Month: September 2024

Social Media Hazardous to Health?

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Article in The Hill by Sarah Fortinsky, 09/10/24 2:42

Headline: “42 states and territories press Congress on social media warning labels”

“US Surgeon General Murthy, in June, called for a surgeon general’s warning label to be placed on social media platforms, similar to those warning labels that appear on tobacco and alcohol products. He noted that studies have shown that warning labels on tobacco products can increase awareness and change a user’s behavior.

“ ‘It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,’ he wrote.

“This problem will not solve itself and the social media platforms have demonstrated an unwillingness to fix the problem on their own. Therefore, we urge Congress to act by requiring warnings on algorithm-driven social media platforms, as recommended by the Surgeon General,” they wrote in the letter”

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4871983-social-media-warning-labels-attorneys-general/

 

Selective Reporting.

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Article in The Intercept by James Risen 8/28/24

Headline:  Why the Media Won’t Report the Truth About Trump

Subhead:  The political press has doubled down on horse-race coverage of the election, overlooking the threat Trump poses to democracy.

This article gives a history of the evolution of the press to what it is today

“Over the last few years, as it grew increasingly likely that Donald Trump would mount a third campaign for the White House, leading press critics and others in the media vowed that this time had to be different. The press couldn’t fail in its coverage of Trump once again.

“But the change in coverage hasn’t happened. Instead, the press has doubled down on horse-race coverage, proving unable to alter its traditional formula for campaign coverage.

. . . “Finally, after January 6, 2021, it seemed certain that the nation’s press was ready to cover Trump like a dangerous demagogue, rather than as a normal American politician. The fact that Trump was also convicted of a felony early in the 2024 campaign made changes in coverage seem inevitable.

“But the press seems to have amnesia. It is as if journalists have forgotten that Trump was impeached twice, criminally indicted four times, and already convicted once.

“Just over the last few days, political coverage has been overwhelmed by endless stories about an endorsement of Trump by independent candidate and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and about Trump’s waffling on debating Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on ABC News.

“Those kinds of stories and more horse-race trivia are featured in the endless loops of bite-sized stories featured 24-7 on the homepages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other news organizations.

“For Trump to escape much scrutiny from the press for the third time can be attributed in part to the deep historical, technological, and financial trends that have swept through the news industry.”

https://theintercept.com/2024/08/28/trump-campaign-election-media-coverage-journalists

Burning Down the Press

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Article in The Guardian by Jack Apollo George, 9/7/24

Headline:  “If journalism is going up in smoke, I might as well get high off the fumes: confessions of a chatbot helper”

Subhead:  “Journalists and other writers are employed to improve the quality of chatbot replies. The irony of working for an industry that may well make their craft redundant is not lost on them”

“Aren’t these machines trained on billions and billions of words and sentences? What would they need us fleshy scribes for?

“Well, for starters, the internet is finite. And so too is the sum of every word on every page of every book ever written. So what happens when the last pamphlet, papyrus and prolegomenon have been digitised and the model is still not perfect? What happens when we run out of words?

“The date for that linguistic apocalypse has already been set. Researchers announced in June that we can expect this to take place between 2026 and 2032 “if current LLM development trends continue”. At that point, “Models will be trained on datasets roughly equal in size to the available stock of public human text data.”

. . . “And therein lies the ultimate irony. Here is a new economic phenomenon that rewards writing, that encourages it, that truly values it; all while simultaneously deeming it an encumbrance, a problem to be solved, an inefficiency to be automated away. It is like being paid to write in sand, to whisper secrets into a slab of butter. Even if our words could make a dent, we wouldn’t ever be able to recognize it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/sep/07/if-journalism-is-going-up-in-smoke-i-might-as-well-get-high-off-the-fumes-confessions-of-a-chatbot-helper

 

Media Hatist Visits Kansas City

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Article in Wichita Eagle by By David Mastio, 9/6/24

Headline: “Tucker Carlson, defending Hitler, Kremlin propaganda: ‘conservative’ media in crisis”

“This week, Tucker Carlson, a man who had a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican Convention where he sat next to Trump, invited Nazi sympathizer Darryl Cooper onto his streaming show and into the lives of millions of his fans to rehabilitate Adolf Hitler as a spurned peacemaker who was pushed into Jewish genocide by a war-mongering Winston Churchill. This is insane.

“Next week, Carlson is bringing his fascist apologia show to T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Some people are paying more than $100 to get close. The next day, Carlson will be speaking before thousands more in Wichita at InTrust Bank Arena. I don’t think this is what T-Mobile and InTrust had in mind when they paid for naming rights to these venues.”

https://www.kansas.com/opinion/article292021650.html

 

Russian Propaganda Influences US Media – Surprise?

