News coverage from March 2025 about the Center for an Informed Public and CIP-affiliated research and researchers.
- The Washington Post (March 3, 2025): “Can Elon Musk find any fraud before Trump’s base notices the con?”
A February 28, 2025 op-ed in The Seattle Times written by CIP co-founder Kate Starbird was referenced in a Washington Post column by Philip Bump.
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- Reuters (March 4, 2025): “Musk rallies the far right in Europe. Tesla is paying the price.”
In an interview with Reuters about influential social media accounts amplified by Elon Musk, CIP postdoctoral scholar Mert Can Bayar discussed how understanding these accounts “are good conduits to project his worldview.”
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- El Diario (March 5, 2025): “De los márgenes de la red a la Casa Blanca: cómo la nueva era Trump normaliza el Internet “lleno de mierda”
Remarks from CIP co-founder Kate Starbird’s 2025 University Faculty Lecture were cited in an article in the Spain’s El Diario.
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- Axios (March 10, 2025): “NIH moves to centralize peer review operations for grants and research”
A Bluesky post by CIP faculty member Carl Bergstrom was cited in Axios: “My read is that this is a power grab making it easier for the current administration to influence not only funding priorities but also individual funding decisions. Am I missing something?”
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- Chemistry World (March 11, 2025): “Last year a top Syrian chemist was murdered. The problem is he never existed”
CIP co-founder Jevin West was quoted in a Royal Society of Chemistry article in Chemistry World about false online claims about a Syrian chemist’s apparent death in Syria. The intent of spreading the false claims was unclear. “It just adds noise to the system in lots of ways,” West said. “But I don’t think this is a systematic strategy where you’re just injecting noise so that you impact the levels of trust that people have in systems.”
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- Associated Press and Seattle Times (March 12, 2025: “Schools use AI to monitor kids, hoping to prevent violence. Our investigation found security risks”
CIP faculty member Katy Pearce was quoted in an article co-reported by The Seattle Times and Associated Press about privacy concerns over AI-enabled monitoring software used by some school districts for Chromebooks used by students.
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- CBC Radio (March 13, 2025): “Buyer beware: a set of “Canadian” websites set off alarm bells”
CIP co-founder Jevin West was interviewed in a Canadian Broadcasting Corportation Radio interview about scam websites.
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- Post Alley (March 21, 2025): “Swimming in a sea of misinformation: It’s MisinfoDay”
CIP education and engagement manager Liz Crouse, CIP community fellow Shawn Lee and student participants were interviewed.
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- Nature (March 21, 2025): “‘All this is in crisis’: U.S. universities curtail staff and spending as Trump cuts take hold”
CIP co-founder Jevin West was interviewed by Nature about the impacts of research being slowed or disrupted by federal actions to restrict or pull back funding for research grants.
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- Monterey Herald (March 21, 2025): “Carmel Unified to host a community event to promote media literacy”
An April 3 media literacy educational event in Carmel, California featuring CIP co-founder Jevin West was previewed in the Monterey Herald.
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- The New York Times (March 24, 2025): “In his second term, Trump fuels a ‘machinery’ of misinformation”
Insights from CIP co-founder’s 2025 UW Faculty Lecture, presented in February, was featured in an article in The New York Times where she described a “machinery of bullshit” that “has become intertwined with digital media, has been effectively leveraged by right-wing populist movements and is now sinking into the political infrastructure of this country and others.”
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- Toronto Star (March 24, 2025): “‘Canada as the 51st state’ seemed like Donald Trump’s idea of a joke. Here’s how it stopped being funny”
CIP research manager Danielle Lee Tomson was interviewed by the Toronto Star about the dynamics of attention and influence in the context of current U.S.-Canada narratives.
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- NBC News (March 26, 2025): “How a TikTok network spreading Spanish-language immigration misinformation gained traction”
A NBC News article about a network of Spanish-language TikTok accounts spreading immigration-related falsehoods referenced research insights from CIP postdoctoral scholar Mert Can Bayar.
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- Nature (March 26, 2025): “AI is transforming peer review — and many scientists are worried”
CIP faculty member Carl Bergsrom, a UW Department of Biology professor, was interviewed about the use of artificial intelligence in peer-reviewed science, arguing that “taking superficial notes and having an LLM synthesize them falls far, far short of writing an adequate peer review.”
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- STAT News (March 26, 2025): “Hours after NIH director confirmed, the agency tackles one of his priorities — ending ‘censorship’ in science”
Comments by CIP faculty member Carl Bergsrom, a UW Department of Biology professor, were included in a STAT News article about new leadership at the National Institutes of Health.
