Matthew David Howard Smith, 24, of Raleigh, N.C., was sentenced today in Alexandria, Va., to 14 months in prison for his role in founding NinjaVideo.net, a website that provided millions of users with the ability to illegally download high-quality copies of copyright-protected movies and television programs.

The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department announced today the launch of its first Spanish-language educational video. The video was developed by the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices to assist employers in avoiding charges of discrimination in the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 process and to assist employees to be aware of their legal rights.

The Justice Department announced today the launch of a new educational video to assist employers in avoiding charges of discrimination in the employment eligibility verification form I-9 process and in the use of E-Verify.

by Marshall Allen

The links to the viral video “Plandemic” started showing up in my Facebook feed Wednesday. “Very interesting,” one of my friends wrote about it. I saw several subsequent posts about it, and then my brother texted me, “Got a sec?”

My brother is a pastor in Colorado and had someone he respects urge him to watch “Plandemic,” a 26-minute video that promises to reveal the “hidden agenda” behind the COVID-19 pandemic. I called him and he shared his concern: People seem to be taking the conspiracy theories presented in “Plandemic” seriously. He wondered if I could write something up that he could pass along to them, to help people distinguish between sound reporting and conspiracy thinking or propaganda.

So I watched “Plandemic.” I did not find it credible, as I will explain below. YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo have since removed it from their platforms for violating their guidelines. Now it’s available on its own site.

Sensational videos, memes, rants and more about COVID-19 are likely to keep coming. With society polarized and deep distrust of the media, the government and other institutions, such content is a way for bad actors to sow discord, mostly via social media. We saw it with Russia in the 2016 election and we should expect it to continue.

But what surprised me is how easily “Plandemic” sank its hooks into some of my friends. My brother also felt alarmed that his own church members and leaders in other churches might be tempted to buy into it.

The purpose of this column is not to skewer “Plandemic.” My goal is to offer some criteria for sifting through all the content we see every day, so we can tell the difference between fair reporting and something so biased it should not be taken seriously.

Here’s a checklist, some of which I shared with my friends on Facebook, to help interrogate any content — and that includes what we publish at ProPublica.

Is the Presentation One-Sided?

There’s never just one side to a story. I mentioned this point in 2018 when I wrote about my faith and the biblical basis for investigative reporting. One of my favorite Proverbs says, “The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.” So a fair presentation should at least acknowledge opposing points of view.

I didn’t see this in “Plandemic,” so I called the filmmaker, Mikki Willis, who is also the film’s narrator, to ask him whether I had somehow missed the other side of the argument. I had not. “The other side of the argument plays 24/7 on every screen in every airport and on every phone and in every home,” Willis said. “The people are only seeing one side of the story all the time. This is the other side of the story. This is not a piece that’s intended to be perfectly balanced.”

I asked Willis if it was fair to call his film “propaganda,” which the Oxford dictionary defines as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”

He said he doesn’t feel there’s anything misleading in his film, but otherwise the definition fits. And based on that definition he feels 100% of news reporting is propaganda. “What isn’t propaganda these days?” he asked. “In that sense, what we’re doing is fighting fire with fire.”

Is There an Independent Pursuit of the Truth?

The star of “Plandemic,” medical researcher Judy Mikovits, is controversial. The magazine Science reports that it published and then retracted one of her papers in 2011. A search warrant provided to ProPublica by one of her former attorneys shows she was fired from her position at Whittemore Peterson Institute, a research center in Nevada, in September 2011. Then she allegedly stole notebooks and a laptop computer from the Institute, the search warrant said, leading to an arrest warrant for alleged possession of stolen property and unlawful taking of computer data. She was arrested on Nov. 18, 2011, but denied wrongdoing. The charges were dropped.

But “Plandemic” ignores or brushes past these facts and portrays her as an embattled whistleblower. “So you made a discovery that conflicted with the agreed-upon narrative?” Willis says to Mikovits, introducing her as a victim. “And for that, they did everything in their powers to destroy your life.”

A typical viewer is not going to know the details about Mikovits’ background. But as the primary source of controversial information being presented as fact, it’s worth an online search. The fact-checking site PolitiFact details her arrest and criminal charges. Clearly, there’s more to her story than what’s presented in “Plandemic.” That should give us pause when we assess its credibility.

Is There a Careful Adherence to the Facts?

In “Plandemic,” Willis asks Mikovits about her arrest: “What did they charge you with?”

“Nothing,” she replies. “I was held in jail, with no charges.”

Being charged with a crime is one of those concrete facts that we can check out. Science magazine reported Mikovits’ arrest and felony charge. I also found a civil lawsuit she filed against the Whittemore Peterson Institute in 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. “Mikovits was arrested on criminal charges…” her complaint says in the case, which was eventually dismissed.

I asked Willis about the apparent discrepancy, where she said in his film that she wasn’t charged, when court documents show that she was charged. After my inquiry, he said he spoke to Mikovits and now feels it is clear that she meant that the charges were dropped.

