Media News

News about the media.

Media Kissing the Ring

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Article in Freepress by Craig Aaron, 11/15/24

Headline:  “Media and Tech Billionaires Helped Elect Trump — and Now They’re Ready to Serve”

Subhead:  “First, they come for the media”

“Surveying the wreckage after the 2024 election, many post-mortems have tried to explain the tactical or messaging mishaps that led to Trump’s victory. But a lot of them have missed the most obvious culprit: the media.

“Yes, in this case, it is appropriate to blame the messengers —– or at least their billionaire bosses.

“In 2024, instead of acting as a check on power, the media aided and abetted Trump’s restoration at every turn — whether by outright manipulating their platforms to push Trump propaganda, relentlessly amplifying racist conspiracy theories, suppressing political content while groveling before Republican politicians, abandoning political endorsements and undermining their own journalists, profiting off the relentless onslaught of misleading political ads, or focusing on the horse-race stories, opinion-poll watching and fake scandalizing that infects political reporting everywhere.”

“. . . Trump and those around him have learned from other strongmen that rule once-democratic societies. Look at Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who told the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2022 that the path to power is to “have your own media.” Or Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel, where some of Trump’s biggest backers have tested these strategies and staged a right-wing media takeover, leading to a dangerous alternate reality on the airwaves that conceals war crimes and attacks dissenters. . . ”

https://www.freepress.net/blog/media-and-tech-billionaires-helped-elect-trump-and-now-theyre-ready-serve

Media Are Not Resisting, Won’t Save us Now

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Nope – no Lone Ranger for us!

Article in Politico by Michael Schaffer, 11/15/24

Headline:  “The Resistance Is Not Coming to Save You. It’s Tuning Out.”

Subhead:  “The first Trump administration sparked waves of public activism and aggressive media coverage. This time, not so much.”

“n the weeks before the 2024 election, no media platform had more catnip for Donald Trump’s detractors than the Drudge Report. Much of the time, its exclamation-pointed homepage banners were trumpeting the GOP candidate’s physical decay: Here, a link to Trump unable to open a garbage truck door! There, a newspaper editorial about his alarming cognitive decline! Just as often, they were announcing his danger to the republic. “EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO DEMOCRACY,” blared a typical late-October headline.

“One week after the election, it was a different story: Punching in Control-F on the Drudge homepage and searching the word “Trump” this Tuesday returned exactly zero hits.. . ”

“”. . .A media ecosystem that left so many Democrats surprised about Kamala Harris’ loss doesn’t much help the resistance, does it?”

“. . . Now, if the great blue tune-out of 2024 is what it appears to be, there won’t immediately be some new burst of energy to help serious publications grow back their numbers.”

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/11/15/trump-presidency-liberal-media-resistance-00189655

Refugees From Social Media Disinformation

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Article in The Guardian by Gaby Hinsliff, 11/15/24

Headline:  “The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over”

Subhead:  “There’s comfort in being surrounded by like-minded people, but challenge is important, and we may have to look for it elsewhere”

“Hell is other people. Or, more specifically, other people on social media. Hell is millions of people who would avoid each other like the plague if they met in real life, but who are shoved into each other’s faces and essentially egged on to punch each other online . . .”

“Hell is a social circle so vast and remote that human brains just aren’t wired to cope with it: it’s sociability without accountability, and it was making us miserably stressed long before Elon Musk bought X and drove it at a wall. But even then, people stayed for the reasons people do stay in toxic relationships – inertia, fear of being lonely, misplaced hope it may get better – and because it seemed intrinsic to many working lives. You had to be on X because everyone else was, a circular logic that this week finally snapped: a stampede away from X has seen rival Bluesky add 1 million users since the US election . . . ”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/15/x-bluesky-social-media-platforms

Don’t Like Media – Sue ‘Em

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Article from The Guardian by Maya Yang, 11/15/24

Headline:  “Trump sues for billions from media he says is biased against him”

Subhead:  “President-elect intensifies longstanding media hostility by filing lawsuits against New York Times, CBS and others”

“With only two months left until Donald Trump returns to the White House, the president-elect and convicted felon has been waging lawfare by a flurry of lawsuits against media companies and publishers that have been critical of him.

