(The End of) Journalism Thread

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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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The story ABC News was reporting on is disgusting. WTF
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by tennbengal »

Bumping this thread because I have been trying to sort through just how badly journalists/the media has betrayed the country. And it isn't rooted just in the failures of the last 18 months. I think the issue for me, it seems, and it has been trending this way for at least 20 years, but probably back to the 80s, is in the rise of CNN and then the other 24 hour "news" networks (these thoughts set aside what Fox was from its birth). At some point, probably pretty quickly, news became programming. The networks needed things to happen to generate eyeballs and ratings. So life became, even before reality TV and the internet, something that was a necessary part of filling a program. Which made the politicians etc. simply players on a stage, even if that stage was real life. So journalists stopped being the type of journalists that I grew up with, for instance (with some exceptions to this day - Tiabbi among others) and simply started being, in effect, the persons behind the camera. Which left the media awfully ill-equipped to deal with a threat like Trump (and especially Trump w/ a Republican congress). Because Trump was an AWESOME character for the 24 hour news cycle/internet cycle, and drove ratings. And the coverage of HRC necessarily, from a programming standpoint, meant that she had to be cast in a certain way as well.

I am not being very clear, I think. But I am trying to work this out. Everything that happens now, good or bad (mostly bad) in the world, is covered not as a news event, but as a part of continued programming, if that makes sense. Train crashes, plane disappearances, elections, whatever it may be, the news types cover that not as if it is something real but as if it is programming. So they distance themselves and the viewer from what they are watching, in some important ways. Which makes any coming horrors, if there are to be horrors, from the Trump administration simply more tasty programming, to drive eyeballs and ratings, which in turn makes the media/journalists less likely to be what was once a line of defense. The idea of the media as a fourth estate at this point is so laughable, it is almost beyond belief that we ever thought of it that way.

So if Trump does crack down on protestors at some point (which is where my money is) and people are jailed and/or killed for protesting, a large part of the media will be delighted by that turn of events in this particular program (ratings will be through the roof). I guess I am saying the media has, on some very important level, removed themselves from that which they cover to the point that the void that is left is breathtakingly dangerous.

Ramble over, sorry if none of that made sense.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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Makes perfect sense, TB. The decline started with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. Once TV stations were no longer required to dedicate time to the news without generating ad revenue, the focus turned from providing information to generating ratings. Stories get sensationalized and more interesting stories get reported over more important stories. So many news/pundit shows now are driven by the personality of the host, rather than integrity or trustworthiness. Characters like Glenn Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh make $30 million dollars a year, so they crank up the crazy, say inflammatory things, generate emotions like fear and anger, and tell people contrary evidence is all lies by the "other side" or MSM.

Trump can say or Tweet anything he wants, and his followers will believe him despite mountains of evidence, because everything other than their opinion is a lie. Worse, when you point out that articles from sources that are frequently inaccurate or blatantly lie, they accuse you of only believing sources saying what you want to hear. Today, an 18 month old story about Ford bringing jobs back to Ohio from Mexico is making the rounds. Trump claims credit, that he hounded Ford until they finally listened to him. He Tweeted that the media and his haters won't give him credit, but WE know he deserves the credit.

Another issue, also a symptom of the 24 hour news networks, is the short shelf life of a story. Real journalism takes time, and most people don't care about the story by the time enough research is done to accurate tell the story. There are still a few good journalists out there, but most people won't read a longer, well written article. Most people don't read past the headline or first paragraph, so the context isn't there, just the shock value clickbait headline. This is why I won't go to HuffPo. Their headlines are ridiculously misleading.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by tennbengal »

Another issue, also a symptom of the 24 hour news networks, is the short shelf life of a story. Real journalism takes time, and most people don't care about the story by the time enough research is done to accurate tell the story. There are still a few good journalists out there, but most people won't read a longer, well written article. Most people don't read past the headline or first paragraph, so the context isn't there, just the shock value clickbait headline.
Great example.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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The real problem isn't "journalism", it's "Americans". No more than you can force people to eat healthy can you force good journalism on them. Because if you do, then someone will come along with something less healthy and they'll eat it up.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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For instance, I wonder how they (media) will fill the "programming" void, now, with Trump elected. Will they want Trump to continue to do crazy-ass things, and encourage same, because they have somehow cast themselves as removed from real life? Or will they find themselves (generally) and act as a check.