I tracked down Mikovits and she said what she meant in the film is that there were no charges of any type of wrongdoing that would have led to her being charged with being a fugitive from justice. She admitted that all the controversy has been hard for her to sort out. “I’ve been confused for a decade,” she told me. She said she would try to be more clear in the future when she talks about the criminal charge: “I’ll try to learn to say it differently,” she said.

This underscores the importance of careful verification, and it distinguishes the craft of journalism from other forms of information sharing. People often speak imprecisely when they’re telling their stories. It’s our duty to nail down precisely what they do and do not mean, and verify it independently. If we don’t, we risk undermining their credibility and ours. That’s in part why we at ProPublica and many other journalists often link directly to our underlying source documents, so you can verify the information yourself.

Are Those Accused Allowed to Respond?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is one of the nation’s leaders in the response to the coronavirus. In “Plandemic,” Mikovits accuses Fauci of a cover-up and of paying off people who perpetrate fraud, among other things. PolitiFact found no evidence to support the allegations against Fauci.

Every time I write a story that accuses someone of wrongdoing I call them and urge them to explain the situation from their perspective. This is standard in mainstream journalism. Sometimes I’ve gone to extreme lengths to get comments from someone who will be portrayed unfavorably in my story — traveling to another state and showing up at their office and their home and leaving a note if they are not there to meet me. “Plandemic” doesn’t indicate whether the filmmakers reached out to Fauci for his version of the story. So I asked Willis about it. “We did not,” he told me.

Are All Sources Named and Cited, and if Not, Is the Reason Explained?

All sources should be identified, with their credentials, so viewers can verify their expertise or possible biases. If they can’t be for some reason, then that should be explained. “Plandemic” features unnamed people in medical scrubs, presented as doctors, saying they’re being wrongly pressured to add COVID-19 on people’s death certificates or are not being allowed to use the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat patients. But the speakers are not named, so we can’t really tell who they are, or even if they are doctors at all. That makes it impossible to tell if they are credible.

I asked Willis why he didn’t name those people. He told me he was in a hurry to release the 26-minute version of “Plandemic,” but the doctors will be named in the final version. “We should have done that,” he said.

Does the Work Claim Some Secret Knowledge?

“Plandemic” calls itself a documentary that reveals “the hidden agenda behind COVID-19.” We are in the midst of a global pandemic where few people in the world can figure out what is happening or the right way to respond, let alone agendas. We have almost every journalist in the country writing about this. And if the truth about a conspiracy is out there, many people have an incentive to share it. But “Plandemic” would like us to think it’s presenting some exclusive bit of secret knowledge that is going to get at the real story. That’s not likely.

Plus, to be honest, there were so many conspiratorial details stacked on top of each other in the film I couldn’t keep them straight. When I spoke to Willis I told him I was having a hard time understanding his point. Then I took a stab at what I thought was the main thrust of his argument. “Are you saying that powerful people planned the pandemic and made it happen so they could get rich by making everyone get vaccines?” I asked.

It turns out Willis isn’t sure either. “We’re in the exploratory phase,” he told me. “I don’t know, to be clear, if it’s an intentional or naturally occurring situation. I have no idea.”

Then he went on to say that the pandemic is being politicized and used to take away our civil liberties and leverage other political policies. “Certain forces” have latched onto the situation, he said. “It’s too fishy.”

He had me at, “I have no idea.” That sums it up. This is a vast pandemic and massive catastrophe. Our country wasn’t prepared for it, and the response by our top leaders has been disjointed. We’re restricted to our homes. Many people have lost their jobs and some are afraid or sick or dying. That makes us vulnerable to exploitation by people who will present inaccurate or intellectually dishonest information that promises to tell us the truth.

Perhaps “Plandemic” is guilty of sloppy storytelling, or maybe people really do believe the things they’re saying in the video. Or perhaps they’re being intentionally dishonest, or it’s a biased connecting of the dots rooted in personal and professional grievances. I don’t know because I can’t get inside their heads to judge their motives.

Ultimately, we’re all going to need to be more savvy consumers when it comes to information, no matter how slickly it’s presented. This may be but a signal of what’s to come in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, when memes and ads of unknown origin come across our social media feeds. There are standards for judging the credibility of the media we take in every day, so let’s apply them.

---

The video has been viewed millions of times on YouTube via links that are replaced as quickly as the video-sharing service can remove them for violating its policy against "COVID-19 misinformation."

The "Plandemic" video was the latest breakout hit from the coronavirus conspiracy theory industry. Social media companies are scrambling to ban it from their platforms.

On April 13, 2020, Suzanne Maloney discussed "Why the Middle East Matters" via video conference with IHS Markit.

On April 13, 2020, Suzanne Maloney discussed "Why the Middle East Matters" via video conference with IHS Markit.

