Tag: Media Coverage

Donny’s Goebbels Moment

Our clueless boob has had his moments and many of them are straight out of Goebbels playbook….especially his attacks on the press that does not massage his genitals….the newest threat is aimed at NBC and ABC….

President Trump issued some late-night threats to ABC and NBC, accusing both of bias and threatening their broadcast licenses.

  • In one post, he suggested the networks functioned as “an arm of the Democratic party” and “should, according to many, have their licenses revoked by the FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy!”
  • Short of having the Federal Communications Commission pull their licenses—the president does not appear to have the authority to do that— Trump wrote they should at least “pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!” Such a fee could be millions per year, he added, backing an idea previously endorsed by Elon Musk, notes Forbes.
  • Trump spared CBS from his criticism, and the Hill provides some context, noting that FCC chair Brendan Carr has lauded parent company Paramount for promising “to retool the editorial bend of CBS News to represent what it is calling a more ‘diverse’ set of viewpoints,” per the Hill. Paramount also settled with Trump over its 60 Minutes coverage of Trump on CBS.
  • Trump also asserted that he has the highest poll numbers he’s ever had, despite what the “fake news” says. Axios says it isn’t true. A Reuters/Ipsos poll had his approval rating at 40% last week, the lowest level of his second term.

How long will the ignorant f*cks keep supporting this boob?

He has attacked almost every part of the Bill of Rights….he has sent troops into cities as occupiers and now he wants to stop anyone that does not kiss his ass.

What would these mindless dick weeds say if a Dem president was floating any of this manure on the country…..we could hear the fools scream and have a stroke.

After 7 months and the hits just keep coming….our republic is dying  and withering and few seem to care….it is DISGUSTING!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The News Goes Dark

Ever since the Clinton gang made it possible for corporations to own the news and the rise of the internet providing news of the day newsrooms have been in a bit of bother……slowly but slowly the public is losing those small news operations that cannot compete with the corporations and their influence.

Just last week the news broke that BuzzFeed was shuddering their news room….

BuzzFeed News is being shut down, BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti announced in an email sent to staff on Thursday. He wrote that “we are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% today across our Business, Content, Tech, and Admin teams, and beginning the process of closing BuzzFeed News.” He continued, “HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com have signaled that they will open a number of select roles for members of BuzzFeed News. … Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience.”

Last month, CNBC reported BuzzFeed was slimming down its roughly 100-person news department through voluntary buyouts offered to what sources said was about a third of those employees. CNBC noted that investors had lobbied to have the entire newsroom shut down. Sources said it was losing $10 million annually, and that killing it off would increase the company’s market cap by $300 million; CNBC reports shares had crashed 90% since its IPO. The company shut down its news app at the beginning of the month.

CNBC reporter Alex Sherman called Peretti’s email an “unusually apologetic note by a CEO.” After outlining the challenges that have battered the company (ranging from COVID to a slew of economic headwinds), Peretti writes that “I also want to be clear: I could have managed these changes better as the CEO of this company and our leadership team could have performed better despite these circumstances.” He faulted a slow integration of the company’s two business organizations, BuzzFeed and Complex and a “decision to overinvest in BuzzFeed News because I love their work and mission so much.”

“This made me slow to accept that the big platforms wouldn’t provide the distribution or financial support required to support premium, free journalism purpose-built for social media,” he continued. “More broadly, I regret that I didn’t hold the company to higher standards for profitability, to give us the buffer needed to manage through economic and industry downturns and avoid painful days like today. … I’ve learned from these mistakes … It might not feel this way today, but I am confident the future of digital media is ours for the taking. Our industry is hurting and ready to be reborn. We are taking great pains today, and will begin to fight our way to a bright future.”

Now news has broken that another small news operation will no longer be available…..Vice

Vice, the media company that went from a Montreal punk magazine more than 20 years ago to a juggernaut with a $5.7 billion valuation, is the latest member of the Fourth Estate to be on the brink of going belly up. The New York Times, citing three “people with knowledge” but not authorization to blab publicly, reports the company is currently shopping for a buyer but preparing for bankruptcy in the event that doesn’t happen. It’s quite a trajectory: Vice dazzled among new media companies, raising huge amounts of funding from the likes of Disney and Fox, and expanding into global bureaus, an HBO show, and even a movie studio.

