the Nord Stream bombing officially flagged as “Disinformation”?

Is this Nord Stream bombing article Disinformation?

Episode 46 of America This Week got me wondering about whether possible US involvement in the Nord Stream bombing was also on the official social media censorship/suppression list?

Is the censorship status of Nord Stream pipeline something that can be checked?  A quick google search suggests that such a status is plausible:

• Remarks at a UN Security Council Meeting on Leaks in the NordStream Pipeline, (US UN mission)
• Russians push baseless theory blaming US for burst pipeline, (AP News)
• Pro-China Disinformation Blamed US for Nord Stream Explosion, (Bloomberg)
• The claim by a discredited journalist that the US secretly blew up the Nord Stream pipeline is proving a gift to Putin, (Business Insider, India)
• U.S. podcasters spread Kremlin narratives on Nord Stream sabotage, (Brookings Institute)
• Biden also said the Russians have been “pumping out disinformation and lies”, (Radio Free Europe)
• Conspiracy Theorists, Right-wing Politicians Fuel Nord Stream Disinformation, (CEPA)
• Nord Stream pipeline disinformation fits pattern of Russian information warfare, (Cyberscoop)
• Nord Stream 1 & 2 Sabotage – Disinformation a la MH-17?  (EU Disnfo)

Beyond Social Media Censorship: “Elite Gatekeeping”

There are a variety of ways of addressing this censorship issue, but rather that addressing the issue narrowly, I’d like to expand our conception of the problem beyond just the Twitter-style public-private “collaborative censorship” (my euphemism) to the general category of “elite gatekeeping,” which can include all manner of conventional and unconventional acts designed to manipulat information and attack opponents.

Gatekeeping: definition

“Elite Gatekeeping” Example: Stacey Plaskett & Mehdi Hassan

I consider the work of delegate Stacey Plaskett and MSNBC journalist Mehdi Hassan to counter Matt Taibbi’s work on the Twitter File as a broader form of “elite gatekeeping,” which tried to protect the Democratic party from embarrassment and perhaps deter journalists from exposing abuse of of power.

Even if no backchannel continues to exist between the government and Twitter, elites will still likely gatekeep in an effort to counter people that undermine their power..

How Independent Media can Counter Elite Gatekeeping by Building Reader Trust

So given that the threat of elite gatekeeping (in the form of Plaskett – Hassan) will continue to exist even if the government is disentangled from social media moderation/censorship, how can independent media counter “Elite Gatekeeping?”

One way is by “showing up” the establishment media by demonstrating more trustworthy practices, such as superior citation transparency.

Take the following example of Matt Taibbi’s Nord Stream pipeline bombing article whose thesis is hard to deny.

1. American officials have an extensive, years-long record of promising action to stop or disable the pipeline.
2. Those earlier statements were ignored both by officials and press commentators in asserting ad nauseam that the West did not have motive for the attack.
3. Three: despite a total absence of evidence, American voices repeatedly insisted Russia was behind the attack.

Overcoming Partisan Distrust

Could this article be presented in a way that is more persuasive and harder to attack as disinformation?  I believe so, using CiteIt’s contextual citations.

Although a motivated reader could track down the original quote contexts, a skeptical rider is not likely to verify, and thus not trust the quotes, especially if they perceive the writer has a different partisan alignment.

• I found that a friend of mine who was unfamiliar with Matt Taibbi had framed Taibbi as a “right-winger” (and thus not to be trusted because my friend is left-wing and associated Taibbi with Elon Musk via the Twitter files).

Original Article: Unlinked Quotes

Below is what Matt Taibbi’s original article looked like originally, without the quotations being linked to their context.

If you think as a partisan skeptic, one might suspect that the quotes are taken out of context and remain unpersuaded.

Before: (screenshot)

Original Article: We will bring an end to it

Showing Context: Linked Quotes

Compare the above example with what Matt Taibbi’s article looks like after quotes are linked to their sources.

This example simulates what the article would look like if the writer linked to YouTube videos, so that CiteIt can lookup and conveniently display a popup with the video and transcript context for the reader.

After: (screenshot)

Contextual Popup: view linked video and transcript

How writers can create contextual quotations:

The goal of CiteIt is to help writers earn the trust of readers by making it as easy for writers to create contextual quotes as it is to create a normal link.

CiteIt automates the process of constructing a contextual popup from a web source or YouTube video URL.

Goals:

1. Short term: Test CiteIt with Substack authors and get writer feedback.
2. Long term: Partner with Substack to bring CiteIt’s contextual citations to a wide range of readers and writers.

