Michelle R. Smith
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bymichellersmith.com
Michelle R. Smith
@bymichellersmith.com
3K followers 890 following 230 posts
Reporter at Guardian US. Ex-@APNews
Investigating the forces behind attacks on science and public health
Reach me on Signal: mrsmith.123
[email protected]
Based in Providence, Rhode Island
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bymichellersmith.com
AP found the wave of legislation on vaccines, fluoride and raw milk has appeared across the US, pushed by people with close ties to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The effort would strip away protections that have been built over a century and are integral to American lives and society.
Three maps showing the 43 states where AP found anti-science legislation, including states with anti-fluoride bills, states with anti-vaccine bills, and states with bills increasing access to raw milk products. Source: Associated Press analysis of bills collected by Plural and the National Conference of State Legislatures
October 21, 2025 at 5:53 PM
bymichellersmith.com
She also has shared links to products sold by other companies that included “affiliate” or “partner” coding, indicating she has a business relationship with the companies. The products include an AI-powered sleep system and Daily Harvest, for which she curated a “metabolic health collection.” On a “My Faves” page that was taken down from her website shortly after Trump picked her, Means wrote that some links “are affiliate links and I make a small percentage if you buy something after clicking them.” It’s not clear how much money Means has earned from her affiliate marketing, partnerships and other agreements. Daily Harvest did not return messages seeking comment, and Means said she could not comment on the record during the confirmation process. Influencers who endorse or promote products in exchange for payment or something else of value are required by the Federal Trade Commission to make a clear and conspicuous disclosure of any business, family or personal relationship. While Means did provide disclosures about newsletter sponsors, the AP found in other cases Means did not always tell her audience when she had a connection to the companies she promoted. For example, a “Clean Personal & Home Care Product Recommendations” guide she links to from her website contains two dozen affiliate or partner links and no disclosure that she could profit from any sales. Means has said she invested in Function Health, which provides subscription-based lab testing for $500 annually. Of the more than a dozen online posts the AP found in which Means mentioned Function Health, more than half did not disclose she had any affiliation with the company.
June 6, 2025 at 12:56 PM
bymichellersmith.com
“At the highest level of our medical institutions, there are conflicts of interest and corruption that are actually making the science that we’re getting not as accurate and not as clean as we’d want it,” she said on Megyn Kelly’s podcast last year. But even as Means decries the influence of money on science and medicine, she has made her own deals with business interests. During the same Megyn Kelly podcast, Means mentioned a frozen prepared food brand, Daily Harvest. She promoted that brand in a book she published last year. What she didn’t mention in either instance: Means had a business relationship with Daily Harvest. Many companies, including Amazon, have affiliate marketing programs in which people with substantial social media followings can sign up to receive a percentage of sales or some other benefit when someone clicks through and buys a product using a special individualized link or code shared by the influencer. Means has used such links to promote various products sold on Amazon. Among them are books, including the one she co-wrote, “Good Energy"; a walking pad; soap; body oil; hair products; cardamom-flavored dental floss; organic jojoba oil; a razor set; reusable kitchen products; sunglasses; a sleep mask; a silk pillowcase; fitness and sleep trackers; protein powder and supplements.
June 6, 2025 at 12:54 PM
bymichellersmith.com
apnews.com/article/meas...
Health departments got an influx of cash to deal with COVID-19, but it wasn’t enough to make up for years of neglect. On top of that, trust in vaccines has eroded. Health officials warn the situation is primed to get worse. Recent cuts by the Trump administration have pulled billions of dollars in COVID-19 related funding — $2 billion of it slated for immunization programs for various diseases. Overseeing the cuts is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who rose to prominence leading an anti-vaccine movement. While Kennedy has said he wants his agency to prevent future outbreaks, he’s also declined to deliver a consistent and forceful message that would help do so — encouraging people to vaccinate their children against measles while reminding them it is safe.
April 14, 2025 at 1:01 PM
bymichellersmith.com
Zhang is not the only one to find herself in the crosshairs of Tesla, which is led by Elon Musk, among the richest men in the world and a self-described “ free speech absolutist.” Over the last four years, Tesla has sued at least six car owners in China who had sudden vehicle malfunctions, quality complaints or accidents they claimed were caused by mechanical failures. The company has also sued at least six bloggers and two Chinese media outlets that wrote critically about the company, according to a review of public court documents and Chinese media reports by The Associated Press. Tesla won all 11 cases for which AP could determine the verdicts. Two judgments, including Zhang’s, are on appeal. One case was settled out of court. It is not common practice for automakers — in China or elsewhere — to sue their customers. But Tesla has pioneered an aggressive legal strategy and leveraged the patronage of powerful leaders in China’s ruling Communist Party to silence critics, reap financial rewards and limit its accountability.
