News coverage from February 2025 about the Center for an Informed Public and CIP-affiliated research and researchers.
- CNN (February 8, 2025): “Researchers decry ‘disastrously bad idea’ as NIH slashes payments for research infrastructure”
CNN quoted a Bluesky post by CIP faculty member and UW Department of Biology professor Carl Bergstrom about changes to federal funding of biomedical research from the National Institutes of Health. “For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.”
***
- Inside Higher Ed (February 8, 2025): “‘Shortsighted’ and ‘dangerous’: Colleges warn of budget cuts after NIH slashes medical research funding”
A Bluesky post by CIP faculty member Carl Bergstrom, a UW Department of Biology professor, was featured in an Insider Higher Ed article about changes to federal funding of biomedical research from the National Institutes of Health: “It is difficult to overstate what a catastrophe this will be for the US research and education systems, [particularly] in biomedical fields.”
***
- KUOW Public Radio (February 10, 2025): “Washington state, UW join lawsuit over Trump order cutting funding for medical research”
CIP faculty member Carl Bergstrom, a UW Department of Biology professor, was interviewed by KUOW Public Radio about the impacts of the Trump administration changes to National Institutes of Health grant funding. “There’s a whole ecosystem that allows us to be leaders in biotechnology here in the United States, and that involves the funding for the basic research that’s being done,” Bergstrom said. “But it’s [also] simply having a university system that’s producing highly skilled, highly trained graduates at the bachelor’s, master’s, PhD, and MD levels who are essential in the biotech workforce.”
***
- National Public Radio (February 13, 2025): “The Outrage Machine: Part 2.”
In an episode of NPR’s Landslide podcast, CIP co-founder Kate Starbird was featured, discussing some of her early research on crisis events and the Sharpiegate conspiracy theory from the 2020 U.S. elections that emerged in Maricopa County, Arizona.
***
- The Washington Post (February 15, 2025): “Musk accused Reuters of ‘social deception.’ The deception was his.”
A Bluesky post was quoted in a Washington Post article about how Elon Musk is using mischaracterization and conspiracy theories to justify DOGE cuts in the federal government. “They’re running the ‘Twitter Files’ playbook against the entire U.S. government,” Starbird wrote. “Just as in that case, the claims are a bunch of half-baked conspiracy theories built around idiotic misinterpretations and intentional mischaracterizations of bits of data and out-of-context communications.”
***
- The Washington Post (February 17, 2025): “Elon Musk ridiculed a blind person on X. Then a mob went to work.”
CIP co-founder Ryan Calo was interviewed by The Washington Post for an article about how Elon Musk’s “unparalleled online reach has given him a powerful tool to attack individuals who criticize DOGE, with one post able to spark hundreds of blistering responses from his followers.” Calo, a UW School of Law and Information School professor told The Post: “People do not feel safe speaking out in this country against the government. Because the government in the form of Elon Musk and President Trump himself will catalyze retribution.”
***
- MIT Technology Review (February 19, 2025): “Congress used to evaluate emerging technologies. Let’s do it again.”
CIP co-founder Ryan Calo was cited in a MIT Tech Review article on the Office of Technology Assessment. “That’s what Congress needs right now,” said Calo, a UW School of Law and Information School professor, “because otherwise Congress is going to, like, take Sam Altman’s word for everything, or Eric Schmidt’s.”
***
- Teen Vogue (February 20, 2025): “Media literacy in schools is on the rise as teachers grapple with misinformation and conspiracy theories”
MisinfoDay at UW Seattle, organized by the Center for an Informed Public, is referenced in a Teen Vogue article about media literacy education. Former CIP community fellow Linsey Kitchens, a teacher-librarian at Sedro-Woolley High School, was interviewed about an intergenerational learning event she helped organize.
***
- Lawfare (February 20, 2025): “The rise and fall of America’s response to foreign election meddling”
The CIP’s work studying rumors, conspiracy theories and disinformation around the 2020 U.S. election was referenced in an Lawfare article.
***
- UW Daily (February 26, 2025) “‘Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?’: UW professors create free online course exploring the presence of AI in society”
The UW Daily featured “Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?,” the new online AI humanities course co-developed by CIP faculty members Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West.
***
- KUOW Public Radio (February 28, 2025): “Online bullying isn’t new, but it’s evolving”
KUOW Public Radio interviewed CIP co-founder Ryan Calo, a UW School of Law and Information School professor who also co-directs the UW Tech Policy Lab, following up on comments Calo made to The Washington Post about online bullying, prompted by Elon Musk’s attacks on Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, who is blind, and how they carry a new power to chill speech.
***
- The Seattle Times (February 28, 2025): “To understand right-wing media’s power, study improv and theater of influencers”
CIP co-founder Kate Starbird wrote an op-ed in The Seattle Times, adapted from her 2025 UW Faculty Lecture, presented on February 24, 2025.
***
- UW Daily (February 28, 2025): “Professor Kate Starbird presents the 48th annual University Faculty Lecture”
The UW Daily covered CIP co-founder Kate Starbird’s Feb. 24 UW Faculty Lecture and post-lecture discussion with Ed Taylor, a UW vice provosts and dean of undergraduate academic affairs. “I think Professor Kate Starbird’s research is significantly important to the UW students. It’s important for students to try to understand what constitutes misinformation and disinformation, and what constitutes the truth. There may not be a more important issue for our students in this generation.”
