"If you're watching the World Cup this year in the US, chances are you're watching it on the Murdoch familyās Fox and Fox Sports channels.
...Media owned by billionaires, Murdoch to Musk, is fracturing American democracy."
My new post:
deepnarrative.substack.com/p/the-world-cu
#WorldCup2022
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Eric Blair
- protecttruth@mastodon.online
- protecttruth@mastodon.online@protecttruth_
Before 1950 many US papers had a point of view.
Letās build a better media: revive media policy.
Find me on Mastodon: mastodon.online/@protecttruth
Eric Blairš„- protecttruth@mastodon.onlineās Tweets
Absolutely essential piece. Media is so important and we need to start making investments and talking about media.
See excerpts here:
mastodon.online/@protecttruth/
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Over 1000 radio stations broadcast rightwing propaganda 24/7 across the nation. Now a group of conservatives is launching a Spanish language version. Democrats need to get their media act together.
open.substack.com/pub/thomhartma
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Hereās one of WaPoās new opinion hires saying āYeah Khashoggiās death was bad but Democrats and the media overreacted.ā
Thereās about one inch of space between this excuse-making and what Pompeo said.
If WaPo hires right wingers for clicks, theyāre gonna get stuff like this.
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Fred Ryan wrote this about the #Kashoggi lies spread by Mike Pompeo.
And days later, Fred Ryan and his opinion editor hired two conservatives who agree with Pompeo on almost everything.
Ryan should put his money where his mouth is. His actions belie this statement.
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Article after article about how conservatives invest resources into media, and media manipulation, and media policy, and also talk about media to work the refs. It works. WaPo just hired two Nationalist Review guys and another AEI guy.
Liberal leaders on media: crickets.
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Scoop ā A look at the Ron DeSantis digital strategy and his A-team of influencers.
Top flak Christina Pushaw has been recruiting conservative content creators/media types and making a pitch (which she denies) either IRL or through intermediaries.
thedailybeast.com/ron-desantis-s
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WaPo fired Radley Balko, a libertarian who used to be in the rightwing dark money machineāand came out of it to join real media.
And WaPo hires these two. The message WaPo is sending:
MAGA neofascism is good, thoughtful consideration of issues is bad.
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WaPo hired Ponnaru and Geraghty. I cannot believe it. Theyāre both (semi-) fascists.
This is like hiring Father Coughlin and Charles Lindbergh in the 1930s to give your āliberal readersā a ādifferent perspectiveā.
What is going on in US political media? This isnāt journalism.
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Conservatives are pushing back even at this tiny step of DirectTV dropping Newsmax, because they know media is vital to their efforts.
Why are we not pushing forward, since we know media is vital to their efforts?
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Rep Jeff Van Drew calls for congressional investigation into DirecTV dropping Newsmax: "There should be hearings because we're not going to have any conservative voices left"
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A key example of our crisis of elite accountability is Rick Scott. It is horrible that he didnāt face criminal charges for his companyās massive healthcare fraud.
No wonder he thinks he can lie like this and get away with it.
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And not long ago WaPo/Ryan/Bezos cut the Outlook section and the poli sci features.
Trying to do journalism inside a big media company just doesnāt work well ā it ratchets inexorably to entertainment.
We need independent media w/ public support.
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Between the ending of WaPo's MonkeyCage and Outlook section, and other outlets moving away from publishing non staff editorial work, there's a real loss for curated distillation of scholarly output... At the same time as non curated outlets like social media going into tailspin. twitter.com/sarasadhwani/sā¦
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And not long ago WaPo/Ryan/Bezos cut the Outlook section and the poli sci features.
Trying to do journalism inside a big media company just doesnāt work well ā it ratchets inexorably to entertainment.
We need independent media w/ public support.
twitter.com/toddntucker/st
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And they hired Ruy Teixeira tooā the ally of centrist donors who blamed the left for everything wrong with the 2022 midterms, then separated from CAP.
And then ā¦ got a Koch-network-funded sinecure (cc ) at AEI.
It is a travesty that the Post is paying these three.
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And not long ago WaPo/Ryan/Bezos cut the Outlook section and the poli sci features.
Trying to do journalism inside a big media company just doesnāt work well ā it ratchets inexorably to entertainment.
We need independent media w/ public support.
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Between the ending of WaPo's MonkeyCage and Outlook section, and other outlets moving away from publishing non staff editorial work, there's a real loss for curated distillation of scholarly output... At the same time as non curated outlets like social media going into tailspin. twitter.com/sarasadhwani/sā¦
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WaPo hired Ponnaru and Geraghty. I cannot believe it. Theyāre both (semi-) fascists.
This is like hiring Father Coughlin and Charles Lindbergh in the 1930s to give your āliberal readersā a ādifferent perspectiveā.
What is going on in US political media? This isnāt journalism.
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What absolute garbage from Fred Ryan, Jeff Bezos, and their new opinion editor. For all the attention NYT gets, the Washington Post has the far worse opinion section.
Far worse. These two are pro-autocracy. The Founders are rolling in their graves at this WaPo news.
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The @NRO takeover of the Washington Post is going according to plan. Congrats to @RameshPonnuru and @jimgeraghty!
washingtonpost.com/pr/2023/01/25/
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Whatever else DOJ does, I just want the NYT execs and publisher to tell us if McGonigle had any connection with this story.
This story helped change the course of world history. It isnāt just about the NYT, itās bigger than that.
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What will the NYT say or not now that this FBI agent has been indicted? Was McGonigle an NYT source? Was he the boss of people who were NYT sources for this story?
Seems like Joe Kahn and AG Sulzberger should be telling us about this.
