Twitter Co-Founder On Nefarious Part Of Social Media; New Biopic Showcase JD Salinger's Military Background.
TAPPER: Welcome back in our "TECH LEAD," in a week where one of the biggest social media sites, Facebook, faces scrutiny for taking money from Russian propagandist spreading disinformation to interfere with the U.S. Election. CNN Senior Tech Reporter Laurie Segall spoke to Twitter Co-Founder Ev Williams about the struggle of social media companies face against fake news.</s>EV WILLIAMS, CO-FOUNDER, TWITTER: In my opinion, the most nefarious feedback loop that drives recent belief and misinformation on the internet and the media, in general, is that it's all driven by advertising and it's all free, and attention is valued. And if you can generate attention, then you can get paid. The thing that we should acknowledge is that anyone selling ads, these ad driven platforms are benefiting from a lot of the fake information and misinformation and these campaigns. And they're also benefiting from people just generating attention at pretty much any cost.</s>TAPPER: Williams went on to tell Segall that tech companies struggle to separate political opinions from misinformation and don't believe editorial guidelines fit with their business models but they don't recognize those editorial judgments have been already made every step of the way from the algorithm on. Now, let's turn to our "POP CULTURE LEAD." We wrote the book we read in high school English, but so little is known about the notoriously reclusive author J.D. Salinger. A new film opens nationwide today hopes to capture one previously all but unexplored part of his life. The battle that the author and the World War II veteran waged with post-traumatic stress disorder.</s>TAPPER: He stormed the shores of Normandy, survived the battle of the bulge, married a Gestapo agent and oh yes, he went on to write the Catcher In The Rye.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Jerome David Salinger.</s>TAPPER: Veteran and late author J.D. Salinger became famously private following the monumental success of his first and only novel about a jaded and rebellious teenager.</s>TAPPER: And now Writer, Director Danny Strong is bringing Salinger's life story to the screen with his film Rebel In The Rye.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir Jerry --</s>DANNY STRONG, REBEL IN THE RYE DIRECTOR AND WRITER: This is actually what inspired me to make the film because I thought that that was so moving how a veteran, how someone could experience the horrors of war, could deal with it and how they were able to, you know, take that experience, that horrific experience and then channel it into this masterpiece.</s>TAPPER: A 2013 namesake documentary gave the world new images of Salinger. Now strong and actor Nicholas Hoult are bringing them to life. Salinger was a member of the Army's Counterintelligence Corps and wrote much of his holding</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think I would be alive if it wasn't for this</s>TAPPER: A traumatic events of war no doubt affected the author.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes I wake up and I'm screaming.</s>TAPPER: But who talked about post-traumatic stress in the 1940s? This is a time when people didn't know what PTSD was. It was called battle fatigue. They didn't even discuss it. So to see the path that Salinger took, how he took up meditation, how he took up yoga and how his writing in its own way became a form of therapy. I think it could be deeply inspiring.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can I do for you, Mr. Salinger?</s>TAPPER: Salinger had honed his craft with the help of mentor and one time professor Whit Burnett, played in the film by Kevin Spacey.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you willing to devote your life to telling the stories?</s>TAPPER: After fame came flooding in with the 1951 publication of Catcher In The Rye, Salinger retreated to New Hampshire where he did his writing until his death in 2010.</s>STRONG: The idea of making a movie about his life would have been, I think, horrific to him. I think this is the last thing he would have wanted. And I wouldn't have pursued it if he were still alive.</s>TAPPER: As for a movie version of Catcher In The Rye, Salinger made his feelings clear in 1957 letter, writing, "I toyed very seriously with the idea of leaving the unsold rights to my wife and daughter as a kind of insurance policy. It pleasures me to no end though to know that I won't have to see the results of the transaction."</s>TAPPER: Tune in Sunday morning to CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION." U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nicky Haley joins us for a conversation on North Korea, plus an exclusive with Senator Dianne Feinstein. It all starts at 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern. That's it for THE LEAD, I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM." Thanks so much for watching. Have a great weekend.