Read, print, tape to your parents’ fridge  Real talk: “Is someone you care about sharing garbage on Facebook? @thedextriarchy put together a social media guide to gently steer them towards better habits.” Russell Brandom links to A guide to fighting lies, fake news, and chaos online, which Adi Robertson has compiled for The Verge. And she knows what she’s talking about. As she shares on Twitter, “I’ve spent eight years at @verge learning to look at a viral story, figure out where it’s from, and gauge how much to trust it. I decided to lay out my strategies and some reasoning behind them — basically, how to find true things online, and why to care.”
Jacob Kastrenakes points out, “we act like it’s mindless, but thoughtfully reading news is a skill that takes time to build — i love this story from @thedextriarchy laying out the many pieces involved.” Adds Dieter Bohn, “I have been working on learning these strategies for the 20+ years I’ve been on the internet and @thedextriarchy just ...just tweeted it out. (Really though read this, print it out, cut up sections of it and tape them to your parents’ fridge).” The most dystopian holiday nonsense 
Maybe you could use some help with other conversations with friends and family over the holidays. First, a warning: Kate Conger says, “this is the most dystopian holiday nonsense I have ever heard of.” Seems like there’s plenty of competition in that area, so read at your own risk. Sheera Frenkel and Mike Isaac of The New York Times write about the “Liam Bot,” a chatbot that Facebook is giving its employees to teach them what to say if friends or family ask difficult questions about Facebook over the holidays. That’s right, it’s AI for PR talking points, or as Erik Brynjolfsson puts it, “Here’s a kind of sad use of AI.” “I can’t even think of anything snarky to say about this — there’s too much material here. Maybe I need a chatbot,” tweets Matthew Keys. But maybe we should just follow Richard Nieva’s lead on this one: “i imagine the bot talking like liam gallagher and that makes me smile.” Meanwhile, Zuckerberg Stands By Facebook Ad Policy, Saying Politicians Shouldn’t Be Censored. HuffPost’s Nina Golgowski reports on the Facebook CEO’s sit-down interview alongside his wife, Priscilla Chan, for CBS This Morning, where he said, “I think people should be able to judge for themselves the character of politicians.” (But not the character of Facebook, we guess?) And Darron Cardosa points out, “But my page with almost 1 million followers gets a violation for the use of the word ‘bitchy.’ That makes sense…” Shocked! 
About this next revelation, Ed Bott says, “Not to put too fine a point on it, but Bill Barr is a hopelessly corrupt motherfucker.” The scoop from Devlin Barrett and Karoun Demirjian at The Washington Post is that Barr disputes key inspector general finding about FBI’s Russia investigation (the part about the FBI having enough information in July 2016 to justify launching an investigation into members of the Trump campaign), and Josh Kraushaar is “Shocked!” Philip Gourevitch finds it “as grotesque as it is unsurprising.” Meanwhile, Natasha Bertrand of Politico reports that the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee panel cleared Ukraine of election interference in 2016. On Twitter, she highlights, “Sen. Angus King said that as a member of the Senate Intel Committee, he’s ‘probably been to between 20-30 briefings and hearings on the subject of election interference in 2016, and I have never heard one word about any culpability on the part of Ukraine.’” Jake Tapper of CNN confirms Bertrand’s reporting with his piece, GOP-led committee probed possible Ukraine interference in 2016 election and found nothing worth pursuing, sources say. As he tweets, “ICYMI: GOP-led committee probed possible Ukraine interference in 2016 election, even interviewing Alexandra Chalupa, and found nothing worth pursuing, sources say.” Over in the House, Aaron Blake points out, “Yesterday, the House GOP released a report saying Ukraine didn’t know about military aid freeze until it was publicly reported. Today, another report contradicts that.” He links to Andrew Kramer’s reporting at The New York Times, Ukraine Knew of Aid Freeze in July, Says Ex-Top Official in Kyiv. Kramer spoke with deputy foreign minister Olena Zerkal, who said, “We had this information. It was definitely mentioned there were some issues.” How to tell important stories “You can admit it, TLDR The Mueller Report! We’re here to help - a graphic version, with animation and audio and everything.” Madhulika Sikka links to the new six-part series from The Washington Post on the obstruction investigation, starting with The Mueller Report Illustrated, Chapter 1: “This Russia thing is far from over.” Brian Fung praises the “Excellent storytelling by my former @washingtonpost colleagues, who took the Mueller report and made it digestible with audio and illustrations.” Adds Peter Wallsten, “A big question in journalism these days is how to tell important stories in new ways that reach broader audiences. This groundbreaking project provides a compelling answer. Congrats to @mateagold, @PostRoz & the WaPo team that made it happen.” “And if you’re like: yes sure but why are we talking about the mueller report NOW? one reason is because the way trump and those in his orbit responded to the special counsel’s investigation led directly to what’s happening now with ukraine,” Matt Collette tweets. If you’re still wondering how we got here, take Terri Rupar’s advice: “Definitely read this clarifying story” from Rosalind Helderman of The Post, who explains how the Ukraine pressure campaign began as an effort to undercut the Mueller investigation. Speaking of the Mueller investigation, you may remember that BuzzFeed News sued the government for the right to see all the work that Mueller’s team