“Vice Media Group has been engaged in a comprehensive evaluation of strategic alternatives and planning,” Vice said in a statement. “The company, its board and stakeholders continue to be focused on finding the best path.” The Times notes that a bankruptcy filing could give control of Vice to its biggest debt-holder, Fortress Investment Group, which holds “senior” debt over Fox and Disney—also meaning that Fortress is at the front of the line to get paid if Vice should sell. Quartz notes that it’s been a rough stretch for media, with BuzzFeed shutting down its news operation last month, and the likes of FiveThirtyEight, Gannett, National Geographic, NPR, the Washington Post, and Vox all rattled by layoffs in the past several months.

Vice filed for bankruptcy as expected Monday morning, the latest large media company to go under. In this case, it appears that a group of Vice lenders including Soros Fund Management and Fortress Investment Group will attempt the buy the company with a credit bid of $225 million, reports CNBC. All of which cements “Vice’s status among the most notable bad bets in the media industry,” per the New York Times.

It appears that the elimination of the more independent journalists has begun and the winners will always be the corporate media.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

BBC Weighs In On US Mid-Terms

You have read or heard all the hoopla around the mid-terms….but we seldom get to see what others foresee in our future (a possible outcome)…..this article is from the BBC and is a good read…..

The upcoming midterm elections for US Congress, the first nationwide vote since Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol nearly two years ago, have many Americans on edge. The BBC’s Katty Kay has been finding out why.

Karen and Steve don’t want to take up arms. But if Republicans lose in November this elderly Arizona couple say a civil war is coming and, yes, they will fight. They have discussed it between them, and feel that taking up arms is their best option. It was at this point that our conversation grew a little dark and my faith in the strength of American democracy grew a little shaky.

I met the Slatons at their Trump paraphernalia store in Show Low, Arizona. It was one of the first stops on a month-long road trip that I took around America this summer, a journey to understand why the upcoming elections feel so consequential, perhaps even a little ominous.

The couple were delightful hosts. They were funny and generous. They took me on a tour of their extensive stock of whacky Trump merchandise and explained that, yes, there really are people who want a $100 life-size cut-out of the former president dressed as Rambo to put in their living rooms. Quite a lot of people actually. Trump as Rambo is one of their best selling items.

We talked about history, the economy and even abortion. But it was only when I questioned their belief that the 2020 election was stolen that things got tense. Wasn’t it possible, I asked, that millions of Americans just didn’t like President Trump and so Joe Biden won the election?

It was Karen who responded, with a distinctly steely glint: “If you’re a crazy liberal, we’re just not interested. The central news, let me call them, I’m not going to call them fake news, but it is fake news to say that America doesn’t like Trump. America loves Trump.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63133259

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Does Propaganda Really Work?

Short answer is….yes it does!

Propaganda has been used extensively by governments and now the media and social media has joined in the brainwashing of the people.

Interesting article that looks at the way propaganda has successfully controlled the minds of the people….

In the 1970s, I met one of Hitler’s leading propagandists, Leni Riefenstahl, whose epic films glorified the Nazis. We happened to be staying at the same lodge in Kenya, where she was on a photography assignment, having escaped the fate of other friends of the Fuhrer. She told me that the ‘patriotic messages’ of her films were dependent not on ‘orders from above’ but on what she called the ‘submissive void’ of the German public.

Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie? I asked.  ‘Yes, especially them,’ she said.

I think of this as I look around at the propaganda now consuming Western societies.

Of course, we are very different from Germany in the 1930s. We live in information societies. We are globalists. We have never been more aware, more in touch, better connected.

Are we? Or do we live in a Media Society where brainwashing is insidious and relentless, and perception is filtered according to the needs and lies of state and corporate power?

The United States dominates the Western world’s media. All but one of the top ten media companies are based in North America. The internet and social media – Google, Twitter, Facebook – are mostly American owned and controlled.