My bet is easily on the former. The crazier the better for ratings. Hence the new buzzword (although not incorrect buzzword) of "normalization" for Trump, the white supremicists he is putting into powers, etc. A normalized Trump allows him to push boundaries further, making for better programming and ratings for the 24 hour news set, and plenty of clicks on-line. To the extent that Trump is self-aware and this is somehow all a game or con, maybe we will be okay? But, fuck, that's not a safe bet, and the people he is putting into place make it awfully dangerous for the rest of us. For the true believers, this is absolutely not a game. Some of them are religious zealots, others are end times zealots, and others are like Bannon, whatever the fuck he is. I will grant the news cycle overlords this - they, I am sure, are getting more traffic for this than for an HRC transition team series of announcements.

I believe we remain totally fucked.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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brian wrote:The real problem isn't "journalism", it's "Americans". No more than you can force people to eat healthy can you force good journalism on them. Because if you do, then someone will come along with something less healthy and they'll eat it up.
Americans are what they are and always have been. Journalists used to hold themselves to a higher standard (at least from the 1950s through the 1970s maybe?), and, in the old days when it was just newspapers and evening news, things were covered differently. That's all changed now. Journalism changed too (in fairness, maybe changed back to what it once was, reading old copies of the Memphis Commerical Appeal from the 1870s - 1940s, say, is horrifying in the bald racism). There have always been racists, obviously, but the somehow the gate-keeping function that had arisen against racists is gone again.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by tennbengal »

And, in the end, at least one million more Americans voted for HRC than Trump. Likely more. Majority was outvoted electorally, and lost, but the majority didn't want this. News cycle owns a large part of that, in my opinion. It isn't just one thing, but it is a part of the picture. And now, with barbarians here, the media isn't going to be a part of protecting against the further unraveling of the fabric, I don't believe.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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brian wrote:The real problem isn't "journalism", it's "Americans". No more than you can force people to eat healthy can you force good journalism on them. Because if you do, then someone will come along with something less healthy and they'll eat it up.

The problem being there are very few barriers to entry anymore to making online "journalism". When 100% of the news was coming form the newspaper, you could reasonably expect a certain level of reporting. When anyone can stab a few keys, that's out the window because even the legit outlets have to compete to be "FIRST."
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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A_B wrote:
brian wrote:The real problem isn't "journalism", it's "Americans". No more than you can force people to eat healthy can you force good journalism on them. Because if you do, then someone will come along with something less healthy and they'll eat it up.

The problem being there are very few barriers to entry anymore to making online "journalism". When 100% of the news was coming form the newspaper, you could reasonably expect a certain level of reporting. When anyone can stab a few keys, that's out the window because even the legit outlets have to compete to be "FIRST."
Yeah, this a bigger part of the problem, but still doesn't absolve John Q. Media-Consumer. If people wanted better reporting they would seek it out. Instead they want clickbaity bullshit that confirms their own predispositions.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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brian wrote:
A_B wrote:
brian wrote:The real problem isn't "journalism", it's "Americans". No more than you can force people to eat healthy can you force good journalism on them. Because if you do, then someone will come along with something less healthy and they'll eat it up.

The problem being there are very few barriers to entry anymore to making online "journalism". When 100% of the news was coming form the newspaper, you could reasonably expect a certain level of reporting. When anyone can stab a few keys, that's out the window because even the legit outlets have to compete to be "FIRST."
Yeah, this a bigger part of the problem, but still doesn't absolve John Q. Media-Consumer. If people wanted better reporting they would seek it out. Instead they want clickbaity bullshit that confirms their own predispositions.
Oh, absolutely.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by Shirley »

I'm pretty sure that there's as much good journalism as there ever was. Maybe more. It's just that there's SO MUCH other news out there competing with it. How is a thoughtful, long-form piece that covers both sides of a story supposed to compete with a zillion "John Oliver DESTROYS Trump!!" clickbait articles (and their TV equivalents)?
Totally Kafkaesque
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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Shirley wrote:I'm pretty sure that there's as much good journalism as there ever was. Maybe more. It's just that there's SO MUCH other news out there competing with it. How is a thoughtful, long-form piece that covers both sides of a story supposed to compete with a zillion "John Oliver DESTROYS Trump!!" clickbait articles (and their TV equivalents)?
That bothers me significantly less than the stuff that is just patently false (or at best exaggerated). John Oliver is actually a great source for "real" reporting (albeit in a format meant to entertain) so if it's driving people to that then great. But each side has their own made up sites that seem like news and in reality are just propaganda at best if not outright falsehoods. Interestingly enough, Google today announced they won't be including most of those sites in their referral programs any more so it will reduce the financial incentive for a lot of them to exist. If Facebook would agree to do the same, they'd probably be in really bad shape.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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I think Facebook and Google are both trying to cut down on it:

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/f ... ng-n684101
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NBC News, huh? Typical libtard reporting.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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brian wrote:NBC News, huh? Typical libtard reporting.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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A_B wrote:
brian wrote:NBC News, huh? Typical libtard reporting.
You know me...
You sure that isn't NTC News (Never Trump Company). That is more AB's style. Of course he is the only one reading, unless you live in Utah.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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A_B wrote:I think Facebook and Google are both trying to cut down on it:

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/f ... ng-n684101
This is just going to embolden the argument that the media wants to hide the truth. First, how do they determine "fake news?" Where do they draw the line? Many people use Breitbart as a primary news source, and I'm sure a lot of their content is factually accurate, but I've seen a lot of articles on there that are blatantly false. Move down the slope to something like World News Daily, which I often see cited as a source. Our old friend non-hyphen loved that site. Pretty much every article I've read on that is at best misleading, and often based on incorrect facts or a premise that flat out makes no sense or is blatantly not possible. If FB and Google faze out these sites, the readership of those sites will be convinced FB and Google are part of a Liberal conspiracy to blind the Sheeple. Then the rest of the RW sites will all join in, crying that the Left Wing media/Establishment/Jews/NWO/Globalists are preventing the truth from reaching the masses!
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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The Sybian wrote:
A_B wrote:I think Facebook and Google are both trying to cut down on it:

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/f ... ng-n684101
This is just going to embolden the argument that the media wants to hide the truth. First, how do they determine "fake news?" Where do they draw the line? Many people use Breitbart as a primary news source, and I'm sure a lot of their content is factually accurate, but I've seen a lot of articles on there that are blatantly false. Move down the slope to something like World News Daily, which I often see cited as a source. Our old friend non-hyphen loved that site. Pretty much every article I've read on that is at best misleading, and often based on incorrect facts or a premise that flat out makes no sense or is blatantly not possible. If FB and Google faze out these sites, the readership of those sites will be convinced FB and Google are part of a Liberal conspiracy to blind the Sheeple. Then the rest of the RW sites will all join in, crying that the Left Wing media/Establishment/Jews/NWO/Globalists are preventing the truth from reaching the masses!
All they're doing is preventing people from profiting on sharing those sites. You can still read the sites if you want and share them if you wish, but people won't be getting paid for shilling insanely incorrect information.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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So I had no idea InfoWars sold "supplements"

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I seriously have no idea what this product is. The description is... not descriptive.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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Shirley wrote:I'm pretty sure that there's as much good journalism as there ever was. Maybe more. It's just that there's SO MUCH other news out there competing with it. How is a thoughtful, long-form piece that covers both sides of a story supposed to compete with a zillion "John Oliver DESTROYS Trump!!" clickbait articles (and their TV equivalents)?
The internet presents so much opportunity to read quality journalism from all over the world.

And people instead choose the garbage that lowers their level of knowledge.

You know, when people cite the Huffington Post, it really gets my back up. It's a site that doesn't pay the majority of its contributors.As a writer, this is offensive, but it really should throw up red flags for readers as well.
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Post by rass »

Brontoburglar wrote:So I had no idea InfoWars sold "supplements"

http://www.infowarsstore.com/silver-bul ... fowars.com

I seriously have no idea what this product is. The description is... not descriptive.
Highly recommended (if I recall correctly from when I read it originally):
https://www.google.com/amp/uproxx.com/k ... -drug/amp/
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by Shirley »

brian wrote:
Shirley wrote:I'm pretty sure that there's as much good journalism as there ever was. Maybe more. It's just that there's SO MUCH other news out there competing with it. How is a thoughtful, long-form piece that covers both sides of a story supposed to compete with a zillion "John Oliver DESTROYS Trump!!" clickbait articles (and their TV equivalents)?
That bothers me significantly less than the stuff that is just patently false (or at best exaggerated). John Oliver is actually a great source for "real" reporting (albeit in a format meant to entertain) so if it's driving people to that then great. But each side has their own made up sites that seem like news and in reality are just propaganda at best if not outright falsehoods. Interestingly enough, Google today announced they won't be including most of those sites in their referral programs any more so it will reduce the financial incentive for a lot of them to exist. If Facebook would agree to do the same, they'd probably be in really bad shape.
Yeah, that was a bad example. I was really thinking of how HuffPo wrote one of those articles for damn near every Daily Show and Colbert episode. I assume now it's John Oliver. And those clickbait articles are only a small part of the problem. You have all of the celebrity crap. The jillion TV shows where they get two extreme ideologues to yell at each other (those are the only two possible positions, right?). Etc. Just waves upon waves of entertainment masquerading as news. It hides all of the good stuff.
Totally Kafkaesque
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by Brontoburglar »

