“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”
THE FOUNDATION
“The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.” —Noah Webster (1788)
IN TODAY’S DIGEST
- Executive News Summary
- Featured Analysis: Zuckerberg Dodges and Weaves in Liability Case
- More Analysis
- Reader Comments
- Best of Right Opinion
- Podcast
- Best of Videos
- Short Cuts
- Today’s Meme
EXECUTIVE NEWS SUMMARY
The Editors
- U.S. moves military toward Iran: A massive U.S. military buildup is underway in the Middle East with Iran in the crosshairs. The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group had already moved into the region, but now the USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest warship ever constructed, has reached the Mediterranean and is moving toward Iran. Numerous Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers are in the region, along with Independence-class littoral combat ships and at least one nuclear submarine. Aircraft, including Stratotankers, AWACS, and F-22s, have been traversing Europe in that direction in such numbers that tracking software has started to fall behind. Trump administration officials have been strategically cagey about their plans for the buildup, but Iran has been encouraged to “make a deal” in the ongoing diplomatic talks. All necessary forces for a possible action will be in place by mid-March, a senior official said.
- The Andrew formerly known as Prince arrested: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles III, received a 66th birthday surprise — he was arrested. The ex-prince is further embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, as he is charged with forwarding confidential trade documents to Epstein. Andrew was taken into custody at his Sandringham Estate in eastern England early Thursday and faces possible life imprisonment for public office misconduct. He was reported to the police earlier this month following the release of the Epstein files. King Charles conveyed his “deepest concern” over the arrest but stated that the “law must take its course.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “One of the core principles in our system is that everybody is equal under the law and nobody is above the law.” He’s happy to hold the white British royals accountable for misconduct but allow Muslim Pakistani rape gangs to roam free.
- Bhattacharya to head CDC temporarily: National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has been tapped by the Trump administration to act as the temporary head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after former Acting Director Jim O’Niell’s exit. Bhattacharya gained prominence early in the COVID pandemic when he coauthored the Great Barrington Declaration, which criticized the government’s overly aggressive, pseudo-scientific response to the pandemic. Bhattacharya will remain NIH director as the Trump administration seeks a permanent CDC director, who must be confirmed by the Senate. Donald Trump’s first CDC director, Susan Monarez, served for only a month before resigning in opposition to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s vaccine policy.
- GOP sues to stop VA Dems’ gerrymandering: A group of Republicans filed a lawsuit against Virginia Democrats’ redistricting ballot referendum, seeking an emergency motion to stop the measure ahead of the March 6 early voting date. The lawsuit contends that Democrats have violated state law and used misleading language in pushing their blatantly partisan redistricting map that fails to represent Virginia’s near-even voter split. National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson observed, “Virginia Democrats are ignoring their own Constitution and trying to rig the system in their favor.”
- CNN “documentary” will frame Kirk’s memorial as a radicalizing event: CNN’s Pamela Brown announced this week a documentary expected to air this weekend on how Charlie Kirk’s assassination became a “rallying call” for Christian nationalism. “Christian nationalism” is a deliberate effort to turn Christian citizenship into a slur that can be used against the Right. That, of course, gives away CNN’s game. This is not a hard-hitting documentary meant to highlight the grief the Christian Right felt over Kirk’s murder and how many are feeling led to live up to his example; it is a propaganda piece meant to turn its audience against the idea of Christian nationalism. A clip from the documentary shows Professor Matthew Taylor casting doubt on the persecution of Christians … while discussing Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
- Mamdani shifts gears, restarts homeless encampment sweeps: During his campaign, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani blasted his predecessor, Eric Adams, for his policy of clearing out homeless encampments in the city. Upon taking office, Mamdani immediately suspended such sweeps, calling them inhumane. However, just over a month into the post, and following the death of at least 19 individuals due to cold exposure, Mamdani is changing his tune. On Wednesday, he announced that he is reauthorizing the sweeps, though he noted they would not be carried out by the police but by the city’s homeless services department. Coalition for the Homeless executive director David Giffen criticized the decision, arguing, “When a city worker shows up and throws out all your belongings, you’re not going to trust that person the next time they show up offering you a place to sleep inside.”