February 14, 2025 at 12:24 PM
bymichellersmith.com
AP NewsAlert that says: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as President Donald Trump‘s health secretary by the Senate.
February 13, 2025 at 9:17 PM
bymichellersmith.com
They followed up with this story today about a barber who has been detained. It has an editor's note at the end 👀 migrantinsider.com/p/ice-transf...
EDITOR’S NOTE: On Tuesday afternoon, The New York Times republished our scoop from Sunday without attributing us, effectively stealing our work. So today, we put (SCOOP) in our headline—not to be insensitive to the sources we covered in this morning’s news story about a serious topic, but to make it even clearer that we had this story first. Trouble is, NYT has no immigration editor that we know of—someone to politely email, that the Gray Lady may do better in the future. So instead, this morning we gifted a free, one-month, subscription to Migrant Insider to both NYT reporters who ripped us off yesterday—namely, Hamed Aleaziz and Julie Turkewitz—that they do better in the future.
February 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
bymichellersmith.com
Just look back at how Facebook started. It’s who he is www.thecrimson.com/article/2003...
Screenshot from the Nov. 4,2003, Harvard Crimson article that details the origins of Facebook: Just 95 minutes later, at 9:48 p.m., he added another entry. “The Kirkland facebook is open on my computer desktop and some of these people have pretty horrendous facebook pics,” he wrote. “I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive.” Then, just before 1 a.m., a new post: “12:58am. Let the hacking begin.” Starting with Kirkland and moving his way through the Houses, Zuckerberg described how he hacked into online facebooks one by one and put the photos onto his website.
January 11, 2025 at 11:47 AM
bymichellersmith.com
I clicked because I couldn't understand the impenetrable headline. It goes to a list of real estate transactions.
It's not a story. There's zero context explaining what the popular shopping spot was.
Why are so many posts from Gannett such dreck?
Screenshot of tweet from the Newport Daily News with the following headline: "Thames Street building housing popular Newport shopping spot sold for $4.25 million" Article that shows a list of real estate transactions in Newport County, Rhode Island, including the $4.25M transaction the headline is apparently referring to. It contains no context about what the headline promises
January 8, 2025 at 12:26 PM
bymichellersmith.com
There is no Wegmans in or near Providence
December 25, 2024 at 5:06 PM
bymichellersmith.com
December 25, 2024 at 5:05 PM
bymichellersmith.com
An AP investigation this year found more than 480 people with a military background were accused of ideologically driven extremist crimes from 2017 through 2023, including the more than 230 arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection.
A chart shows a rise in people with a military background accused of committing extremist acts
December 2, 2024 at 2:12 PM
bymichellersmith.com
AP is now allowing us to add our Bluesky links to our author pages
AP author page showing a link to Bluesky
December 2, 2024 at 1:31 PM
bymichellersmith.com
A security manager for the District of Columbia National Guard flagged Trump's pick for DoD Pete Hegseth as a possible insider threat ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration because of a "Deus Vult" tattoo on his arm. Here is the email he sent (Redactions by AP) www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
November 16, 2024 at 3:16 PM
bymichellersmith.com
There’s lots of talk right now about how to describe Robert F. Kennedy’s stance on vaccines.
What has he said?
I took this screenshot of a video he put out in December 2021. These were stickers his group was offering to people.
One says:
IF YOU’RE NOT AN ANTI-VAXXER YOU AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION
November 16, 2024 at 1:12 PM
bymichellersmith.com
Is there a tool to help me find the people I used to follow on Twitter, or the people who followed me?
Any other tools out there I should try that are meant to help orient people coming here from elsewhere?
In exchange for any info, here is a photo of my cat when she was a kitten. Thnaks!
An alert fuzzy kitten with big ears looks into the camera as she sits in a sunbeam on top of a couch
November 12, 2024 at 2:30 AM
bymichellersmith.com
👀 details from NPR in this report about extremism in the Marines. One of the Marines who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 went before a retention panel. Its members had this to say about Jan 6
October 26, 2024 at 7:58 PM