“The lawsuits come amid growing fears of what a second Trump term would mean for press freedom as Trump intensifies his longstanding hostility against the media – which he called ‘the enemy camp’ in his victory speech last week.”

“. . .In response to Trump’s re-election victory and his repeated attacks against journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called Trump’s threats against the press a ‘clear and direct danger to media freedom.’

“ ‘The hostile media climate fostered during Donald Trump’s first presidency – expected to continue in his forthcoming second term – poses great risks to media inside and outside the country,’ ” CPJ added.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/trump-sues-media-outlets-bias

Idiotic Medium buys Idiotic Website

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latest post from Infowars


Update:

Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts and agency, 11/15/24

Headline:  “Judge orders hearing to review Onion’s purchase of Alex Jones’s InfoWars”

Subhead:  “Judge to audit if conspiracy theorist’s bankruptcy auction was fair, which could delay buying process for satire site”

“On Thursday morning, it was announced that the Onion had bought InfoWars at Jones’s bankruptcy auction.

“But later that day, the judge overseeing Jones’s bankruptcy case held an emergency hearing, during which lawyers representing Jones and a company affiliated with him expressed concerns about the auction process. The judge has ordered an evidentiary hearing for next week to determine if the auction was conducted fairly, which could delay the process.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/the-onion-infowars-bankruptcy

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Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts, 11/14/24

Headline: “The Onion buys rightwing conspiracy theory site Infowars with plans to make it ‘very funny, ‘very stupid’ ”

Subhead:  “Satirical news outlet purchases media platform run by Alex Jones at a court-ordered auction”

“The satirical news outlet The Onion has purchased Infowars, the rightwing media platform run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, at a court-ordered auction.”

“CEO Ben Collins confirmed this in a post on Bluesky on Thursday, writing: ‘The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars. We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website. We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off.’ ”

“. . . The sale follows a judge’s order earlier this year for Jones to liquidate his personal assets, to help him to pay off the $1.4bn he was ordered to pay the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators when they took him to court for defamation after he falsely claimed that the shooting was a hoax, and that they were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/14/onion-info-wars-alex-jones

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 11/14/24

Headline:  “Not Satire: The Onion acquires Infowars“

“As part of the deal, The Onion, owned by Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson and led by chief executive Ben Collins, acquired Infowars‘ website, product inventory, customers lists, social media accounts, and intellectual property.”

“. . . Owen Shroyer, a popular Infowars personality, expressed disbelief at the news The Onion had acquired the company.

“ ‘It’s almost like a satire of a satire,” Shroyer said on Infowars’ final broadcast. “It’s like a joke of a joke.’ ”

https://www.status.news/p/not-satire-the-onion-acquires-infowars

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Article in Common Dreams by Julia Conley, 11/14/24

Headline:  “Media Justice as The Onion Buys Infowars From ‘Hateful’ (and Bankrupt) Alex Jones”

Subhead:  ” ‘This is going to be our answer to this no-guardrails world where there are no gatekeepers and everything’s kind of insane,’ said the CEO of The Onion. “

“In what one journalist called an “insane twist” to the long saga of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ use of his online platform to spread rampant disinformation, satirical newspaper The Onion on Thursday announced it had won an auction to buy Infowars, Jones’ bankrupt publication. ”

“. . . ‘The Onion’s goal with the acquisition is to end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good,’ said the company in a press release, which did not state how much The Onion paid for Infowars. ”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/infowars-auction

 

Techno Global Media Hegemony

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Article in TechXplore by Lewis Mitchell, Jono Tuke and Melissa Humphries, 11/14/24

Headline: “Elon Musk has turned X into a globally influential media platform—and there’s more to come”

“During the recent United States presidential election campaign, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) saw record high usage.”

“. . . He aims to create a platform for messages, payments, video and more, similar to China’s WeChat . . . ”

“. . . Musk, and therefore X, is also poised to take a bigger role in day-to-day US politics—and not just in his newly announced role, which will see him in charge of cutting government spending.”