rass wrote:
Brontoburglar wrote:So I had no idea InfoWars sold "supplements"

http://www.infowarsstore.com/silver-bul ... fowars.com

I seriously have no idea what this product is. The description is... not descriptive.
Highly recommended (if I recall correctly from when I read it originally):
https://www.google.com/amp/uproxx.com/k ... -drug/amp/
that was good
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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I think that was the article where I finally bought into his character (longform, at least).
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by Joe K »

brian wrote:
A_B wrote:
brian wrote:The real problem isn't "journalism", it's "Americans". No more than you can force people to eat healthy can you force good journalism on them. Because if you do, then someone will come along with something less healthy and they'll eat it up.

The problem being there are very few barriers to entry anymore to making online "journalism". When 100% of the news was coming form the newspaper, you could reasonably expect a certain level of reporting. When anyone can stab a few keys, that's out the window because even the legit outlets have to compete to be "FIRST."
Yeah, this a bigger part of the problem, but still doesn't absolve John Q. Media-Consumer. If people wanted better reporting they would seek it out. Instead they want clickbaity bullshit that confirms their own predispositions.
I agree with Brian on this, and I also agree with Shirley that there is an awful lot of good journalism out there that people are just ignoring. More generally, I think that blaming the election results on the media goes too far in absolving American society as a whole. There's an underlying assumption there that if more people knew the truth about Trump, they would turn away in horror. But not enough consideration is being given to the possibility that voters knew exactly who he is and voted for him anyway. First the story was that once GOP voters paid more attention, they'd back Bush or Kasich. Then it was that once some candidates dropped out, they'd back Rubio. Then it was that Clinton's opposition research would doom Trump. At some point, we need to face the fact that tens of millions of Americans either agreed with Trump's bigotry, xenophobia and crudeness or were willing to condone it. That's not the picture we want to have of our society -- which makes it appealing to blame the media, or Wikileaks, or Russia -- but doesn't it seem like a very likely possibility at this point?
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by tennbengal »

For the record, I didn't blame the election on the media when I bumped this post with my thoughts.
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Post by Joe K »

tennbengal wrote:For the record, I didn't blame the election on the media when I bumped this post with my thoughts.
Fair enough, but you did say that the media was "ill-equipped to deal with a threat like Trump." And I may be misinterpreting your post, but I took it to say that the media should have done more to expose him. My point is that Trump was plenty exposed, and 60 million people nonetheless voted for him. I view that as a societal failure much moreso than a media one.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

Post by tennbengal »

No, my point was that the media was ill-equipped to deal with Trump (and that's the media's fault, in large part - rooted in rise of the 24 hour news cycle). I don't buy pointing to some good journalism and absolving the larger entity. And my critique went back decades. But read into it what you want, I suppose.
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The government attacks unarmed protestors in North Dakota and over on CNN.com, this story is 14th in its list of "Top Stories" behind such important stories as "Kaepernick Angers Miami Fans" and "Trump Ally: Romney is and Egomaniac."
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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tennbengal wrote:Bumping this thread because I have been trying to sort through just how badly journalists/the media has betrayed the country. And it isn't rooted just in the failures of the last 18 months. I think the issue for me, it seems, and it has been trending this way for at least 20 years, but probably back to the 80s, is in the rise of CNN and then the other 24 hour "news" networks (these thoughts set aside what Fox was from its birth). At some point, probably pretty quickly, news became programming. The networks needed things to happen to generate eyeballs and ratings. So life became, even before reality TV and the internet, something that was a necessary part of filling a program. Which made the politicians etc. simply players on a stage, even if that stage was real life. So journalists stopped being the type of journalists that I grew up with, for instance (with some exceptions to this day - Tiabbi among others) and simply started being, in effect, the persons behind the camera. Which left the media awfully ill-equipped to deal with a threat like Trump (and especially Trump w/ a Republican congress). Because Trump was an AWESOME character for the 24 hour news cycle/internet cycle, and drove ratings. And the coverage of HRC necessarily, from a programming standpoint, meant that she had to be cast in a certain way as well.