- Trans Bill of Rights: Once upon a time, the 10 rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights were considered applicable to all Americans. Today, in an era when the Left is pushing “identity groups” rather than patriotism, that is no longer the case. That’s why House Democrats have introduced the “Trans Bill of Rights.” The bill itself is vague, aiming only to expand transgender access to public “services” and “accommodations.” Despite claiming to ask for “equal access,” what this bill truly wants to enshrine in law is the right of a perverted man in a dress to enter protected women’s spaces. Additionally, it would require institutions to play along with the transgender fetish and taxpayers to pay for gender reassignment surgeries. Under the Trump administration, this bill is expected to be dead in the water, but it establishes the playbook for the next Democrat administration.
- NYU Langone and Baystate Health get rid of “gender-affirming care”: If you can’t appeal to their conscience, appeal to their wallets. That’s the motto behind the Trump administration’s policies that have now led to the termination of NYU Lagone and Baystate Health’s gender mutilation. Baystate, the largest healthcare system in western Massachusetts, and Lagone, a major Manhattan hospital, were not convinced by the Cass Review and subsequent banning of “gender-affirming” surgeries in the UK. Nor were they convinced by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Medical Association’s statements that no “gender-affirming” care should be given to minors. But once the secretary of Health and Human Services announced that their Medicaid and Medicare funding would be cut off, they ended their evil practices posthaste.
- High school trans wrestler accused of sexual assault drops out of girls state tourney: A male high school wrestler who identifies as a “transgender girl” and has been accused of sexually assaulting a female competitor during a match has withdrawn from the Washington State girls wrestling championship tournament. State authorities have yet to announce whether charges will be raised against this individual. A Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association spokesperson explained that the male athlete was “replaced by an alternate from the same WIAA District qualifying event.” The girl accusing him of sexual assault is not the alternate competitor.
- Dispatches from Oakland: In Oakland, California, no one is above being targeted by the criminals — not even the mayor. A thief reportedly stole Mayor Barbara Lee’s car keys from her office and, two days later, returned to steal the car. The mayor’s abandoned black SUV was later discovered nearby in Vallejo, California. The Oakland Police Department has yet to locate the thief. Apparently, Oakland has the highest auto theft rate in the country, with 9,914 motor vehicle thefts in 2024, according to FBI data. Its overall crime rate was also four times the national average in 2024, likely due to the fact that the Oakland Police Department is suffering from a severe shortage of officers. Even the Soros-backed Oakland DA wasn’t exempt from brazen burglars who broke her SUV window to steal her laptop. Ironically, though, she claims she “doesn’t feel unsafe” living there.
Headlines
- Judge rules that authorities can’t re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia (Townhall)
- Trump “taking an interest” in social media bans for teens (NY Post)
- Ex-South Korean President Yoon gets life sentence (Washington Times)
- Thief breaks into Oakland mayor’s office, steals her car (Not the Bee)
- Eight dead, one missing in Lake Tahoe avalanche tragedy (NY Post)
The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.
FEATURED ANALYSIS
Zuckerberg Dodges and Weaves in Liability Case
Nate Jackson
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously testified before Congress about the addictive nature of social media and the effect it has on kids and teens. Yesterday, for the first time, the Facebook founder testified before a jury in a liability lawsuit in Los Angeles on the same subject.
Our Emmy Griffin explained the case last week:
One plaintiff, referred to as “KGM,” is a 20-year-old who believes that social media addiction led to her psychological issues, including depression, body dysmorphic disorder, and self-harm. She began using YouTube, owned by Google, at the tender age of six and had access to Instagram, owned by Meta, at age nine. …
The trial will specifically address whether or not the jury finds Meta and Google liable for the deterioration of KGM’s mental health due to the addictive nature of their platforms.
Griffin noted that proving liability for Meta and others may be a heavy lift for several reasons, including the frequently cited Section 230. That provision in the 1996 Communications Decency Act largely shields platforms from liability for user-generated content. However, those platforms have often behaved like publishers, “fact-checking” and censoring (primarily conservative) content in a tacit admission that social media changes behavior.