“. . . Since the election, alternative social media platform Bluesky has reportedly gained 1 million members as some users of X attempt to flee the perceived far-right platform.”

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-11-elon-musk-globally-influential-media.html

Media Called “X” is Ghosted

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Article in Raw Story by Agence France-Presse, 11/13/24

 

” ‘We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives,’ the left-leaning newspaper, which has nearly 11 million followers on X, said in a statement on its website.

“It added that its “resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere

.”This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” the statement noted.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/guardian-quits-x-social-media-platform-citing-racism-conspiracy-theories-2024-11-13/

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Article In Al Jazerra, 11/13/24

Headline:  “The Guardian to no longer post on ‘toxic media platform’ X”

Subhead:  “The British news outlet quits X citing ‘disturbing content’ on the platform, including racism and conspiracy theories.”

“British news outlet The Guardian has announced it will no longer post content on X due to the ‘disturbing content’ on the ‘toxic media platform’, including racism and conspiracy theories.

“The Guardian wrote on its website on Wednesday that it had been considering the decision to stop posting on the social media outlet for a while, but the US election earlier in November “underlined” its decision.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/13/the-guardian-to-no-longer-post-on-toxic-media-platform-x

How Will Media Handle Attacks From T?

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Article in The Washington Post by Eric Wemple 11/11/24

Headline:  “Will there be a retribution of media? I answered your questions.”

“I am guessing that the new Trump admin will at least attempt to freeze out the traditional media (ABC, CBS, NBC, NYT, WPO, etc) for criticizing him during the election. How will the media handle that?

“Hey there: “Guessing” is about all we can do at this moment, simply because the Trump folks haven’t written up, printed out and published their COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR HANDLING THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA. Recall that there are two opposing forces at work here: One is that Trump loves having the media at his fingertips, assembled at the White House and available to coming running in with cameras and recorders at a moment’s notice.”

“. . . Should the media have a strategy to safeguard press freedom under the next presidency?

“Yes, and it does: Fight all attacks on the First Amendment. That, you can count on, and it applies to anyone who occupies the White House.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/11/erik-wemple-media-live-chat/

Reporter Behind Bars

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Article from Committee to Protect Journalists, 11/11/24

Headline:  “Turkish journalist Furkan Karabay arrested over reporting on opposition arrest”

“The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish authorities to immediately free reporter Furkan Karabay, who was seized from his home at dawn on Friday after he published a report about the arrest of an opposition mayor.

” ‘Journalist Furkan Karabay is the latest in a long line of journalists who have ended up behind bars in Turkey simply for publishing critical reporting and commentary,’ said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Karabay must not waste months of his life in prison, waiting to be indicted and tried. Turkey’s constant oppression of the free press is an obstacle to citizens’ rights to access information”.

https://cpj.org/2024/11/turkish-journalist-furkan-karabay-arrested-over-reporting-on-opposition-arre

Technofascism and the Media

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Article in The Guardian by Joan Donovan, 11/11/24

Headline: “First came the bots, then came the bosses – we’re entering Musk and Zuck’s new era of disinformation”

Subhead: “Tech leaders’ politics are encoded into their platforms – and with Trump’s ascent, they have direct access to the Oval Office”

“. . . When tech CEOs encode their political beliefs into the design of platforms, it’s a form of technofascism, where technology is used for political suppression of speech and to repress the organization of resistance to the state or capitalism.

“Content moderation at these platforms now reflects the principles of the CEO and what that person believes is in the public’s interest. The political opinions of tech’s overlords, like Musk and Zuckerberg, are now directly embedded in their algorithms.”

“. . .Whether it’s Musk’s strategy of overloading users with posts from himself and Trump, or Zuckerberg’s silencing of political discussion, it’s citizens who suffer from such chilling of speech.”

“If we are to disarm disinformers, we need a whole of society approach that values real Talk (Timely, Accurate Local Knowledge) and community safety. . . .  But most of all, it’s going to require that you and I do something quickly to protect those already in the crosshairs of Trump’s new world order, by donating to or joining community organizations tackling issues such as women’s rights and immigration. Even subscribing to a local news outlet is a profound political act these days. Let that sink in.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/12/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-disinformation