Hard Reset

Last week, Hillary Clinton accused Russia of “grooming” Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for a third-party presidential bid. There isn’t evidence to back that up, which raises questions of why Clinton made the claim, where her allegations came from and if Clinton’s attacks actually aided Russia in sowing discord in the Democratic party.

This week on the show: Last week, a questionable story spread from a press conference in Ukraine to Fox News and other conservative outlets. We ask the age-old question: Why do news organizations run unvetted or straight-up inaccurate information? Also mentioned on the show: False equivalence, how news fatigue contributes to an unbalanced media diet and the Columbia Journalism Review’s adopted role as public editor.

JC and Mollie peel back the layers of misinformation surrounding the whistleblower complaint, including the main tactics being used to discredit allegations involving Trump and Ukraine. Also: How the reliance on anonymous sources and filter bubbles impact perceptions of the media.

Hard Reset factchecks claims growing around the Trump-Ukraine call and whistleblower complaint. Was there a quid quo pro or a cover-up? Do the whistleblowers’ attorneys work for Hilary Clinton and donate to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign? Plus, how a new Twitter feature could aid the spread of misinformation.

The last week has been dominated by news of a whistleblower complaint alleging President Donald Trump made a promise to a Ukrainian leader. We factchecked some responses to this story. Plus: A $2.2 billion valuation for the company that provides background checks to the gig economy; a revived conspiracy theory about Jussie Smollett, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris; and issues with a popular statistic on transgender youth.

A lawsuit filed last week alleges Uber is willfully breaking a new California state law by continuing to classify its drivers as contractors. Plus, a factchecking rundown from the third Democratic debate.

Silicon Valley’s biggest gig-economy companies use a background check provider that puts the onus on the consumer to correct its mistakes. At least dozens of workers have lost opportunities at Uber, Lyft and other companies due to issues with background checks from San Francisco-based Checkr Inc., according to lawsuits and interviews conducted by Big If True. Hard Reset host Justin Sanders and Big If True founder Mollie Bryant talk about what makes Checkr’s background checks different from more traditional screenings, what happens when job applicants dispute a report from Checkr and what Bryant found when she ran a Checkr screening on herself.

Proposed rules for the nation's nursing homes would scale back regulations for infection prevention and antipsychotic prescriptions. The industry said these requirements were unnecessary, costly and burdensome, but elder care advocates are concerned that eliminating them will put residents at risk.

In 2014, Oklahoma City's immigration court, technically a sub-office of Dallas's court, closed its doors. Big If True and Oklahoma Gazette examined the impact of the closure five years later, as defendants face higher costs to defend their cases. Plus: Conspiracy theories began to circulate within minutes of Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide in jail. Epstein had faced charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy.

Sexual assault victims have the right to file lawsuits under Title IX, a federal law that bans sexual discrimination at colleges and universities. But these lawsuits are restricted by statutes of limitations, meaning judges can dismiss cases that aren't filed within a certain amount of time. Victim advocates say this deprives assault victims of their day in court, especially in situations where abuse didn't come to light until years later.

A group of three connected debt collection companies were permanently banned from the industry last week. Here are some of the illegal tactics they used on millions of consumers across the country. Plus, new numbers dispute allegations that the tech industry is biased against conservatives and a resurfaced video that placed an interview with Rep. Ilhan Omar out of context.

Facing a record-breaking backlog of cases, immigration courts are strapped for a resource that isn't available from the Department of Justice - time. Cases stretch on for years in a process that creates anxiety for defendants and constant stress for overworked immigration judges. Plus: A game that helps people recognize fake news.

On this episode of Hard Reset: Last week, the White House held what it called a social media summit, but no social media platforms were on the guest list. That's because the event focused on unfounded allegations that tech companies are biased against conservatives. In this episode, hosts JC Cortez and Justin Sanders dig into these bias allegations, as well as claims that shadow-banning and doxxing are being used to target conservatives.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled that the indefinite detention of asylum-seeking migrants is unconstitutional. Here's how that order came about, despite the fact that immigration judges have had the ability to grant bond to asylum-seekers for more than a decade. Plus, just a few minutes after an earthquake hit California last week, the Los Angeles Times had a story on the quake ready to go. That's because the story had been automatically generated by a robot, as part of a growing trend in journalism.

Veritas literally means “truth” in Latin, but Project Veritas never lets the truth get in the way of a good story. We talked about some of the ethical issues with Project Veritas' recent videos alleging bias against conservatives in the tech industry. Also: Medicare for all became one of the lasting issues from last week's Democratic debates. We took a look at some of the issues that came up, including debunked allegations that Medicare for all would put all hospitals out of business.

With an unprecedented surge of migrants fleeing violence in Central America, US border shelters are overcapacity. This situation led the Department of Health and Human Services to announce plans to house up to 1,400 undocumented migrant children in Fort Sill, an Army base in Oklahoma. Hosts JC Cortez, Justin Sanders and Mollie Bryant discuss these developments and take a look at the controversy unleashed when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's called border detainment facilities "concentration camps." Read Mollie's fact check on what caused the migrant crisis here: https://www.bigiftrue.org/2019/06/25/factchecking-oklahoma-what-caused-the-migrant-children-crisis/ And read our fact check on the definition of concentration camps here: https://www.bigiftrue.org/2019/06/24/american-mythology-what-are-concentration-camps/

On the first episode of Hard Reset, hosts Mollie Bryant, JC Cortez and Justin Sanders dive into the world of misinformation - what it actually is, how technology helps it spread and the impending danger of deepfakes.