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Boris &  Natasha from Huffington Post

Article in New York Magazine Intelligencer by Nia Prater, 9/4/24

Headline: “Benny Johnson, Tim Pool Say They’re Victims in Russia Media Scheme”

“On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department unveiled a bombshell indictment in New York’s Southern District, alleging that Russia was behind the funding of a United States–based right-wing media company and that it used the business’s influencers to push disinformation and Russia-backed propaganda. The company, Tenet Media, employs several prominent conservative commentators, including Benny Johnson and Tim Pool.

“Prosecutors say that Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva helped to funnel nearly $10 million from foreign entities to an American right-wing media organization.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/right-wing-creators-say-theyre-victims-in-russia-media-plot.html

 

It Can’t Happen Here – Can It?

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Article in the Washington Post By A.G. Sulzberger (New York Times Publisher), September 5, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Headline: “Opinion: How the quiet war against press freedom could come to America”

Subhead: “Some foreign leaders have ruthlessly curtailed journalism. U.S. politicians could draw from their playbook”

“After several years out of power, the former leader is returned to office on a populist platform. He blames the news media’s coverage of his previous government for costing him reelection. As he sees it, tolerating the independent press, with its focus on truth-telling and accountability, weakened his ability to steer public opinion. This time, he resolves not to make the same mistake.

“Within a few years, only pockets of independence remain in the country’s news media, freeing the leader from perhaps the most challenging obstacle to his increasingly authoritarian rule. Instead, the nightly news and broadsheet headlines unskeptically parrot his claims, often unmoored from the truth, flattering his accomplishments while demonizing and discrediting his critics.“

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/05/sulzberger-free-press-new-york-times/

Truth Social Media Falling Into the Void?

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From United Press International by Sheri Walsh, 9/3/24

Headline: “Trump Media shares hit new low, slip below $18 for first time”

Fron United Press International by Sheri Walsh, 9/3/24

“Trump Media and Technology Group’s shares hit a new low Tuesday, dropping below $18 for the first time since it began public trading in March.

“In June, Trump Media shares were down nearly 40% following the former president’s conviction in May on 34 counts of falsifying business documents to cover up an alleged affair with an adult film actress. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/09/03/trump-media-shares-new-low/8001725410524/

Do Journalists Ask the Wrong Questions?

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Opinion Piece in the Washington Post by Matt Bai, 9/3/24

Headline:  “The media gets nothing from Kamala Harris. That’s mostly on us.”

Subhead:  “Conversations between candidates and reporters often fail to reveal anything. There’s a better way.”

” . . .conversations between journalists and candidates so often fail to reveal anything of substance. And the failure is mostly on our side.

“If we journalists are actually interested in revealing things about our candidates that enlighten voters and ennoble the process, then it’s time to completely rethink the questions we ask.

“Increasingly, interviews like this are structured with an ear toward social media, where mobs of ideologically charged critics on either side are always ready to whine about the question that wasn’t asked or the lie that wasn’t immediately called out.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/03/harris-media-interview-better-questions/

Do Interviewers Push an Agenda?

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Article by HealthCareWatcher in Daily Kos, 9/2/24

Headline: “The Media’s Sickening Double Standard on Interviews”

“For weeks on end, it was the talk of the beltway gasbags that “Kamala Harris has to do an interview to show she’s ready to be President.” In that six weeks, Donald Trump started posting fan fiction about Joe Biden parachuting into the Democratic Convention and taking his delegates back from Kamala Harris, re-posting the posts of Neo-nazis, and just generally being complete insane.

“Trump has sat for no such interview in his two years as a candidate.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/2/2267370/-The-Media-s-Sickening-Double-Standard-on-Interviews?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

 

Attacking the Press Has Consequences

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Article in Lost Angeles Times from AP, 8/31/24

Headline:  “Man who stormed into rally press area after Trump bashed media will face charges, police say”

“Police said Saturday that a man will face charges after he stormed into the press area at Donald Trump’s rally in Johnstown, Pa., as the former president spoke.

“The incident Friday came moments after Trump criticized major media outlets for what he said was unfavorable coverage, singling out CNN for its interview Thursday with his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.

“Fierce criticism of the media is a standard part of Trump’s rally speeches, and his supporters often turn toward the press section and boo; some gesture with their middle fingers.

“Moments before the man ventured into the designated section, Trump called the media the “enemy of the people.” Video of the incident does not make clear what the man was yelling.”

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-08-31/man-who-stormed-into-rally-press-area-after-trump-bashed-media-will-face-charges-police-say