The left-leaning movement was active last Thursday through Friday Atlantic magazine and the Democratic-connected Institute of Politics (IOP) of the University of Chicago held a conference to warn and find solutions to so-called “disinformation.” NewsBusters reached out to Daniel Schmidt and Chris Phillips, who sparked some of the big headlines of the conference with questions about Hunter Biden’s laptop and other instances of media disinformation; and they say it appears the liberal media were not interested in fixing their broken system.
On the first day of the conference, Schmidt, senior editor for the conservative/libertarian campus publication The Chicago Thinker, attended a discussion with Anne Applebaum of AtlanticDavid Axelrod is the IOP’s head. During a Q&A period, he took his turn to ask about Hunter Biden’s laptop:
We know this now because we knew it a few weeks back The New York TimesThe content has been confirmed as real. Do you think the media acted inappropriately when they instantly dismissed Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation? This is how we can learn and make sure that the disinformation we call disinformation, and not reality, is accurate.
Applebaum’s reaction should lead to questions about her news judgment since she found the story “totally irrelevant” and didn’t “find it to be interesting.”
WATCH The Atlantic’s @anneapplebaumWe refuse to answer @RealDSchmidt‘s🔥🔥 question about Hunter Biden’s laptop during @UChicago’s “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” conference! pic.twitter.com/1OgXBBiiI0
— The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) April 6, 2022
Schmidt told NewsBusters he thought Applebaum would’ve “at least admit the media made a mistake in immediately declaring” the story “Russian disinformation.” “Her answer was as arrogant as it could get—the story doesn’t matter to her, so whatever the media did doesn’t matter. Axelrod’s answer was similarly condescending,” he said.
This interaction with the campus’s “premier publication” seems to have rubbed Applebaum the wrong way, seeing as The Chicago Thinker reports she blocked them on Twitter.
From his position standing in the crowded room, Schmidt described the reaction as, “practically half the room looking at me like I just said a bunch of cuss words. It felt like what I asked is off-limits and should not be brought up again.”
Although, he did note that he’s been approached by other students on campus from different political persuasions who felt he asked a “very fair question and that Applebaum’s answer was insane.”
BREAKING: The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief calls the Chicago Thinker’s reporting a “disinformation” campaign pic.twitter.com/4hvaIByPCQ
— The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) April 8, 2022
Schmidt says also that AtlanticJeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in chief, accused The Chicago Thiker for spreading false information about the conference. Schmidt countered that at a conference dedicated fighting disinformation, the people spreading misinformation aren’t those who claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian psyop. They are college students who just asked questions.”
Phillips, who also writes for The Chicago Thinker, made a splash on day two when he torched CNN’s Brian Stelter by calling out CNN as a hotbed of disinformation:
You’ve all spoken extensively about Fox News being a purveyor of disinformation. CNN, however, is up there. They promoted the Russian collusion hoax and the Jussie Mollett hoax.
Stelter’s deflections and inability to answer the camera asked Phillips if he was interested to talk to him after the panel had ended. Phillips recounted to NewsBusters how a “group of 12-15 people formed” around them as Stelter proceeded to “gaslight” him.
According to Phillips’ description of the conversation, it seems as though Stelter essentially did his Twitter shtick of rattling off instances where he purports that CNN covered certain stories but doesn’t address the liberal tilt:
While he answered my question with enthusiasm and optimism on the panel, his behavior off-camera was completely opposite. After he started reciting dates for when CNN had reported on different stories, he began to ask me questions like: “So what was CNN lying about again?” “When were we saying that?” We actually covered the story! So we should not cover a story that we don’t believe is legitimate?
In a 12-minute back-and forth, he delivered a series of quips similar to this that were intended to make me laugh and to use disinformation and logic to convince everyone listening that CNN wasn’t full of it.
Stelter seemed to slip when Phillips again brought up Hunter’s laptop and admitted that CNN only recently started investigating it:
He said something about Hunter Biden’s laptop. I then asked him again. It was a dishonest tactic he used, and he didn’t give a good answer.
As for the response from the room, Phillips said he received “side glances as well as full-on looks,” which he chalked up to shock that a tough question like that was asked. Although, he says “[a] few people of various ages come to me and shake my hand and congratulate me on a well thought out question.”
According to him, he received help from his liberal peers.
Many people were supportive of my question. Daniel and I had been in the dining-hall not too long ago when someone came over to us. They said that she dislikes what we say about politics and she like our question. We called out corporate Democrats who she is deeply against.
Phillips was also “not optimistic” going into the event citing the fact it was organized by Axelrod and panelists included Stelter, former President Barack Obama, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). But he told NewsBusters he “wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt[.]” But he suggests the talk of wanting the media to get more credibility was just to “score some points[.]”
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