kept secret. Jason Leopold has been reporting on what they’ve learned, and BuzzFeed has now published the second installment of the FBI’s summaries of interviews with key witnesses, along with some key takeaways. As Ben Smith says, “We're going through a big new tranche of Mueller documents, obtained through @JasonLeopold's reporting and a lawsuit — and you can too, here.” Wait, what On to a different category of dystopia, Sui-Lee Wee and Paul Mozur of The New York Times report that China is using DNA to map the faces of Uighurs, with help from the West. Wee shares, “I was having mild labor contractions in a hospital in February when I got a tip that Chinese researchers were mapping the faces of Uighurs using DNA samples. I said: Wait, what?” As Adam Serwer says, “Well we don’t have flying cars or space colonies but at least we have *lowers glasses* an emerging global panopticon that makes authoritarianism, ethnic cleansing and genocide more efficient.” Also, as Matthew Yglesias points out, “‘Raises questions about consent’ really sells this short.” A real spy story here Bellingcat and its investigative partners have identified the killer of Georgian Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who earlier this year was shot in Berlin by an assassin arriving on a bicycle, as Vadim Nikolaevich Krasikov, a Russian citizen aged 54. For the story, read Identifying The Berlin Bicycle Assassin Part 1 - From Moscow to Berlin. As Eliot Higgins says, it’s “A real spy story here, Russia recruited a hitman who murdered a Russian businessman in 2013, gave him a new identity, and then he was arrested in 2019 in Berlin for the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.” UK elections “Well, we never saw this coming,” says Dominic Smithers. In an interview with Sky News, Dominic Raab admitted the US will be free to charge higher prices for drugs bought by the NHS after Brexit, but insisted the prospect is “hugely unlikely.” Also, as Rob Merrick of the Independent notes, on “drug pricing or any other involvement” in the NHS, Mr Raab insisted: “That is not on the table for negotiations.” “Make no mistake, the NHS is on the table, it’s up for sale under Johnson,” tweets James Moore. And Chase Madar thinks, “There are a whole lot of naive British chumps who have no idea what they’re in for.” “So hey, how about, we kick these guys out, so that’s not a possibility,” Mike Diver suggests. Meanwhile, in an op-ed for The Guardian, Peter Oborne writes that, in its election coverage, the BBC has let down the people who believe in it. He argues, “The BBC does not have a party political bias: it is biased towards the government of the day.” Ladies and gentleman, how it works 
Jeff Stein of The Washington Post is “Just popping back on Twitter to share this story,” which reveals, State lawmakers acknowledge lobbyists helped craft their op-eds attacking Medicare-for-all. He obtained emails that show lobbyists either helped draft or made extensive revisions to opinion columns published by three state lawmakers, two in Montana and one in Ohio. “Ladies and gentleman, how it works,” tweets Michael Barbaro. Speaking of...“Fisher Industries, the company Trump has urged military officials to hire for border wall construction, has received a $400 million Pentagon contract to build 31 miles of barriers through the Cabeza Prieta wildlife refuge in AZ.” Nick Miroff links to his reporting with Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post, North Dakota company that Trump touted gets $400 million border wall contract. A few more Anjali Tsui of ProPublica discovered that high-interest loan companies are using Utah’s small claims courts to arrest borrowers and take their bail money. Technically, the warrants are issued for missing court hearings. For many, that’s a distinction without a difference. Read her new report, They Loan You Money. Then They Get A Warrant For Your Arrest. Apparently not a witch hunt? In what Shelby Grad calls “A reminder of the how local accountability journalism makes a difference,” Morgan Cook and Jeff McDonald of The San Diego Union-Tribune report that Rep. Duncan Hunter will plead guilty in campaign finance scandal, leave Congress. And now, “Thanks to data visualization magic, you can see the levels of damaging, tiny particles that wreak havoc on human health. From Austin to New Delhi, here’s how the world’s worst pollution compares with your local air.” John Schwartz links to the new project by Nadja Popovich, Blacki Migliozzi, Karthik Patanjali and Anjali Singhvi of The New York Times, See How the World’s Most Polluted Air Compares With Your City’s. ALERT 
OK don’t freak out, but “Keep your eyes on your fries. They may he harder to find,” tweets David Scanlan. Ashley Robinson of Bloomberg reports that America is bracing for a possible french fry shortage after a poor potato harvest, which could lead to “The darkest winter,” as Dashiell Bennett says. But “I bet it’ll be fine. We recovered from that alleged White Claw shortage without incident,” Sam Baker reminds us. One of the best parts of winter! If nothing else, you can always hunker down with a good book, and if you’re not sure what to read, Beth Novey offers, “Good morning, Internet, We made this beautiful website full of books just for you. 📚 2,000+ of them, in fact. Happy @NPR #BookConcierge day!” Check out NPR’s Book Concierge for NPR’s favorite books of 2019. Take it from Steve Mullis, who tweets, “OK, I am going to praise the NPR #BookConcierge today to an annoying degree. But I honestly don't know of any books year-ender that is more comprehensive, aesthetically pleasing and easily navigable than the one the @nprbooks team puts together.” “One of the best parts of winter!” adds Celeste Headlee. | 
Today’s featured journalist is Plymouth, U.K.-based 
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