As for youth, The New York Times reports, “In internal documents that surfaced in some of the [other] lawsuits [facing the company], Mr. Zuckerberg and other Meta leaders repeatedly played down their platforms’ risks to young people, while rejecting employee pleas to bolster youth guardrails and hire additional staff.”
The Daily Wire adds, “Zuckerberg bolstered his argument by noting that less than 1% of Instagram’s revenue comes from teenagers, emphasizing the demographic has limited purchasing power and is therefore less attractive to advertisers. He argued that, from a business perspective, attracting teenagers is not ‘meaningful in the short term.’”
That may be, but if a product is meant to hook adults so they spend money, it will hook kids, too, if there are insufficient guardrails in place. Teen users also soon become adult users.
On Wednesday, Zuckerberg largely stuck to his talking points, steering clear of anything that might be taken as an acknowledgment of Instagram’s addictive “qualities.” Still, he was confronted with a 2015 memo, in which the Times says he “encouraged executives to prioritize increasing the time that teenagers spend on Meta’s apps.”
Much more recently — November 2023 — Instagram head Adam Mosseri sent a memo to employees, saying, “As you are building out your 2024 plans, I’m asking that the business teams stay laser focused on 1) teens, particularly in developed markets and 2) Threads, and in that order.”
Oh.
In this particular case, Meta’s lawyers are trying to prove that KGM had a turbulent home life and that social media, including Instagram, was a coping mechanism, not the cause of her mental health issues.
It seems relevant that, in his 2024 congressional testimony, Zuckerberg turned to several families and offered what appeared to be a spontaneous apology. He told parents he was “sorry for everything you have all been through.” Maybe that was all scripted, but likely not. In any case, it wasn’t exactly an admission of guilt.
Yesterday, Zuckerberg said Instagram made a conscious decision to prioritize utility over time spent on the platform. His “basic assumption,” he explained, is that “if something is valuable, people will use it more because it’s useful to them.”
The idea that Instagram or any other social media platform isn’t actively doing everything possible to keep people scrolling and staring is absurd on its face. They go out of business if people don’t stay on the platforms, and their own internal documents belie his claim.
Ultimately, however, this is a tough case. No one wants to be on the other side of grieving parents who have lost children to suicide. No one wants to admit responsibility for harm to children.
You can say that parents should take charge of how their children use things, but as the parent of teenagers, I can tell you that, unless you keep them under lock and key, they will find ways to do dumb stuff. Heck, I was a teenager once myself.
As a Gen Xer, I grew up without any of this stuff. I learned to type on a typewriter. I didn’t even send an email until I was in college, and I got my first cellphone when my wife was pregnant with our first child. In other words, my brain was fully developed (cough, cough — I swear) by the time social media was a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.
For kids growing up in the last 20 years, however, separating fact from fiction or reality from make-believe is much harder because of social media. For example, there wouldn’t be a “transgender community” if it weren’t for Big Tech platforms.
Does that mean Meta and the rest are liable for every bad thing — or even just certain really bad things — that happens to a kid?
Some are looking to the Australian model of banning social media for kids. Some 86% of Americans want to hold platforms accountable for “predatory” social media addiction.
As for specific liability, this Los Angeles jury will go a long way to setting a precedent, one way or another.
MORE ANALYSIS
- Emmy Griffin: A Putrid Potomac Problem — The Potomac River is chock-full of sewage, and the Trump administration and Democrat officials are exchanging blame. Who’s actually at fault?
- Thomas Gallatin: Colbert, Talarico Lie About FCC ‘Ban’ — “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert falsely claims the FCC banned his interview with Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico.
- Samantha Koch: Hillary Clinton Stands by Her Man Again — Her “women’s rights” panel featured Tim “Sarah” McBride, the Democrat congressman from Delaware, who expressed his views on women’s rights.
- Gregory Lyakhov: Enforcement Without Efficiency Is Not Enforcement — Immigration enforcement is not strengthened by turning one contested case — like that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — into a national spectacle.
