By Catherine McClary
My grandmother used to say that you can’t believe everything you read. Today you can’t believe everything you see, either. Disinformation – the intentional and emotionally charged misdirection designed to manipulate people – is abundant. Social media makes it easy.
According to Barbara McQuade, law professor and advisor to MSNBC, disinformation is a threat to our democracy. McQuade’s book, “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America,” was released February 2024. Her book details the ways disinformation is impacting democracy and offers practical solutions for strengthening our society. McQuade and I talked prior to the release of her book.
Disinformation is substantially different from “misinformation” – false or inaccurate information, spread incautiously, but without malicious intent. Disinformation is akin to propaganda, which promotes only one side of an issue. Disinformation uses lies, plays on stereotypes, and is designed to provoke a visceral, emotional response with the purpose of manipulating other people’s behavior and beliefs. McQuade’s book includes a historical overview of disinformation from Mussolini and Hitler to Trump.
“I talk about some of the tactics to help people identify [disinformation] and I explain how it works against us psychologically,” McQuade said. “How cognitive forces [are used] against us. I describe how it is harming our democracy. How it is harming public safety. And how it is harming the rules of law. Then I offer solutions.”
There are a few things we can do that would not run afoul of the First Amendment, according to McQuade. She promotes stronger governmental regulation of the algorithms, not the content, and banning anonymous accounts online. She believes anonymous accounts enabled Russian influencers to “fool people” during the 2016 Presidential campaign. Young Russian operatives, working out of a boiler room in Moscow, created accounts with names of various grassroots organizations in order to affect the election. After gaining a following and trust, they would disparage the Democratic candidate.
“Ban the use of bots [which] can amplify these false claims,” McQuade recommended. She contends that Russian bots can “like” a fake post, thus making the message appear to have popular support.
“It’s all being boosted by the same person,” she said.
McQuade believes artificial intelligence can be used as a tool to detect faked photographs or voices that were, themselves, created using AI. She cites the work of a researcher at the University of Michigan Dearborn campus who is using AI to detect deep fakes.
“All of us [can] educate ourselves about techniques of disinformation,” said McQuade, cautioning people not to believe everything they read, to look for second sources to see if a story is true, and to read the entire story, not just the headline.
“We need to make truth our national purpose,” said McQuade, describing the liars’ dividend. The benefit of lying continually is that news becomes untrustworthy. She used an example: the Russians may say that somebody died by poisoning, then say that they died in a plane crash, and later allege the person committed suicide jumping off a balcony. The idea of the liars’ dividend — blatant continual lying — is that people become angry, then cynical, and finally numb. At that point, people no longer engage – they decide to focus on job and family.
“Well, that’s right where the authoritarian wants you, because you stop paying attention,” said McQuade.
“We can have two conflicting thoughts in our head at the same time,” McQuade told me, “and they aren’t necessarily conflicting on everything.”
McQuade elaborated on the inability to recognize nuance. People who think for themselves can recognize and reconcile several ideas. Choices aren’t always black and white – nuance requires shades of gray. Debaters call this the “either/or fallacy.” This fallacy says there are only two sides, black and white – red or blue.
McQuade said the most important single take-away from her book is that “We need to make truth our national purpose. We’ve fallen into this trap of thinking that our team or our tribe matters more than truth. We need to make the painful choices necessary to confront truth. That is the only way that we can succeed as a democracy.”
After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, McQuade began her career as a prosecutor for the federal government. She spent 19 years, first as an assistant attorney, then as the U.S. Attorney, for the Eastern District of Michigan. Appointed by President Barack Obama to fill a vacancy, she was asked to resign when President Donald Trump removed 46 U.S. Attorneys appointed by his predecessors.
McQuade directed several major high-profile cases as the first female prosecutor for the Eastern District of Michigan. She fought corruption and made integrity her focus. In her investigation of the former mayor of the City of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, she brought federal indictments against dozens of individuals for public corruption. Kilpatrick and the others involved in his criminal activities were convicted of fraud, bribery, and racketeering.
My grandmother used to say that you can’t believe everything you read. Today you can’t believe everything you see, either. Disinformation – the intentional and emotionally charged misdirection designed to manipulate people – is abundant. Social media makes it easy.
According to Barbara McQuade, law professor and advisor to MSNBC, disinformation is a threat to our democracy. McQuade’s book, “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America,” was released February 2024. Her book details the ways disinformation is impacting democracy and offers practical solutions for strengthening our society. McQuade and I talked prior to the release of her book.
Disinformation is substantially different from “misinformation” – false or inaccurate information, spread incautiously, but without malicious intent. Disinformation is akin to propaganda, which promotes only one side of an issue. Disinformation uses lies, plays on stereotypes, and is designed to provoke a visceral, emotional response with the purpose of manipulating other people’s behavior and beliefs. McQuade’s book includes a historical overview of disinformation from Mussolini and Hitler to Trump.
“I talk about some of the tactics to help people identify [disinformation] and I explain how it works against us psychologically,” McQuade said. “How cognitive forces [are used] against us. I describe how it is harming our democracy. How it is harming public safety. And how it is harming the rules of law. Then I offer solutions.”
There are a few things we can do that would not run afoul of the First Amendment, according to McQuade. She promotes stronger governmental regulation of the algorithms, not the content, and banning anonymous accounts online. She believes anonymous accounts enabled Russian influencers to “fool people” during the 2016 Presidential campaign. Young Russian operatives, working out of a boiler room in Moscow, created accounts with names of various grassroots organizations in order to affect the election. After gaining a following and trust, they would disparage the Democratic candidate.