In my lifetime, the United States has overthrown or attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, mostly democracies. It has interfered in democratic elections in 30 countries. It has dropped bombs on the people of 30 countries, most of them poor and defenceless. It has attempted to murder the leaders of 50 countries.  It has fought to suppress liberation movements in 20 countries.

The extent and scale of this carnage is largely unreported, unrecognized; and those responsible continue to dominate Anglo-American political life.

In the years before he died in 2008, the playwright Harold Pinter made two extraordinary speeches, which broke a silence.

Silencing the Lambs: How Propaganda Works 

I have written about this subject many times and still no one seems to care as long as they can find anything that will confirm that their thoughts are accurate.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ban The Opposition

After 3 weeks of constant conflict the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, has done what ‘leaders’ do in time of war….ban any political opposition and nationalized the media……control of the political process and the machine for propaganda must be in the hands on the party in power.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky banned 11 opposition political parties and nationalized media. Any activities supporting the parties labeled “pro-Russian” are now illegal.

Axios reports the list of parties now banned include: Platform For Life, Shariy Party, Nashi, Opposition Bloc, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, State, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialists Party, and Volodymyr Saldo Bloc.

Platform for Life is Ukraine’s largest opposition party and currently holds 44 seats in parliament. Last year, The party’s leader, Viktor Medvedchuk, was accused of treason and placed under house arrest.

Another targeted party, Nashi, is led by Yevhen Murayev. The UK previously accused Murayev of working with Moscow to overthrow the Ukrainian government. However, Murayev was sanctioned by Russia in 2018.

Ukraine’s Russian minority has faced increased discrimination since the 2014 coup. The opposition parties largely represent the 17% of the Ukrainian people who are ethnic Russians. Language and cultural laws have targeted Russian movies, including one starring Zelensky.

The new presidential order is a part of Zelensky’s effort to create a unified political narrative in Ukraine. He has announced an information policy that combines “all national TV channels…[into] a single information platform of strategic communication.”

(antiwar.com)

Personally I have a problem with these moves….only one voice for the ‘news’…..I realize that Ukraine is fighting for their very existence and these moves are part of the program of survival….

Only one voice could be disastrous….abuses will be in the wind.

Any thoughts on this turn of events?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–24Dec21

Since it is the day before Christmas and my posting schedule has been slight….I close out the week with a few thoughts on local journalism.

Most of the reading public knows that the state of local journalism is dying…..thanx in part to the internet and social media.

Personally I weep for journalism for quality work has been replaced with sensationalism….

My local paper has shuddered their offices and it is up for sale…..the operation was moved to a site some 60 miles away and the paper is a shadow of its former self.

If only there was a way to save local journalism…….there is an opinion on just how we could do this…..

Under our plan—the foundation of the new Local Journalism Initiative—policymakers in Washington would provide a lump sum to every county in the nation annually based on the county’s population to pay for nonprofit journalism within that county.

Readers of the Columbia Journalism Review are well aware of the importance of local news media; they have been the foundation of the American free press, and political democracy, since 1776. Daily newspapers have traditionally constituted the heart and soul of local news media, and they have provided the lion’s share of original reporting upon which all other news media depend. That remains the case in the digital era as much of newspapering has transitioned online.

CJR readers are also aware that local journalism as it has been known for 200 years has all but disappeared in most places in the United States over the past two decades. The business model for commercial journalism, based on advertising providing most of the income, is dead. Thanks to the internet, it will never return. All efforts to find a viable new business model for local journalism have failed, and investors have abandoned the field, except for private-equity funds on the lookout for distressed properties they can strip for parts.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/12/01/only-public-funding-can-save-local-journalism-and-thus-democracy

I like the idea…..non-profit journalism could be the answer to the problem of ‘fair and balanced’ news.

Thanx to the Clinton admin of the 90s news became a profit making enterprise at the expense of accuracy and neutrality….

This country needs local journalism to survive…..sadly without some sort of plan it will slowly die and be replaced with lies and disinformation…today is the perfect example of the trouble journalism is in…..it needs our help.

