Clinton slams ‘unregulated media’ and highlights France’s preelection coverage ban
Ryan King
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decried “unregulated media” in the United States on Monday and appeared to blame it for her election loss in 2016.
Clinton further warned that the prevalence of greed and lies promulgated by media and Big Tech companies undermines its democracy during a wide-ranging conversation with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at an event hosted by Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
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“When you have a media company that is like Facebook and like other platforms who do not care what lies they traffic in as long as they get ad money, you have consequences,” Clinton said before giving some advice to other countries. “Don’t go where we went, which was to largely unregulated media with no fairness doctrine, no accountability for lies — unless, of course, these lawsuits against Fox are successful.”
Recalling her 2016 defeat, Clinton alluded to Russia’s efforts to interfere in the election against her. She explained that French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign asked her what happened so they could craft a plan to avoid running into the same fate during his first election.
“Probably what really helped Macron was a law in France, which said no coverage of the election 72 hours before. And a lot of the people who we were in on this effort to takedown Macron … didn’t know about that law,” she said. “So they started dumping all of this phony information on the Friday before the Sunday election, but because they didn’t know about the law, it got no traction.”
Clinton also recalled a conversation with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in which she asked why Wellington was less plagued by political polarization than Australia.
“We never let Rupert Murdoch have a television presence,” Ardern replied, according to Clinton.
Throughout the discussion, both Clinton and Pelosi echoed sentiments that U.S. democracy is in dire straits. Pelosi pinpointed the start of the “backsliding” of U.S. democracy back to the 2016 election, surmising Clinton was the one whom Russian President Vladimir Putin “feared most.”
Pelosi suggested that the remedy is to show the “public what is at stake” and root our “dark money” from politics. Clinton concurred and emphasized that voters must be resolute and not disillusioned. The two struck a somewhat optimistic tone that the U.S. will recover.
Clinton also elaborated on her prior warning that artificial intelligence poses a threat to democracy and pointed to a deepfake video of Pelosi in which she appeared impaired or inebriated.
“I was so outraged. I called her office,” Clinton recounted. “Facebook would not take it down. … [They said], ‘We believe that our customers have the right to make up their own minds.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but this is not something to make up your own mind about because this is not real.'”
“We are going to be in a constant state of uncertainty and instability because other people have captured so much information about us. And then the final thing is impact on politics and governance,” Clinton added. “Democracy requires at least a minimal level of trust.”
Pelosi, for her part, largely shrugged off the episode but warned that AI could be weaponized against innocent bystanders in the future to tarnish their reputations.
“I don’t even drink alcohol,” she quipped. “Our artificial intelligence [is], again, a double-edged sword. So many wonderful opportunities that could be there. But the bad use of algorithms can create any reality that you want.”
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Clinton is slated to teach a course titled “Inside the Situation Room” next fall, assessing the various decision-making processes behind key events such as negotiations with Iran, the “red line” in Syria,” and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to a press release from Columbia. Last month, the institution released a tongue-in-cheek promo teasing the course.
The interview Monday was the first in a series by SIPA featuring in-depth discussions about pressing issues with top former officials “as they close one chapter in their career and look towards the next,” according to SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo.