4A| TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2021| AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN LONE STAR POLITICS

POLITIFACT Rogan spreads false info on podcast

Bill McCarthy sion of a “surveillance Joe Rogan dividual texts aside from the ones they PolitiFact.com state,” it gave the false receive themselves.” impression that the gov- Statement: The And CTIA, a trade group representing In a recent episode of his popular ernment is screening pri- government is “monitoring the wireless communications industry, podcast, Spotify host Joe Rogan implied vate texts between family SMS texts for dangerous said in a statement: “Wireless carriers that the government is “monitoring SMS and friends — a claim misinformation about COVID vaccines.” do not read or moderate the content of texts for dangerous misinformation that several conservative Rogan text messages that their customers send about COVID vaccines.” politicians and pundits, to each other, nor are carriers working That’s not true. The effort Rogan was such as Sen. Josh Hawley and “When the DNC’s counter-disinfor- with third parties to do so.” referring to is not about intercepting or host Tucker Carlson, made more explic- mation program receives complaints or A Spotify representative declined to screening private text messages, and itly. reports of fraudulent broadcast SMSs comment on behalf of the company and there’s no evidence the government is That allegation grew out of a that we believe violate the text aggrega- Rogan. involved with it, as PolitiFact has report about the Biden White House’s tors’ terms of service, we notify the reported. efforts to fight back against what it per- broadcast text platform to help combat Our ruling The misleading claim came about an ceives as misinformation about the CO- this troubling trend,” Acosta said. hour and a half into the podcast as Ro- VID-19 vaccines. “Of course the DNC has no ability to In a conversation about privacy and gan, one of Austin’s newer residents, The July 12 report included this nug- access or read people’s private text mes- living in “a surveillance state,” Rogan discussed issues of surveillance and pri- get about SMS text messages: sages, and we are not working with any said, “They are monitoring SMS texts for vacy with journalist Abby Martin, his “Biden allied groups, including the government agency, including the White dangerous misinformation about COVID guest for the July 20 episode. Democratic National Committee, are House, to try to see personal text mes- vaccines.” “Look, we’re living in a panopticon also planning to engage fact-checkers sages,” Acosta said. “The only texts re- Rogan’s vague references to “they” here,” Martin said. “We’re in a surveil- more aggressively and work with SMS viewed are those distributed en masse and “SMS texts” could have left some lis- lance state that is undoubtedly so.” Mar- carriers to dispel misinformation about to American citizens through broadcast teners with the misleading impression tin then asked Rogan if he thought his vaccines that is sent over social media text platforms and reported to the DNC.” that the government is snooping on all emails were being watched. and text messages. The goal is to ensure Speaking about the effort on his pod- text messages that Americans send and “I assume all my emails are moni- that people who may have difficulty get- cast, Rogan did not distinguish between receive, including private messages. tored,” Rogan said in response. “But ting a vaccination because of issues like the government and the DNC, or be- That’s not the case. The effort he al- have you seen the new thing about SMS transportation see those barriers less- tween the personal texts exchanged be- luded to comes from the Democratic Na- text messages to stop COVID vaccine ened or removed entirely.” tween individuals and the type of mass tional Committee, which is alerting misinformation? DNC spokesman Lucas Acosta told texts blasted to mailing lists that the companies that facilitate bulk text mes- “They are monitoring SMS texts for PolitiFact that the party is merely noti- DNC is concerned about, leaving room saging to reports about mass text mes- dangerous misinformation about COVID fying companies that facilitate bulk for confusion. sages that spread misinformation in vio- vaccines,” Rogan continued. “Now look, texting about broadcast SMSs that Politico reporter Natasha Korecki, lation of their terms of service. The gov- misinformation is not good, right, with spread misinformation. Broadcast who co-authored the report that ernment is not involved, and no mes- anything. But who’s deciding?” SMSs are messages that organizers blast spawned the false claims of government sages are being screened. Rogan’s claim was vague about who out to large lists of subscribers, often spying, said in a pair of tweets that the The statement leaves out context that “they” are and what messages were be- through an application such as Twilio or White House is not involved, and that could give a different impression. We ing monitored, but in context of discus- Bandwidth. “there is no ability for groups to read in- rate Rogan’s statement Mostly False.