Thoughts?

Have a great evening and be safe and smart…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Media Purge

The last few days of the Trump presidency and he, Trump, seems to be trying to make life miserable for the incoming president ……..

We hear all about the government purges….how politicians rid themselves of troublesome opponents…..(Stalin comes to mind)….well the US government news media is NO different since Trump boy toy has taken over command….

In June, a Steve Bannon ally and conservative filmmaker appointed by President Donald Trump took over running the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), a vast international network of news agencies funded and operated by the US government.

Within hours of introducing himself to employees, the new CEO, Michael Pack, purged four top officials. He then went on to ban visas for certain foreign reporters and began investigating journalists at the agency for suspected anti-Trump bias. In October, he announced he was eliminating the agency’s regulatory “firewall” — longstanding internal policies aimed at protecting the editorial independence of journalists at the agency from political interference from the government.

Critics accused Pack of abusing his power to turn America’s state-run news organizations, whose mission is to disseminate factual, unbiased news to people who live in countries where freedom of the press is either strongly curtailed or nonexistent, into Trump-friendly propaganda outlets.

While Pack and his team haven’t achieved a pro-Trump project, a federal watchdog has found accusations of gross mismanagement to be credible.

In letters to 11 whistleblowers on Wednesday night, the US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) — an investigative and prosecutorial government body — revealed that it had found “a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing” at the USAGM, which oversees four media organizations: Voice of America, Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

https://www.vox.com/2020/12/3/22150002/special-counsel-whistleblower-global-media

This seems to be a common thread running through the Trump administration…..MISMANAGEMENT.

Plus the use of overt propaganda is a common thread as well…..NO fact based information.

And the mental midgets dance to their doom.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Who Would Have Thought?

Closing Thought–10Feb20

As an old fart I remember the Soviet Union (do you?) and then when some talked anything positive about the Soviets they were spouting Russian propaganda and should be shot for treason (some felt that way but not all)……

I cannot understand this blind obedience to Russia these days (especially the old farts that now defend Russia)……or the allowing Russia a free hand in our society……or the wholesale spreading of Russian propaganda by fellow Americans…..

This is what got me ranting or as some would call it “bitching”…..

Kansas City radio lovers can now hear six hours of Russian state-owned media per day, the Hill reports. That’s because a Florida-based company, RM Broadcasting LLC, has agreed with Radio Sputnik to broadcast its Russian media through the Alpine Broadcasting Corp, which airs on three frequencies around Kansas City and in Washington, DC. The Kremlin mouthpiece can be heard from 6am-9am and 6pm-9pm every day of the week. According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Sputnik and another Russian state media outlet played a role in influencing the 2016 federal election.

Now Arnold Ferolito, the man behind RM Broadcasting, is chafing under a federal requirement that his company register as a foreign agent. “Ninety percent of the programming is generated right here in the United States,” Ferolito tells the Kansas City Star, which broke the story. “I just sell airtime that’s all I do. The government put a gun to my head and forced me to sign.” When registering in 2019, RM Broadcasting said it made $1.43 million in the deal, though Ferolito insists he’s not turning a profit. “The American dream is dead in a lot of ways,” he says. “There’s people hell bent on Russia, Russia, Russia. One of these days it’s going to be China.”

These are the very same people that use to hate and rail against Russia and its minions that attempted to infiltrate American society and now we are inviting them to come in and spread their foul propaganda.

What has this country become?

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego erego scribo”

Weekly Standard–End Of Days

The title does not imply that this will be some sort of religious rant…..have NO fear I leave those commentaries to those that feel it necessary to share……this post is about the impending doom of a pillar of neo-conservatism….the Weekly Standard.

