SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

MADNESS, SHEER MADNESS – FROM CNBC:  Google-owned YouTube banned prominent anti-vaccine accounts in an effort to strengthen its policies on misinformation around vaccines, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday. It will also ban misinformation on all vaccines that are confirmed to be safe by the World Health Organization and local health authorities.  Social media companies have said since the beginning of the pandemic that they're trying to stop the spread of coronavirus misinformation. But falsehoods have continued to run rampant as companies struggle to police the constant flood of posts and uploads to their platforms.  As part of the crackdown, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed it removed pages associated with high-profile misinformation spreaders like Joseph Mercola, Erin Elizabeth, Sherri Tenpenny and the Children's Health Defense Fund, which is associated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  Until now, YouTube banned videos that said the coronavirus vaccine was ineffective or dangerous. Under, the new policy, it will block videos that spread misinformation about all commonly used vaccines, like the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella.  "We've steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we're now at a point where it's more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines," the company said.  A dangerous move. Journalism long ago established protocols for giving readers a warning that assertions in a story have not been validated.  Warnings like that are common.  I oppose bans because, almost inevitably, a valuable piece of information will be banned from the marketplace of ideas, and people will be hurt.

September 29, 2021