@jayrosen_nyu @froomkin @FixMediaNow
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In the end, perhaps burned by our overall failure of elite accountability, Iām skeptical much else will come out.
It does seem likely the FBI would be handling this differently if they thought it was espionage.
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Not conclusive. But read between the lines. Best evidence that DOJ sees this as conventional corruption case rather than espionage is letting him travel abroad, allowing him to get out on bail. You simply don't do that if you someone is an Ames or Hanssen type.
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Speculation here, but informed speculation.
There is a lot we donāt know about McGonigle.
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āIf the SAC for counterintelligence in New York went bad, truly bad, meaning espionage, the losses would be almost insurmountable.ā
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āMcGonigal has not been charged with espionage, but intelligence sources are shivering at the prospect that he could be found to have leaked secrets to Russia, China or others. ā¦ā
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Interesting on the FBI counter-spy agent in NY ā who was around for the Comey letter and just got charged with working with a Russian oligarch.
āI think there's more to this,ā says McGonigalās former [FBI] colleagueā¦ā
From /1
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It also doesnāt help Ilhan Omar that AIPAC and their Israeli government allies (including Bibi Netanyahu and his Karl Rove-like advisor Ron Dermer) are all in on attacking her.
thenation.com/article/politi
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1) Kirk makes clear what the real problem is with Ilhan Omar for the GOP: she is a Black, African, Muslim, Somali refugee. The racism here is brazen.
2) Omar is far more wedded to U.S. constitutional values than Kirk & his authoritarian, election-denying, anti-democratic pals. twitter.com/JasonSCampbellā¦
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Reminded about this overheard FBI convo in 2016, with this:
DC FBI/DOJ was āopenly feudingā with the NY FBI office.
Seems important today, now that we know some of the NY FBI office took money from an oligarch tight with Putin!
Where is the IG investigation of this, ?
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And this isnāt great either.
Itās not good that the NYT has ten million subscribers and is rolling in cash while basically every other US newspaper is not profitable.
NYTās concentration is bad too.
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Also: Itās not going to be easy to do this: the rightwing courts are going to fight any effort to limit media ownership, the FCC has jurisdiction mainly over broadcast media, Congressional action may be needed.
Letās be clear about what we need, then map a legal strategy.
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Billionaires and Big Media companies drag down our democracy with disinformation.
We should reevaluate how we regulate media ownership.
/end
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And there is good news! The FCC is now, for the first time in many many years, asking for comment about how media consolidation hurts us.
The ship of media āantitrustā at the FCC is turning slowly. Republicans will do all they can to stop it. Letās push.
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Late last year, the FCC Media Bureau announced its request for comments in the 2022 Quadrennial Review. For the first time in my memory, they are specifically calling for data and research on the effects of consolidation on the Public Interest. Huuuuge.
fcc.gov/document/media
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Hereās how Republican FCCs have taken us backward ā dismantled anti-consolidation rules. Under Bush in 2003; under Trump too.
prometheusradio.org/prp_vs_the_fcc
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This is a good start, although both companies are still controlled by the Murdoch family. But itās one step towards limiting media consolidation. Letās do a lot more of this, as a society and using our government to act collectively.
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Itās good that DirectTV is dropping Newsmax and that it dropped OANNāthis helps our democracy and it makes America stronger.
We should help cable cos exert pressure on Tucker Carlson too, by shrinking and splitting Fox Corp and Murdoch media.
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Weāve let Republicans weaken the FCC badly. Not just by rolling back rules, although they did thisātoo many Democrats now think the FCCās main mission is to ensure broadband access.
Thatās fine, but the FCC should rediscover its āantitrustā authority too.
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Under current anti-trust law in the US, that behavior likely isnāt immediately illegal.
But media requires stronger antitrust rules than other industries.
Thatās why the has long had strong rules about how many broadcast radio/TV and newspapers a single entity can own.
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Murdochās Fox has several sorts of vertical links. Murdoch owns Fox, Fox Biz, many local Fox TV stations, Fox Sports (with NFL, FIFA contracts), WSJ, NY Post, etc.
And he uses cross-promotion on those properties. Fox local TV promotes Fox News: /3
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Media antitrustāmedia deconsolidationā is the path forward to fixing American democracy.
We need stronger antimonopoly rules in media than other industries, because media affects not just consumer welfareābut also the welfare of our democracy.
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DirectTV drops Newsmax.
This will decrease the amount of rightwing disinformation in America.
So why doesnāt this happen with Fox? Itās not the viewershipāNewsmax has viewers too. Itās Foxās corporate size.
Cable cos donāt want to lose Fox Sports. /1
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The committee name is Orwellian.
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Remarkable this is getting done with a straight face. Itās basically the select committee on black helicopters and shadowbanning
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"My question for those who teach in Florida: What are you going to do? Because DeSantis is coming for you whether you stand up to him or cower.
This is fascism, [w/] identified enemiesāteachers and professors."
#EduTwitter #EconTwitter #historyteacher
lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/01/stand-
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I eventually stopped listening, because one podcast after another there was absolutely no thinking beyond the polls.
People are being persuaded by media and messages and experience. Polling canāt capture that.
And I donāt think Nate said āFoxā once in a year of podcasts.
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I donāt know if I agree with all the criticism of Nate Silver in this thread, but this was extremely clear just by listening to him talk on the 538 podcasts.
538 had a huge blindspot on race and genderā and bigger, a blindspot on anything except polling in the right now. /1
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And let me tell you what was really bad news: working in a newsroom covering an election cycle, 2016, where both race and gender were weaponized to win the election, and having a boss who dismissed all relevance of race and gender on the metanarrative.
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