Harvard Pulls Plug on “Disinformation” Research Program

Conservative News DailyFebruary 3, 2023

Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government has pulled the plug on its “Disinformation” The program was run by its director, who was skeptical about Hunter Biden’s laptop story.

In Email obtained by Semafor the Technology and Social Change Project, Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy announced it was being shut down, citing
“bureaucratic reasons.”

“The Kennedy School’s standing policy is that all research projects must be led by a full faculty member. While there can be limited exceptions, those can’t continue indefinitely without a faculty member as the principal project leader and academic head,” The director wrote.

Harvard will parte ways with Dr. Joan Donovan. She was the leader of the project from its inception in 2019 to this day. “help newsroom leaders fight misinformation and media manipulation.”

Democrats were enthralled by Donavan’s warnings about the dangers posed by so-called “Islamic” religions. ‘misinformation.’

Among its cased studies was an assessment of the media’s coverage of the Hunter Biden The laptop story was first published in the New York Post by the New York Post following the repair of a laptop at a Delaware shop.

In the laptop, dozens of damning emails were discovered from Hunter’s time at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Authenticity

Many left-wing academics and commentators claimed the story was Russian disinformation. Donavan believed this sentiment, which raised questions about its reliability.

The New York Times reported that Donavan’s project concluded the media’s reaction to the revelations offered “an instructive case study on the power of social media and news organizations to mitigate media manipulation campaigns.”

Even after the Times or other outlets Asserted the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop and that it was not “Russian disinformation,” Donavan remained skeptical.

Donavan even referred the Hunter Biden laptop tale as a “straw man” In a tweet, April 20, 222.

“Me and @cwarzel Looking at the content on the Hunter Biden Laptop, the most popular straw man question at #Disinfo2022,” Along with a photo of Charlie Warzel, a staff reporter for The Atlantic, she wrote.

Donavan questioned the Hunter Biden laptop story during the Harvard Kennedy School Podcast PolicyCast.

“The sourcing of the laptop being dropped off in Delaware at a lonely repairman’s shop that’s just… If you can charge $85 for fixing a broken laptop, I want to know you,” Donavan began.

“It’s a broken laptop, right? So, the sourcing of it just stinks of tradecraft. It stinks of a drop. And many cyber-security professionals are waiting for an opportunity to forensically analyze the contents of this hard drive,” She spoke.

Donavan stated that Hunter stories were being repeated in conservative media, but not in other outlets. This was in response to Donavan’s prediction of an escalation in tactics.

“What we see as researchers when they’re trying to make a story happen time and time again, and it doesn’t, then you start to see the intensification and adaptation of tactics,” Donavan said.

“So, we pretty much expected more and different styles of attack, including a leak, but was really suspicious of it, is you’ve got someone with millions of dollars,” She added.

“He can’t afford Geek Squad at Best Buy to come to his house for the laptop that he’s evidence of crimes on? I mean, it’s really hard to believe,” Donavan concluded.