Good morning, AlterNet America family.
Welcome to the Saturday Wrapup, where I give you my thoughts on the week’s biggest news as I consume my caffeine with you.
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If there’s one thing the American West has too much of, it’s beautiful scenery.
The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing proposals to build 12 new data centers on federal public land in a half-dozen western states, according to a Friday report from the Washington Sun. The sites are located in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.
The BLM claims its review process will “protect natural resources while enabling responsible infrastructure development” that delivers benefits like “expanded broadband capacity, improved electrical reliability, and support for growing technology-driven economies.”
Interior Department leadership had given state BLM directors just three days to compile lists of land suitable for the projects. Local leaders said they had no idea the proposals even existed before the story broke.
Mary Jo Rugwell, president of the Public Lands Foundation and a former BLM state director, said that the administration was “bending knee to the tech oligarchs and letting them do whatever they need to do.”
The same agency that caught the Unabomber now needs help with Tinder.
Earlier this year, the FBI’s Chicago field office sent a memo to ICE warning that a “small group of women” were creating fake dating profiles specifically designed to attract immigration enforcement officers. The women were employing “traditional wife” images and listing interests calculated to appeal to law enforcement types, according to the memo.
The goal was to lure ICE agents on dates and then post their identities online. The memo described this as a tactic “intended to generate public embarrassment and deter immigration enforcement activity.”
The FBI’s only source was a post from Chaya Raichik, the conservative influencer behind LibsofTikTok, who warned that TikTokers were organizing to catfish federal agents. Her post didn’t actually mention tradwives, and it’s not clear whether her claims were actually true.
“Tradwife” is a conservative social media trend where women depict themselves as homemakers who don’t believe in feminism and prefer to cook, clean, and submit to their husbands.
Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People, called the whole thing absurd. “It’s equally ludicrous the FBI is spending taxpayer dollars to protect ICE agents from possible ‘embarrassment’ at the hands of a supposed ‘small group of women’ who might name and ridicule them online,” he said.
Even a coin flip would have been kinder to these patients.
UnitedHealth Group allegedly used an artificial intelligence model to systematically deny the rehabilitative care elderly patients’ doctors said they needed, according to a class action lawsuit filed in Minnesota. The suit names UnitedHealthCare and its subsidiary, NaviHealth, which developed the algorithm.
The AI model had a 90 percent error rate, meaning more than 90 percent of patients who appealed their denied claims had the decision reversed. The company knew this and continued using the algorithm anyway.
The lawsuit also claims UnitedHealth intentionally limited its employees’ ability to override decisions made by the AI. Staff who failed to follow the recommendations of nH Predict were disciplined or terminated.
The plaintiffs assert UnitedHealth was counting on the fact that most of the elderly patients, many of them seriously ill, would never appeal. Some patients said they had to drain their life savings to continue treatment that should have been covered under their Medicare Advantage Plans.
Medicare Advantage patients who spend over three days in the hospital are entitled to up to 100 days in a nursing home. nH Predict was sending most patients denial notices after fewer than 14 days.
Finally, CBS will have owners who hate journalists even more than Bari Weiss does.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr approved a petition from Paramount that would allow foreign investors to own at least 49.5 percent of its equity as part of its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Three sovereign wealth funds linked to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates are backing the deal.
The 20-page decision by the FCC acknowledged national security concerns, but said the investors would not have voting stock and would therefore be unable to influence decisions. The commission then added that it would be “in the public interest” to permit up to 100% of indirect foreign equity interest in Paramount.
When the permitted equity stakes are added up, investors from the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia could together own up to 87.5% of the combined company.
If the merger goes through, it would combine two massive film studios, two streaming services, and two news organizations under David Ellison, son of billionaire Larry Ellison and close friend of Trump. A federal judge blocked the agreement temporarily in July over antitrust concerns, but the FCC just made the path forward a lot smoother.
Saudi Arabia, which ranks 166th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 for writing critically about its government. Qatar and the UAE rank 84th and 133rd.
In all three countries, journalists who challenge the government face prison, exile, or worse. Carr just gave them control of the journalists Bari Weiss hasn’t fired yet.
The same administration selling off public lands to tech companies is also selling off media to foreign governments, and they don’t need you to not notice if there’s nobody left who’s allowed to tell you about it.
At AlterNet America, we put the facts first. And right now, the fact is the only truly independent media is the kind entirely funded by the people who read it.
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—Ryan Rose, Co-Founder & Managing Editor, AlterNet America
