Dan Bongino Admits to Lying During His Pundit Days; The Atlantic, December 8, 2025

 David A. Graham , The Atlantic; Dan Bongino Admits to Lying During His Pundit Days

"The suspect, Brian Cole Jr., reportedly recently told investigators that he was a Donald Trump supporter who believed Trump’s bogus claims of fraud in the 2020 election. But various people in conservative media and politics have insisted for years that the pipe bombs were actually planned or placed by the government in order to make Trump look bad—which was why no one had been apprehended.

One of the most prominent backers of that claim was the podcaster and radio host Dan Bongino. Even the Fox News host Sean Hannity, one of the administration’s most sycophantic pundits, had to point this out during an interview on Thursday night, noting that before joining the FBI, Bongino had called the bombs an “inside job.” Bongino’s answer was astonishing.

“I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions, that’s clear, and one day I will be back in that space—but that’s not what I’m paid for now,” he said. “I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”"

Interested Parties Memo: Fighting Hurricane Helene Falsehoods with Facts; The White House, October 5, 2024

The White House; Interested Parties Memo: Fighting Hurricane Helene Falsehoods with Facts

""Senior Advisor to the President and Communications Director Ben LaBolt, and Director of Digital Strategy Christian Tom

Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s direction, the Administration has mobilized a robust, intensive, and whole-of-government effort to respond to the impacts of Hurricane Helene. This includes extensive pre-landfall preparations, as well as an immediate surge of additional resources and personnel to impacted communities. More than 6,400 Federal personnel are on the ground, and more than $110 million in Federal assistance has been given to survivors, with more to come. We are sparing no resource as we work to ensure communities across the Southeast have prompt access to Federal resources that will enable them to both purchase essential items and begin their road to recovery and rebuilding.

Unfortunately, as our response and recovery efforts continue, we have seen a large increase in false information circulating online related to the federal response to Hurricane Helene. A number of scam artists, bad-faith actors, and others who want to sow chaos because they think it helps their political interests are promoting disinformation about the recovery effort, including ways to access critical and live-saving resources. This is wrong, dangerous, and it must stop immediately.

Combatting misinformation and disinformation is always important – but it is especially important when responding to disasters like Hurricane Helene. In fact, disinformation after a hurricane or other natural disaster can discourage people from seeking critical assistance when they need it most. It is imperative that we encourage impacted residents to register for FEMA assistance, not discourage it, by allowing falsehoods to spread.

Leaders from across the country, including local, state, and federal elected officials in both parties, are pleading with people to stop sharing “this junk.”

1. CNN: With misinformation swirling in Hurricane Helene’s wake, officials urge residents to ‘stop this conspiracy theory junk’
2. HuffPost: North Carolina Republican Pleads To End Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories About Helene Disaster Recovery
3. The Hill: Tennessee mayor on FEMA attacks post-Helene: ‘Quit spreading those rumors’
4. WVLT: ‘A lot of misinformation’ | Gov. Lee, FEMA address donation rumors

Here are some of the falsehoods being spread online – and the facts we are fighting back with:"

Harvard's Drew Gilpin Faust says history should make us uncomfortable; Fresh Air, NPR, August 22, 2023

  Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR; Harvard's Drew Gilpin Faust says history should make us uncomfortable

"Drew Gilpin Faust is known as a historian, a civil rights activist and the first woman president of Harvard — but she was groomed to become a proper Southern lady...

Faust's new memoir, Necessary Trouble, takes its name from a quote by the late Rep. John Lewis, who Faust knew and approved of using his words. The book is about growing up in Virginia and coming of age during a period of rapid social transformation...

On the mischaracterization of slavery included in Florida's new standards of Black history education, proposed under Gov. Ron DeSantis

It's preposterous and it's extremely distressing. It's a complete distortion of the past, which is undertaken in service of the present, of minimizing racial issues in the present by saying everything's been "just great" for four centuries. Slavery was not "just great." It was oppressive. It was cruel. It involved exploitation of every sort, physical violence, sexual exploitation. We know that we have pieces of paper where slave owners wrote it down. I did a biography of a South Carolina planter who recorded in detail what his mastery of slaves entailed. And there are dozens and dozens and dozens of studies that show this...

On the notion that students shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable about history

It's a betrayal of the commitment to truth and to fact. And it so undermines the ability of people in the present to understand who they are. How do we have history that's not uncomfortable? How do we have any kind of education that doesn't make you in some way uncomfortable? Education asks you to change. The headmistress of my girls school many years ago said to us, "Have the courage to be disturbed, to learn about the Holocaust and see what evil can mean, to learn about slavery and think about exploitation that is empowered by an ideology of race that we haven't entirely dismantled. Understand what people did in the past so that you can, in the present, better critique your own assumptions, your own blindnesses, and make a world that's a better world." If we don't acknowledge those realities, we are disempowered as human beings."

The searing photos that helped end child labor in America; The Washington Post, September 3, 2018

Jessica Contrera, The Washington Post; The searing photos that helped end child labor in America

 

"Hine’s photos showed the price: unsafe working conditions, dangerous machinery and business owners who refused to educate the children or limit their working hours.