- Patrick Hampton: Remembering Jesse Jackson and His Complicated Stance on Abortion — Jackson’s legacy offers a crucial lesson: compromising on moral convictions comes with real consequences.
Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column
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Reader Comments
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
- Victor Davis HansonWhy Exactly Did They Destroy the Border?
- Ann CoulterWithout Victory, There Is No Survival
- Armstrong WilliamsWhat Should President Trump Say at His State of the Union on Tuesday?
- Laura HollisWestern Civilization Will Disintegrate Without Truth
- Rich LowryThe Greatest Sports Story Ever Told
- The Babylon BeeNew Yorkers Report Warmth of Collectivism Feels Strangely Like Crushing Tax Hike
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.
PODCAST
| Latest PodcastPopCon #134: Rupert Lowe: “We Will Not Manage the West’s Decline”The West is in a moment of crisis, and British MP Rupert Lowe’s new political movement, Restore Britain, has, in the words of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline.” |
BEST OF VIDEOS
- Ben Sasse on Mortality, Meaning, and the Future of America — After his cancer diagnosis, the former senator reflects on faith, mortality, and redeeming the time — then takes on Congress, higher education, and our fragmented republic.
SHORT CUTS
Race Bait
“What’s so interesting about the MAGA regime to me is they’re all white nationalists, even the brown-skinned ones, even the Latinos.” —podcaster Jennifer Welch
Shot/Chaser
Q: “I notice that when you urge people to action, you often include the word ‘peacefully.’ Is that to avoid another Jan. 6-type incident?” —CNN reporter
A: “With all due respect, it’s to avoid people like you guys saying that I’m anything but.” —right-wing activist Scott Presler
Democrat Infighting
“We did receive information suggesting that the federal government did not shut down this segment. … It is our understanding that either Mr. Colbert or CBS decided that they just didn’t want to air it. And this was because of a fear that the FCC may say something to him and that there may have been advice to just have me on.” —Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) suggesting that the Democrat establishment collaborated to support her Texas Senate primary opponent
For the Record
“CBS’s late night host wanted to deny a black woman equal time on television in the middle of an active election and with his super-Christian best friend, lied about it.” —Erick Erickson
“I, for one, am enjoying the Democrats throwing Jasmine Crockett under the bus.” —Amy Curtis
Re: the Epstein Files
“By releasing document after document, not only have victims been needlessly exposed without their consent, but we also risk applying guilt by association to anyone for the sole crime of simply being named in the files — a door that, once opened, cannot be closed.” —Ian Haworth
Climate Swindle
“Since the global warming crusade started some 30 years ago, the temperature of the planet has not been altered by one-tenth of a degree — as even the alarmists will admit. In other words, $16 trillion has been spent — a lot of people got very, very rich off the government largesse — but there is not a penny of measurable payoff.” —Stephen Moore
Belly Laugh of the Day
“We send billions of dollars to dead people and they get cashed — the checks get cashed. … We’re talking about all kinds of checks. … So I had to go pass a bill. … So far as I can tell, dead people can still vote, but they can’t cash checks because we’re not going to be sending them to them anymore.” —Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)
Leading the Way
“Success for Turning Point wasn’t beating the NFL in ratings. It was proving that an alternative halftime show was viable and that Turning Point could pull it off. It succeeded on both fronts. … There’s a lesson here for conservatives. It’s not enough to rightly point out the many things wrong with our culture and society. Conservatives must create alternatives.” —Victor Joecks
And Last…
“The ideas that the left uses to discredit the West are uniquely Western ideas. The West came up with … equal rights, tolerance, of freedom from religious domination. These are all Western ideas that now the left hurls back against us and say, ‘You’re not perfect in them.’ No, we’re not, but no other civilization is as well.” —Heather Mac Donald
TODAY’S MEME
For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.
| ON THIS DAY in 1945, the U.S. Marines launched the 36-day Battle of Iwo Jima with 70,000 men attacking 21,000 Japanese who were dug in and prepared to fight to the death. Only a couple of hundred Japanese soldiers surrendered, while 19,217 Americans were wounded and 6,871 were killed in action. The Medal of Honor was awarded to 22 Marines and five Sailors, 14 of them posthumously. |
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