I am not being very clear, I think. But I am trying to work this out. Everything that happens now, good or bad (mostly bad) in the world, is covered not as a news event, but as a part of continued programming, if that makes sense. Train crashes, plane disappearances, elections, whatever it may be, the news types cover that not as if it is something real but as if it is programming. So they distance themselves and the viewer from what they are watching, in some important ways. Which makes any coming horrors, if there are to be horrors, from the Trump administration simply more tasty programming, to drive eyeballs and ratings, which in turn makes the media/journalists less likely to be what was once a line of defense. The idea of the media as a fourth estate at this point is so laughable, it is almost beyond belief that we ever thought of it that way.

So if Trump does crack down on protestors at some point (which is where my money is) and people are jailed and/or killed for protesting, a large part of the media will be delighted by that turn of events in this particular program (ratings will be through the roof). I guess I am saying the media has, on some very important level, removed themselves from that which they cover to the point that the void that is left is breathtakingly dangerous.

Ramble over, sorry if none of that made sense.


I know of at least one retired Harvard journalism professor/LA Times journalist who feels nearly the exact same way.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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tennbengal wrote:Everything that happens now, good or bad (mostly bad) in the world, is covered not as a news event, but as a part of continued programming, if that makes sense. Train crashes, plane disappearances, elections, whatever it may be, the news types cover that not as if it is something real but as if it is programming. So they distance themselves and the viewer from what they are watching, in some important ways. Which makes any coming horrors, if there are to be horrors, from the Trump administration simply more tasty programming, to drive eyeballs and ratings, which in turn makes the media/journalists less likely to be what was once a line of defense. The idea of the media as a fourth estate at this point is so laughable, it is almost beyond belief that we ever thought of it that way.

So if Trump does crack down on protestors at some point (which is where my money is) and people are jailed and/or killed for protesting, a large part of the media will be delighted by that turn of events in this particular program (ratings will be through the roof). I guess I am saying the media has, on some very important level, removed themselves from that which they cover to the point that the void that is left is breathtakingly dangerous.
The excellent podcast "On The Media" has put out a number of "Breaking News Consumer Handbooks" that break down how media cover enets. From reporting on health scares to coups.

http://www.wnyc.org/series/breaking-new ... s-handbook

It's like the coverage of natural disasters. Earthquake hits, towns levelled, hundreds dead... and you can be sure that 36 hours later the story becomes the one child freed from the rubble. Then, no more story. Next disaster, same thing happens.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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The Washington Post's McCarthyite attack on many of the most legitimate sources of actual fact and news is a new low. One of the worst attacks on free thinking from the power establishment in my life.

I first learned of Joe McCarthy and the Red Baiting era in middle school around 1970, studied the phenomenon in high school and college. It was a dark episode that seemed like ancient history, and that I was lucky to live in a time when such life-destroying excesses were a thing of the past. Shit. Live long enough, amazing what you will see.

Bengal, there is good news. Never before has technology made it so easy to get around the brainwashing, and get to reality. Just at the time it is most necessary. Just as the WaPo and their ilk scored an own goal by enabling the election of Trump, they printed a list of 200 'fake news' 'tools of Putin' websites that provide the opposite. The sites I read every day, and many more I regularly peruse for the facts as well as enlightened opinion are right there on the list. (and a couple of others who do the same who were omitted, are chagrined like those who were left off Nixon's enemies list. 'what did we do right?')

This may not last. Fucking Facebook and Google are becoming state censors. Fucking shit, some mornings I can't believe what I see.

nakedcapitalism.com is my personal favorite and most valuable source of information for years now. The lady who runs it is wonderful, and I met her irl during Occupy, and she lives in my neighborhood. I am very happy to learn she is fucking fighting back. As am I, in support of her efforts.

But if you want to fight back, and if you want to simply inform yourself, they gave you a list. Just read from it.