Though there had been investigations that attempted to expose these circumstances in the past, “The industry simply dismissed those reports as — the term they would use today is — ‘fake news,’ ” said Hugh Hindman, a historian of child labor. “When Hine comes along and supplements the investigations with pictures, it creates a set of facts that can’t be denied anymore.”"

"Breaker Boys working in Ewen Breaker of Pennsylvania Coal Co." South Pittston, Pennsylvania. Photographer: Lewis Hine. Archived: Library of Congress

 

A Code Of Ethics In Research; Forbes, April 9, 2018

Scott McDonald, Forbes; A Code Of Ethics In Research

"A single-minded focus on matters of fact can still leave us blind to the ethical implications of our work...

What ethical guidelines guide the use of “secondary data” collected for some other purpose, but now used for research? What responsibility do researchers have to ensure that the data they are using were collected legally, without any deception? What rights do consumers have to know about and approve the uses to which their data are put? What obligations do researchers have to protect consumers from harm that might come from the misuse of their data? What ethical guidelines should govern profiling and highly-targeted communications?

The reality is that the ability of technology to collect data is outstripping the guidelines in place to ensure that sound business practices are being followed. Just because we can do something, it doesn’t mean we should. The Cambridge event is a reckoning, not a revelation.

Let me be clear. The issue is that we should establish and comply with ethical guidelines not to ward off government intervention, but because it is good for our business. Consumer data is not ours, it belongs to consumers, and if we possess it and use it any form, we have a responsibility to respect it – and the consumer who provided it.

To that end, the ARF has issued a call for development and establishment of guidelines and standards to govern consumer data collection and protection." 

Hillary Clinton Says Libraries Are Essential In Fight To Defend ‘Truth And Reason’; HuffPost, June 27, 2017

Hayley Miller, HuffPost; Hillary Clinton Says Libraries Are Essential In Fight To Defend ‘Truth And Reason’

"“The work you do is at the heart of an open, inclusive and diverse society,” Clinton told a crowd at the American Library Association’s conference in Chicago. “I believe libraries and democracy go hand-in-hand.”...

“You have to be on the front lines of one of the most important fights we have ever faced in history in this country: the right to defend truth and reason, evidence and facts,” she said...

The former first lady added that libraries are critical to the well-being of rural communities and provide invaluable resources to help immigrants and refugees learn English and “know their rights.”"

The Russification of America; New York Times, February 21, 2017

Roger Cohen, New York Times; 

The Russification of America

"I’m skeptical of Trump ever running a disciplined administration. His feelings about Europe are already clear and won’t change. The European Union needs to step into the moral void by standing unequivocally for the values that must define the West: truth, facts, reason, science, tolerance, freedom, democracy and the rule of law. For now it’s unclear if the Trump administration is friend or foe in that fight."

Museums and libraries fight ‘alternative facts’ with a #DayofFacts; Washington Post, February 17, 2017

Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post; Museums and libraries fight ‘alternative facts’ with a #DayofFacts

"First the National Parks went rogue, sharing climate change data on Twitter. Now museums and libraries have taken up arms — or at least typing fingers — to fight on behalf of facts.

Using the hashtag #DayofFacts, more than 280 scientific and cultural institutions are devoting Friday to dropping 140-character truths on Twitter. Many of the facts seem pointedly political — like the National Museum of American Jewish History's tweet about a George Washington letter affirming religious freedom in the country, or a placard held up in a video by Chicago's Field Museum that stated “Climate change is accelerating the extinction of plants and animals.”"

Start over, city schools: The Pittsburgh Public Schools cannot function with Anthony Hamlet as superintendent; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/10/16

Editorial Board, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Start over, city schools: The Pittsburgh Public Schools cannot function with Anthony Hamlet as superintendent:

"Anthony Hamlet has some of the qualities that Pittsburgh requires in its next superintendent of schools, including a drive to turn around low-performing schools and the realization that alternatives to suspension are needed to address discipline issues. Mr. Hamlet, however, also has qualities that the Pittsburgh Public Schools does not need at this delicate stage. They include a slippery relationship with facts, a willingness to plagiarize and an overly defensive attitude. He must not become the next superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

The process was flawed from the start...

The problems with Mr. Hamlet’s credentials are substantive — and the implications for keeping him here are profound. It is impossible to move forward under a leader who misrepresents himself and prefers recalcitrance to transparency. He has more than gotten off to a bad start. He has proved himself unworthy of holding one of the most important positions in the Pittsburgh region. He should withdraw as the next superintendent, a job he is set to begin on July 1.

Lynda Wrenn is the first board member to express doubts about Mr. Hamlet, declaring Thursday that if the plagiarism charges hold true, she will call for a new search. So far, other board members have hedged or stood by its chosen candidate, an understandable position with so much invested in him.

But these are elected officials, responsible to the citizens of Pittsburgh. When the board meets today in a special session about the controversy, it must take a deep breath and realize that the situation has become untenable. If Mr. Hamlet does not resign, his contract must be dissolved. Start another search immediately, this time with a professional search firm.

The board’s failure at this essential task calls its leadership into question, and will renew calls for legislation to dissolve the elected school board and move to an appointed system.

There is only one lesson Mr. Hamlet can teach the students of the Pittsburgh Public Schools now: Own your mistakes, accept the consequences and move on."