Footnotes

How Trustworthy is AI?  (“All In” podcast:)

On the All-In podcast this week, the hosts reviewed Google Bard AI’s answers to questions about themselves:

David Friedberg read Bard’s answers and David Sacks responded:  So the question is where is he getting these quotes and then why doesn’t it give citations?

Why Not Auto-Linked Sources? #

This problem with Bard’s citations highlights an important issue with how human writers function, whether on Substack or elsewhere:

I expect the AI to improve dramatically, including the ability to cite sources, but when current writers create something, I assume we want writers to cite their sources themselves.  (AI may be useful for suggesting possible sources for existing publications) :

• I don’t believe we want AI finding sources for writers and automatically linking them.
• When writers quote things, the writer should be responsible for linking their own quotes.
• When writers create a link to a source, they are implicitly endorsing that source.
• Google’s entire PageRank algorithm assumes that writers are responsible for their sources and that links function as endorsements.
• If an an algorithm is generating linked content, it should be clear that the link was algorithmically generated.

The Trusted Content Business Model

A) Primary Sources:

I speculate that, in the future, a significant portion of the revenue of organizations like the Associated Press and Reuters’ will come from being a trusted primary source that are embedded by other content creators or AI.

There is a real need for sources to supply transcripts, audio, and video that readers and content creators can trust, in a media landscape that may contain slanted, buggy, and deep faked content.

B) Secondary Sources:

C) AI’s Bias is not transparent

Establishment Gatekeepers attack and threaten Matt Taibbi

Photo: Matt Taibbi, during Occupy Wall Street, Wikimedia Commons

Substack writer and journalist Matt Taiibbi (CiteIt demo article) has recently faced criticism from Virgin Islands  congressional delegate Stacy Plaskett, including threats of prison time.  Likewise MSNBC host Mehdi Hassan attacked (or nitpicked with) Taibbi’s coverage of the Twitter files.  Both critics seem to function as gatekeepers, defending establishment interests that are threatened by exposure of the government’s allegedly close involvement with Twitter content moderation/censorship.

Briahna Joy Gray commented on delegate Plaskett‘s letter to Taibbi:

It seems very clear that this kind of a letter is an effort to threaten and coerce and punish Taibbi for giving testimony that was inconvenient to the Democratic party and that’s a real problem and it’s  exactly what Lee Fong has been warning of this whole time and while he why he’s treated the characterization of Matt’s remarks during that Congressional hearing so seriously saying that it’s not it’s it’s not okay this isn’t just like a Tit for Tat accusing someone of lying

CiteIt Contextual Citations: Don’t Interrupt the flow of the Article:

In many of these situations, it is vital that readers/viewers are able to consult the original text/video/transcripts, but writers don’t always want to interrupt the flow of their article.

This is why it is so important that CiteIt makes it easy to :

1. generatea  contextual text/video popup
2. expand contextual blockquotes

How Substack Authors Defend Themselves & Press their Advantage

I’ve tried in the past to get local and national newspapers and magazines to use CiteIt.  I now suspect that legacy media institutions don’t currently perceive themselves to have the financial incentives (or perhaps the technological or organizational ability) to implement contextual citations.  Part of this is may be because legacy institutions don’t currently seem to perceive how bad the trust deficit is.

By contrast, independent media seems to understand how dire the trust deficit is.

The key value proposition that CiteIt’s contextual citations offer to all parties is:

1) READERS:

gain transparency into sources so they can trust writer’s content and gain understanding.

2) WRITERS:

build greater reader trust and defend against gatekeeping critics,

3) SUBSTACK:

set a standard for transparency that legacy institutions will find hard to match:

• • by integrating CiteIt across the entire Substack platform: Notes, Posts, Audio, and Video

4) PRIMARY SOURCES:

potentially monetize content by paying quoted on-platform and external creators as part of  “Substack paid sources program.”

Two types of paid creators:

1. On-platform creators who are compensated via subscriptions from regular readers
2. External creators who prefer to maintain their own platform, such as the Des Moines Register newspaper 1 that are compensated when readers choose to view the entirety of the their article when it is cited by a Substack writer.  This could be a journal article or other publication that wants to have their own platform but want to easily opt into receiving a micropayment from Substack readers that want to reader a cited source in its entirety but do not frequent the site often enough to justify have a subscription.
   • It is expected that the initial market for this program would be publications that do not see Substack as a competitor, i.e. The Des Moines Register rather than the New York Times.
   • By adding this “external creator” program, Substack could broaden its base of writers from only those that write on the Substack platform to any publisher that wants to be paid by readers who find them through a citation and whose referee readers want to read more than fair use allows.  Right now, many sites allow a small number of free articles, but they might be leaving money on the table when they’ve published something good that’s getting a lot of citations.

Outline: 3 Steps