“Ban the use of bots [which] can amplify these false claims,” McQuade recommended. She contends that Russian bots can “like” a fake post, thus making the message appear to have popular support.
“It’s all being boosted by the same person,” she said.
McQuade believes artificial intelligence can be used as a tool to detect faked photographs or voices that were, themselves, created using AI. She cites the work of a researcher at the University of Michigan Dearborn campus who is using AI to detect deep fakes.
“All of us [can] educate ourselves about techniques of disinformation,” said McQuade, cautioning people not to believe everything they read, to look for second sources to see if a story is true, and to read the entire story, not just the headline.
“We need to make truth our national purpose,” said McQuade, describing the liars’ dividend. The benefit of lying continually is that news becomes untrustworthy. She used an example: the Russians may say that somebody died by poisoning, then say that they died in a plane crash, and later allege the person committed suicide jumping off a balcony. The idea of the liars’ dividend — blatant continual lying — is that people become angry, then cynical, and finally numb. At that point, people no longer engage – they decide to focus on job and family.
“Well, that’s right where the authoritarian wants you, because you stop paying attention,” said McQuade.
“We can have two conflicting thoughts in our head at the same time,” McQuade told me, “and they aren’t necessarily conflicting on everything.”
McQuade elaborated on the inability to recognize nuance. People who think for themselves can recognize and reconcile several ideas. Choices aren’t always black and white – nuance requires shades of gray. Debaters call this the “either/or fallacy.” This fallacy says there are only two sides, black and white – red or blue.
McQuade said the most important single take-away from her book is that “We need to make truth our national purpose. We’ve fallen into this trap of thinking that our team or our tribe matters more than truth. We need to make the painful choices necessary to confront truth. That is the only way that we can succeed as a democracy.”
After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, McQuade began her career as a prosecutor for the federal government. She spent 19 years, first as an assistant attorney, then as the U.S. Attorney, for the Eastern District of Michigan. Appointed by President Barack Obama to fill a vacancy, she was asked to resign when President Donald Trump removed 46 U.S. Attorneys appointed by his predecessors.
McQuade directed several major high-profile cases as the first female prosecutor for the Eastern District of Michigan. She fought corruption and made integrity her focus. In her investigation of the former mayor of the City of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, she brought federal indictments against dozens of individuals for public corruption. Kilpatrick and the others involved in his criminal activities were convicted of fraud, bribery, and racketeering.
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5201 Woodward Avenue, Detroit Dr. Farid Fata, a licensed medical doctor practicing oncology in southeast Michigan, performed excessive and painful cancer treatments on hundreds of patients who did not have cancer. McQuade uncovered this healthcare fraud scheme and Dr. Fata was found guilty of insurance fraud and money laundering; he was sentenced to forty-five years in prison.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a terrorist trained by al-Qaeda, was called the “Underwear Bomber” by news reporters. He smuggled a plastic bomb in his underwear and tried to detonate it on a flight headed to Detroit. After McQuade’s investigation, he pleaded guilty to eight counts of terrorism and attempted murder. He was sentenced to life without parole.
When McQuade resigned as a federal prosecutor, the University of Michigan Law School hired her as a law professor to teach constitutional law and criminal procedure, using her expertise in national security, data privacy, and civil rights.
“I love the work at the law school,” she said. “For me, I very much enjoyed serving as US attorney, [but] I really love service, and I feel like I’m doing great service at the University of Michigan Law School, so I love my work here.”
In addition to her teaching, McQuade has become a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. She and three other female legal analysts host a weekly podcast. Called “#SistersInLaw,” Joyce Vance, Kimberly Atkins Stohr, and Jill Wine-Banks join McQuade in discussing the latest in politics, law, and culture. For three years they have pulled “back the curtain on how our government actually works.” McQuade says she loves the podcast because the hour-long format allows for more analysis than the short vignettes on MSNBC. The attorneys debate, provide analysis, discuss nuances, and offer different opinions.
McQuade already knew Vance well because they served as U.S. attorneys together and developed a friendship. Vance is a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law. Stohr, a younger Black woman from Detroit, is the senior opinion writer and a columnist for Boston Globe Opinion. Wine-Banks, one of the prosecutors during the Watergate scandal, was responsible for cross-examining President Richard Nixon’s secretary about the 18-1/2-minute gap on the Watergate tapes. She was the first female chief operating officer for the American Bar Association in 1987.
“I’ve come to be very, very fond of all three,” said McQuade. “I really look forward to our talks. We talk every Friday late afternoon to kind of recap the week’s legal news and I so look forward to hearing their take on things because they have different perspectives. So we try to break down the news in a way that is accessible to people maybe who are not lawyers. But we also try to address the nuance.”
McQuade, who grew up in Detroit, lives in Washtenaw County with her husband, also an attorney. They’ve raised four children. She is an unabashed sports fan devoted to the Detroit Lions and Michigan Wolverines. Her new book – “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America” –– offers solutions for preserving our democracy and is a call to action.
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Catherine McClary, Washtenaw County treasurer, writes profiles of women who are effective in serving our communities and improving lives. She has received numerous awards for creating innovative programs in Michigan, including a Liberty Bell Award from the Washtenaw County Bar Association in 2010. “Thank you friends at Chelsea Writer’s Workshop.” McClary can be reached at taxes@washtenaw.org.