We’re Under Attack
Posted on November 29, 2016 by Yves Smith


After our very successful fundraiser, we thought the most we’d need to do at this point in the year was send a pleasant, grateful follow-up e-mail to our mailing list. Instead, we’ve become the target of a full-bore McCarthyite attack.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, the Washington Post legitimated a thin, amateurish site whose principals have libeled not only Naked Capitalism but also Ron Paul’s institute, former Reagan Administration officials David Stockman and Paul Craig Roberts, well-respected progressive stalwarts, such as Counterpunch, Truthout, TruthDig, and Black Agenda Report, as supposed Russian propaganda outlets with foreign “coordinators.” Moreover, with no supporting evidence whatsoever, this site called for everyone on its list to be investigated by the FBI and DoJ for Espionage Act violations.

The common denominator for all these websites seems to be skepticism about the failed Clinton coronation.

This is intimidation of the most crass sort. Make no mistake: this isn’t about media, it’s about a wholesale attack by the Democratic establishment on anything they don’t like, which includes the Naked Capitalism community. This version is a lunatic conspiracy theory, that the election was stolen by Putin, and no different from the ones the ones peddled by the right, like birtherism and climate change denial.

The Twitterverse exploded in criticism of the Post’s shoddy story, and Glenn Greenwald rallied to our defense in an Intercept story, citing the attack on Naked Capitalism as “particularly egregious.” As he stated:
Greenwald wrote:The group commits outright defamation by slandering obviously legitimate news sites as propaganda tools of the Kremlin…That is because a big part of the group’s definition for “Russian propaganda outlet” is criticizing U.S. foreign policy. … [T]he website conflates criticism of Western governments and their actions and policies with Russian propaganda…

Even more disturbing than the Post’s shoddy journalism in this instance is the broader trend in which any wild conspiracy theory or McCarthyite attack is now permitted in U.S. discourse as long as it involves Russia and Putin…

As is so often the case, those who mostly loudly warn of “fake news” from others are themselves the most aggressive disseminators of it.
Matt Taibbi also weighed in, pointing out that the Post had not bother to contact us, Chris Hedges of TruthDig or presumably anyone else and added:
Matt wrote:This is the ultimate in stupidity and self-annihilating behavior. The power of the press comes from its independence from politicians. Jump into bed with them and you not only won’t ever be able to get out, but you’ll win nothing but a loss of real influence and the undying loathing of audiences.

Helping Beltway politicos mass-label a huge portion of dissenting media as “useful idiots” for foreign enemies in this sense is an extraordinarily self-destructive act. Maybe the Post doesn’t care and thinks it’s doing the right thing. In that case, at least do the damn work.
Given the rash of recent stories about “fake news,” the Post’s article looks to be part of a push to get certain sites designated as purveyors of “fake news” and to have links to them banned on Facebook and Twitter, delegitimating them and cutting their revenues.

continue reading at link…
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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Glad you posted about that, Howard, as I have been reading about the WaPo article for a few days. As you said, it was an absolutely disgraceful hit piece on a number of legitimate sites. This continued attempt to attribute everything that has happened in the Presidential Election to a Russian Conspiracy is not only shameful, but also reflects a total blindness on the part of the Clinton campaign, the Democratic Party and the corporate media to the fact that yes, Trump really is an American phenomenon. We can, and did, elect someone like that as President without Putin rigging the rules.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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So...If actual, reported news is light, and fake news is dark...

Naked Capitalism is obviously an agenda-driven website that houses a particular subset of critical thinking (economics, apparently). It seeks to inform you through their own filters. It is therefore in the gray. What shade of gray? Depends on their body of work.

We're in uncharted waters here, particularly when you have bad actors claiming to be news. That's always been the case in print media, but with social media as the driver, it's taken things to a whole new level, where Facebook groups become echo chambers, and illusory correlations get fomented, to be shared. If you're honest about it, you're guilty, NCap. Your only defense is being closer to the light rather than the dark.
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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FWIW, thanks for allowing me to rediscover Naked Capitalism. I just donated and am attempting to unearth my Feedburner account to verify my RSS subscription..
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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Mark Ames speculating on the Wapo/ProPornOt blacklist, with some deep historical threads as context. Long. The anonymity of the 'source' of this story is vitally important, but will be broken down in due time. Just fascinating the one of the targets, Truthdig (where Chris Hedges, Juan Cole and Amy Goodman regularly contribute), was founded by Robert Sheer, who went through eerily similar bullshit two generations ago at Ramparts.

Site Behind Washington Post’s McCarthyite Blacklist Appears To Be Linked to Ukrainian Fascists and CIA Spies
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Re: (The End of) Journalism Thread

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Interesting...

The Nation wonders why the CIA is now considered an unimpeachable source.
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