science

National File

National File is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National File rather than just read about it. In short: National File is an American right-wing blog and news website created by Alex Jones in August 2019. It is known for publishing false or misleading claims about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines.

Key takeaways

National File belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect National File to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National File from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

National File is an American right-wing blog and news website created by Alex Jones in August 2019. It is known for publishing false or misleading claims about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines.

Company National File was founded in August 2019 by far-right figure and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Leaked texts from Jones's phone indicated that he started National File to promote content from his InfoWars website while obscuring its origin to evade Facebook's ban of InfoWars, and to set up a business vehicle for his son Rex. Its editor-in-chief and owner is Tom Pappert, who was previously the administrator of a "God Emperor Trump" Facebook group. Patrick Howley is a politics reporter for the website. The website's publisher is Noel Fritsch, a North Carolina political consultant who has worked for far-right political candidates.

Content National File has been described as right-wing, far-right, and conservative. It is known for publishing COVID-19 misinformation, including false claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exaggerated the number of COVID-19 fatalities, that Pfizer was developing an oral drug to be administered "alongside vaccines", and that the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine caused neurodegenerative conditions. National File also publishes misinformation about the 2020 United States presidential election. As of early 2021, National File is the 10th most followed account on Gab, a social networking service known for its far-right userbase. On January 14, 2020, National File reiterated a story from trade publication Tri-State Livestock News, wherein South Dakota cattle veterinarian James Stangle falsely claims that Impossible Whoppers contain "44 mg of estrogen" and that "six glasses of soy milk per day has enough estrogen to grow boobs on a male." Stangle later retracted this story as, in fact, he was referring to isoflavones, not estrogen; Impossible Whoppers contain 2 mg of isoflavones, not 44; and – as of 2021 – there is no evidence showing a link between isoflavones and feminization or childhood development, and there is evidence to the contrary. On October 7, 2020, Patrick Howley of National File broke the story that Cal Cunningham, then a Democratic candidate in the 2020 Senate election in North Carolina, had exchanged sexually suggestive texts with a woman who was not his wife. On October 23, 2020, National File published photos they claimed showed Mark Kelly, at the time a candidate in the 2020 special election in Arizona, at a college party in 1985 dressed as Adolf Hitler. Several classmates of Kelly's stated that he was not the man in the photo, and PolitiFact rated the National File story "false". Kelly filed a defamation lawsuit against National File on October 26. On October 26, 2020, National File published what it claimed to be the contents of a diary by Ashley Biden, a daughter of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. The diary had been sold to Project Veritas, a far-right activist group, whose founder said the diary's authenticity could not be confirmed. On February 27, 2022, two days before the Texas Republican primary, National File posted audio of an interview with former jihadist Tania Joya, a British woman then living in Plano, Texas, who said that she and Van Taylor—U.S. representative for Plano and primary candidate—had a nine-month sexual affair in 2020 and 2021. Joya shared salacious details about the affair and said that Taylor had given her US$5,000 for personal expenses. Her statements circulated widely on social media, prompting Taylor to admit to an extramarital affair and end his reelection campaign, effectively ceding the primary to Republican runner-up Keith Self. Taylor was one of the few Republican U.S. representatives to join Democrats in voting to establish the January 6 commission to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol, a vote that caused him to be intensely criticized by primary election opponents and conservative commentators, despite his conservative voting record on other issues.

References

External links Official website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National File

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National File claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National File before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National File ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National File

In research: National File appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National File in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National File is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2019 establishments in the United States, Alex Jones, American news websites, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National File outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study National File in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National File means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain National File out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is National File in simple terms?

National File is an American right-wing blog and news website created by Alex Jones in August 2019. It is known for publishing false or misleading claims about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines.

Why does National File matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National File?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National File.