On April 13, 2020, Suzanne Maloney discussed "Why the Middle East Matters" via video conference with IHS Markit.

Fashion icon and hessnatur Creative Director Miguel Adrover at Whole Foods Market. Credit Emma Grady Hessnatur kicked off New York Fashion Week Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at Whole Foods Market Tribeca with the launch of their "World in your hand"

If we can put a center-running bike lane down the center of Pennsylvania avenue, we should be able to do it almost everywhere!

Facebook just opened their newest data center, which they've pushed to make as energy efficient as possible. In fact, it even inspired the Open Compute project in which they open source every last detail about the data

The Sierra Club is pointing attention to the once-through cooling systems used by many power plants. Power plants suck up over 200 billion gallons of water a day, and with that water comes millions of fish that don't exactly

Popular anger at profiteering energy utilities is high. One wind-power pioneer is hoping to harness that sentiment with a funny viral video.

Created for World Environment Day, these videos illustrate the global issue of food waste with both humor and gravity.

Send one of these video bloggers to cover World Environment Day.

The United Nations Environment Programme and goodwill ambassador Don Cheadle have selected a winner. See the video here.

Entirely funded by donations, this project is hoping to provide veterans struggling with PTSD or homelessness free housing, counseling and an experience of the healing power of nature.

Using recycled materials and audio recordings from refugees, this exhibition hopes to deepen understanding and connection with those who have had to flee their home countries.

Elephants, tigers, and other threatened species are thriving in Thailand's Western Forest Complex thanks to conservation efforts.

Combining touch, sound and a psychedelic array of programmed LEDs, this installation brings the people to the plants.

This design is a hybrid of existing concrete sea defenses that can hold a mangrove seedling inside.

Billions of chopsticks are thrown out each year worldwide. This Vancouver company is trying to turn some of of these into new items for the home.

A small apartment is made to feel larger with custom cabinetry and more.

High rents in the city prompted this young woman to look for an alternative -- in a van conversion.

The Heath Ledger-directed Modest Mouse video for "King Rat," released Tuesday, follows the animated adventures of a ship helmed by whales on the hunt for humans--harpoons and all.Ledger developed the video to draw attention to

From a $50,000 portable recycled house to a tiny green egg house for Chinese students, TreeHugger has already offered plenty of posts that prove that green living doesn't have to mean high-end LEED certified luxury.

These "plug-and-play" donkeys, equipped with solar panels, allow sheepherders to catch up on the news and socializing while out on their rounds.

Thousands of pairs of unwanted eyewear are collected and transformed into a unique, twinkling facade for an Istanbul museum.

More bikers take to Twitter to mock bike haters.

TreeHugger goes on and on (and on) about why design matters; here, legendary designer Philippe Stark gives us his own captivating take on the topic at TED in March 2007.

Simran Sethi's recent TEDx talk offers some powerful advice on how to and how not to create environmental and social change.

Tiny homes aren't just about owning a home debt-free, it's also about more intangible, but equally important things, says tiny home builder Andrew Morrison.

Believe it or not, these folded works of wonder are created from a single sheet of paper -- no cuts, no glue.

One scientist speaks about how the knee-jerk reaction to "save the corals" needs to deepen into a real love for these fascinating creatures.

Swedes enjoy an interesting "close-to-nature" lifestyle -- this informal study shows how it might help visitors from other countries.

Now that's an infrastructure project!

Like a nesting doll, this all-in-one wall unit functions like a multipurpose piece of furniture.

Need a helping hand? This self-adjusting piece of furniture comes to you.

The versatile, two-dimensional medium of paper is reconstructed into art that pops off the page.

This furniture designer's stealth van conversion has been created as a "test lab" for mobile, "democratic" small space design.

What appeals to me most about Article 22's Peace Bomb Bracelet is the collection's history and story: Each piece has been made by Lao artisans from

He is one of Asia's emerging architects, famous for building stunning, affordable and durable buildings out of bamboo.

PETA and I may disagree about the ethics of eating meat, and there are plenty of people who object to PETA's overly sexualized campaign tactics. Nevertheless, I have always felt they are one of the more effective campaign

Promoting the gift economy and community resiliency, this man has been traveling the country for the last decade, offering free cups of tea out of his bus home.

Watch these beautiful Japanese macaques at Wild Snow Monkey Park who have truly mastered the fine art of relaxation.

When I asked how vegetarians can avoid animal-based fertilizers, I noted that some people suggested exploring biodynamics instead of organics. In fact, nothing

A large section of a 140-year-old Western hemlock tree is faithfully reconstructed by hand from cast molds, using tiny pieces of reclaimed cedar that have been carefully glued together.

A Seattle educational non-profit hopes to crowd-fund a series of portable, off-grid shelters for some of the city's homeless, which local high school students will design and build with the help of professional architects and builders.

Find out why one family found living on a renovated bus to be an appealing tiny-house-on-wheels alternative.