TOP 3 STORIES OF THE WEEK Did special election foretell Trump’s Gov. ordered state troopers to pull over vehicles suspected of trans- weakening grip on Republican voters? porting migrants, saying the 1goal was to prevent the spread of Rick Perry — who also served as energy COVID-19. The order drew protests secretary in Trump’s cabinet, reportedly over fears of racial profiling and a told the former president “he had been John C. Moritz lawsuit threat from U.S. Attorney Gen- fed a bill of goods” when he was persuad- Columnist eral Merrick Garland, who called the ed to endorse Wright. USA TODAY NETWORK action illegal. Which brings us back to Trump and the coming primary with Bush, Paxton Attorney General Ken It might not be a stretch to say the and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Paxton won the sweepstakes happiest guy Tuesday night — after the Eva Guzman. As noted, Paxton early tied for former President Donald special runoff election in North Texas to his own political fortunes to Trump. The Trump's endorsement in the replace a deceased Republican con- two-term attorney general was way out 22022 GOP primary, outlasting Land gressman — was George P. Bush, who front in the ill-fated court efforts chal- Commissioner George P. Bush, who wasn’t on the ballot and doesn’t even Land Commissioner George P. Bush lenging election results in some of the fought hard for Trump's backing. Soon live in the district that was contested. talks with the media at a June rally states won by Biden last year. after, a Trump-backed candidate lost And it’s all because he did not get an where he announced his run for state Paxton also spoke at a Trump rally in to a fellow Republican in a special endorsement from former President attorney general. ERIC GAY/AP Washington on Jan. 6, the day insurrec- election for a -area U.S. House . tionist Trump supporters attempted to seat. The special congressional election to take over the U.S. Capitol. In addition, Several state lawmakers com- replace the late Ron Wright of Arlington It’s no secret that after capturing the Paxton is — and has been for some time plained but were ultimately was won by Republican state Rep. Jake GOP presidential nomination in 2016 and — carrying some heavy political baggage powerless to block the Uni- Ellzey even though Trump endorsed his then going on to win the White House, unrelated to Trump as he seeks a third opponent, also a Republican and Trump remade the Republican Party in term. He’s been under indictment on se- versity of Texas from moving Wright’s widow. Smart money going his own image and likeness on a range of curities fraud charges pretty much his 3to a more prestigious athletic confer- into Tuesday was that Trump sealed issues from immigration to relations whole tenure. ence. the deal for Susan Wright to complete with Russia to fiscal discipline and, for Paxton insists he’s innocent, but the her husband’s unexpired term. lack of a more gender-neutral alterna- charges have not by any means gone But most of the voters in the low- tive, gentlemanly behavior. away. turnout runoff didn’t follow like blind And, curiously enough, Trump’s star Bush and the lesser-known Guzman sheep, and Ellzey won by a comfortable power within the GOP ranks did not have shown they’re not above making 6.5 percentage points. seem to dim considerably even when he references, both oblique and overt, to QUOTE OF THE WEEK In the coming GOP primary for attor- was defeated last year by Democrat Joe Paxton’s legal difficulties by saying ney general, Trump teased out whom Biden. It was more or less an article of things like an attorney general must be “I’m here because this is he would endorse. Incumbent Ken Pax- faith that candidates who wished to ad- “above reproach” and how “honor and in- ton has been as loyal as anyone to the vance in the Republican Party had to tegrity” must be restored to the office of the seat of democracy. And former president. But Bush was pretty earn the expressed blessing of the 45th the state’s top lawyer. my people who I represent much step-for-step with Paxton in sup- president. And, like Ellzey, they are doing noth- porting Trump, even breaking with his Until Tuesday, that is. To be clear, Ell- ing to antagonize Trump, even though have a right to be able to own family, in which many of its most zey did nothing to put himself crossways he’s not with either one of them in the prominent members made no effort to with either Trump or his followers. And 2022 primary. vote unabridged, just like hide their antipathy toward Trump. the former Navy fighter pilot never Look for such needle-threading to all of you.” Before finally endorsing Paxton, the missed an opportunity to highlight his continue until the primary — and per- former president was saying nice conservative credentials, even as the haps into a runoff — to see whether State Rep. Senfronia Thompson things about Bush, like how he was the Wright camp tried to tag him as a tool of enough rank-and-file Republican voters D-Houston, testifying before a U.S. House subcommittee Thursday on GOP-backed only one in his family “who got it right” the Democrats. statewide are willing to look past the election legislation by fully embracing Trump. But Ellzey’s top surrogate, former Gov. preferences of the former president.

Legislature still at an impasse on Republican elections bill

Cassandra Pollock a quorum — 100 of the 150 House mem- compromised plenty on the legislation, after this one ends; a special session and Patrick Svitek bers have to be together to conduct offi- while Democrats are distrustful of both can end early, but can’t go longer than The Texas Tribune cial business — are still camped out in the policy driving the legislation and 30 days, and Friday is the 30th day. the nation’s capital, and Republicans their GOP colleagues after seeing how If there is another special session, Heading into the last week of the are still waiting for them back in Aus- they have managed the process around Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has indicated the special legislative session, the partisan tin, toiling through the daily monotony. the bill so far. Senate will pass elections legislation standoff over Texas Republicans’ prior- The few glimmers of hope for negoti- Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to call similar to what it passed during this ity elections bill is no closer to a resolu- ation are long gone, and neither side special session after special session one, which could close the door on any tion in Austin. appears to be in the mood for dialogue. until the elections bill passes, and he potential further negotiations between Enough House Democrats to prevent Republicans believe they have already has said the next one will begin the day Republicans and Democrats.