Political magazines depend on the largesse of motivated patrons for their survival. When the patrons lose interest—or run short on cash—the magazines expire unless other moneybags can be located to cover the losses. Following that eternal script, the Weekly Standard appears close to folding because its current patron—and most important reader—billionaire conservative Philip Anschutz, has grown tired of it. He better favors his other conservative political publication, the Washington Examiner, which his company announced plans on Monday to “expand into a national distributed magazine with a broadened editorial focus.” In other words, the Standard is dying so the Examiner can live larger.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/06/weekly-standard-never-trump-magazine-222766

Since 1995 the Weekly Standard has been a driving force of neo-conservative thought…..from the mind of Bill Kristol sprang a magazine that became a go to source for just about everything neocon……Neocon?…….but just what is a Neocon?

It appears that the magazine that help spread misinformation about Iraq to help make the case for the invasion and occupation and a driving force in the opposition to Iran….is looking like it is dead in the water……

The rumored demise of the Weekly Standard is yet another of Donald J. Trump’s achievements that will go uncelebrated by his liberal enemies: indeed, they are even now mourning the death of the neoconservative flagship as they never did when it was at the height of its maleficent glory.

And of course neoconservatism’s many fellow-travelers are out there with panegyrics. It “stood up for conservative principle” in the age of Trump, writes Meghan McArdle. What principle this might be, Ms. McArdle somehow neglects to say: perhaps it’s a penchant for perpetual war, the only known characteristic this famously eccentric and variable band hold in common. Both McArdle and the editors of the Standard thrilled their readers with stories of the great danger posed by Saddam Hussein, who they told us had nukes hidden beneath his palace ready to launch at a moment’s notice.

Let’s take a look at the three important roles played by the Standard and its editors in the history of the post-9/11 era.

https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2018/12/09/the-end-of-the-weekly-standard/

Could this be the death of the rabid neocon philosophy?

I think not….maybe a rebrand….but these warmongering toads will be with us….for now.

Death Of A Journalist

Let say from the onset that the death of a journalist is unacceptable!  Any Journalist!

We all know after months of coverage of the death of WaPo journalist Jamal Khashoggi….all the drama and lies and denial…..it was a tragic situation….and the drama around MbS was just too suspicious to ignore.

But why is his death, Khashoggi, more important than the deaths of other journalists…..about here someone will ask….well if it is such a problem just how many journalists have been killed?

That is an excellent question……in 2017 a total of 81 were killed while doing their job of reporting…..but what about 2018?  Another good question….at last count 48 journalist have been killed this year….if you would like to check the stats then this site will help…..https://cpj.org/data/killed/

I asked these question because of a piece I read in the Gatestone Institute site…….

  • Ironically, the same members of the media who have been obsessed with Khashoggi and the Saudi-US alliance have devoted little space to the reality that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has been imprisoning, torturing and killing journalists for years.
  • The ongoing story of Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, more than being a function of concern for the Saudi journalist, was less important to Western journalists than attacking the Trump administration.

While the October 2 murder of the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, continues to be discussed across the world, the November 23 assassination of a Syrian journalist, Raed Fares, and his devoted friend and cameraman, Hammoud al-Jneid, gunned down in Fares’s home village of Kafrandel, Syria.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13375/journalists-murder

Like I said any death of a journalist because of his job should be unacceptable and each and every one needs the attention of the world. Stifling the free exchange of opinions should be a crime against humanity and a war crime punishable by death.

All that aside…I have been asked why would this person would want a journalist dead?

Twenty-one years ago, the rising toll of attacks on journalists – and the fact that almost all of the crimes went unpunished – led Unesco to pass a resolution condemning violence against the media. It stressed that assassinations not only cut short individual lives, but attack freedom of expression, exacting a broader toll on society. Today, those concerns are more serious and widespread than ever. Nine in 10 of the more than 1,000 killings condemned by Unesco between 2006 and 2017 remain unsolved. Almost all were local journalists rather than foreign correspondents. Some were killed by criminals, armed groups and terrorists; but others by or on behalf of politicians or parts of the state.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/09/the-guardian-view-on-the-killing-of-journalists-the-truth-in-peril

This seems to be a spiraling problem….the killing of journalists……

Further Reading:

https://www.poynter.org/news/why-they-kill-journalists

Then we have d/bags like this one……https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/06/27/milo-wants-vigilantes-start-killing-journalists-and-hes-not-being-ironic