'BradCast' 10/30/2019 (Guest: Media reform activist Sue Wilson)

On today's 'BradCast': Twitter has announced it will block all political ads from its massive social media site. But Facebook still refuses to even fact-check political ads, no matter how demonstrably false and misleading they are, or block paid political propaganda altogether. Media reform advocate SUE WILSON, founder of the Media Action Center, discusses Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's controversial refusal to fact-check political ads, sparked by the site's decision to allow a false Trump campaign ad that CNN refused to air. Wilson explains the arcane, nearly century-old federal laws that govern political ads for broadcasters that have proven inadequate for the digital media age. We also cover the open letter published by 200 Facebook employees this week calling for the company's leadership to enact a number of reforms to prevent the social media conglomerate from becoming "weaponized" by political campaigns with "destructive misinformation" that threatens our very democracy, amid equally valid concerns over political censorship by huge media outlets. Also today:  Republicans are trying out a new tactic to defend Donald Trump's indefensible, well-documented quid pro quo pressure campaign against Ukraine. In California, wind-driven, climate changed-intensified fires are raging, forcing electric utility companies to resort to widespread pre-emptive blackouts to prevent their aging equipment from igniting new fires. The planned blackouts raise disturbing questions for Los Angeles County and other voting jurisdictions around the country that are adopting new, 100% unverifiable electronic voting systems (instead of hand-marked paper ballots) and electronic pollbooks for the critical 2020 elections – systems that require electricity and internet access. What procedures do election officials have in place for early voting and Election Day if power companies are forced, at this same time next year, to again preemptively shut down power to avoid igniting wildfires?...