Dan Gillmor

Bio and disclosures: dangillmor.com/about/ Boosts mean I think you should see this -- usually but not always an endorsement.

California, Nara, Arizona etc. · dangillmor.com

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Last Notes

2024-09-08 15:50:17

Not one Big Journalism outlet reflected the sheer derangement of Donald Trump in his public rant in Wisconsin on Friday.
Heather Cox Richardson did, and it is terrifying, because he could be president next year -- and if so, our democracy, and our rights (and so much more), are done.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-7-2024

2024-08-16 22:31:02

Remarkable, and revealing, to see the NY TImes' Andrew Ross Sorkin brainstorming with Republican propagandist Frank Luntz on how Trump can regain the initiative.
But listen to Luntz -- who is brilliant at this -- insist that if Trump frames the issues in a certain way, he wins.
Republicans know how to tilt the playing field with framing. Democrats -- incompetent at framing issues -- stupidly, but willingly, take the bait and exhaust themselves running uphill.
https://youtu.be/cEqbfuWXpQw?feature=shared&t=138

2024-08-15 15:27:09

When I stopped being active at Twitter, I had more than 45,000 followers and a moderate amount of engagement (replies, retweets, etc.).
I have a third fewer followers here, and at least 10 times the genuine engagement. Sure, some bots, but most of it is genuine -- and useful.
I no longer see what (some) people I respect are saying publicly. I miss their thoughts, and wish they'd recognize that by staying active there they are supporting a dangerous extremist.
They feel trapped. They're not.

2024-08-15 04:50:59

Disney sends a message with this lawsuit response: "Do not eat in our restaurants."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jl0ekjr0go

2024-08-13 15:04:22

Has any Big Journalism outlet done a story yet on the way Trump was slurring and mumbling his way through the love fest with Musk?

2024-08-12 22:45:52

If you have an Apple device and have installed the Patreon app, delete it now. Use the mobile web or desktop version.
Why? Because Apple is forcing Patreon to force the creators on the platform to give an additional 30% to Apple.
This is unconscionable, but then again we're talking about Apple.
https://news.patreon.com/articles/understanding-apple-requirements-for-patreon

2024-08-12 22:23:45

An excellent press critic's headline starts, "Political reporters should report honestly..." and I have to say I question whether it's worth reading any further.
(You should.)
https://presswatchers.org/2024/08/political-reporters-should-report-honestly-that-trumps-campaign-is-based-on-lies/

2024-08-09 16:53:22

Apple again demonstrates its endless contempt for developers -- and especially for the EU's attempts at making the company operate in a fair way. https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/9/24216181/apple-eu-app-store-services-fee-external-links

2024-08-07 05:02:44

Classic NY Times, never passing up an opportunity to be snide about Democrats:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/918/981/915/477/034/original/d0c3654744f5f815.png

2024-08-06 17:32:58

When Nate Silver joined a company in which extremist Peter Thiel and cryptocurrency funds are key investors, the rest of us should have stopped listening to anything he says about politics.
But he's still widely quoted, and only rarely (afaik) with this context.

2024-08-06 16:21:24

Musk is suing advertisers for having the temerity to avoid his toxic platform.
The best response is for the remaining advertisers to stop supporting his extremism.
(Hey, journalists, why the hell are you still there?)

2024-08-05 16:05:18

The stock market tumble is almost solely due to the insane recent bubble in technology stocks.
The best advice I've seen for people who own stocks is to calm down and do nothing right now.

2024-08-04 01:04:14

Epic trolling by the New York Times and op-ed contributor Mark Penn -- touting Shapiro for VP.
Mark Penn has been anti-progressive for years -- and his wretched advice helped torpedo Clinton's 2016 campaign.
Everything he says should be understood in that context.
Maybe Shapiro is the right choice. But Penn has zero credibility on this.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/901/057/496/132/389/original/4006dd1aaeb2998c.png

2024-08-02 23:24:33

A reminder that it's all corruption, all the time in Trump world. https://wapo.st/3SxAkvO
Big Journalism treats the serial scandals as one-offs. This piece from the Washington Post is an example of brilliant reporting with insufficient context.
It's baffling that journalists can't be bothered to pull it all together -- to show the breadth and depth of the Trump world sleaze.
They notice some of the brush fires. But they never notice (or tell the rest of us) that the entire forest is ablaze.

2024-07-30 00:24:25

Earnest liberals like Tom Friedman are clutching their pearls because some Democrats have finally stopped bringing handshakes to knife fights.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/872/587/072/464/916/original/67d1f385f081f44d.png

2024-07-29 04:07:02

Amazon ebook pricing reflects its dominance in the marketplace -- for an 8-year-old book, the Kindle price is $12 while the paperback is just over $8.
Note: In order to sell Kindle books, publishers are NOT ALLOWED to have lower prices elsewhere.
That should be illegal.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/867/804/476/500/087/original/f69ebd5dabe4c893.png

2024-07-27 00:37:42

Want to see rogue judges in action? Ohio Supreme Court, in a ruling a member of the minority aptly called "jabberwocky", ruled that a restaurant can claim to serve "boneless" chicken wings even though they have shards of bones in them. A patron was badly injured when one tore open his esophagus.
https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/diners-should-beware-of-bones-in-boneless-chicken-supreme-court-majority-rules/B7DQVT2VBJEO5NSITW7BBQ7ALQ/
Our corporate courts won't lift a finger to protect us.

2024-07-23 04:37:23

The most obvious takeaway from the "Attaboy Joe" editorials and commentaries from the political press is not that they're offering sincere thanks for a fine president's selfless act.
They're not thanking Biden.
They're congratulating themselves.
Keep that in mind, because they'll try again -- but only with Democrats since Republicans hold journalism in pure contempt.
God I want journalism that respects the people it claims to serve.

2024-07-23 01:33:08

Casting doubt on the people who are trying to save democracy while normalizing extremists is how the New York Times rolls these days.
It is what they do. Stop imagining that they will ever change. If you subscribe, cancel and tell them why.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/833/214/613/584/778/original/2fe6f4ddcb7066c8.png

2024-07-23 01:23:46

It's vital, over the next few weeks, to remember that Republicans, foreign powers, and extremists will be working to make Democrats and people who vote for them angry with each other.
The goal will be to create turmoil in the party and its followers, and to disrupt the Harris campaign before it gets going.
Do not be fooled by bots and extremists that try to make you hate your allies.

2024-07-19 23:51:53

Big Journalism, it should be clear by now, doesn't learn from repeated errors.
The latest -- going along, against ALL evidence, with the "kinder and gentler" Trump con -- points to the sad but obvious reality.
Big Journalism, in its arrogance and contempt for the American public, doesn't see what it does as anything but great work.
The bosses are the ultimate culprits.
As others have said, you can't convince someone to accept reality when his paycheck depends on not seeing reality.

2024-07-16 11:39:18

Musk says he'll spend about $180 million to elect Trump.
They are the nation's two most powerful enemies of democracy and, by extension, freedom of expression.
Everyone who buys a Tesla is supporting them.
Everyone who uses the deadbird site -- notably the journalists, who all know what they're doing -- is supporting them.
Don't pretend otherwise.

2024-07-11 22:58:18

I doubt a single journalist, if put before the snarling White House press corps, would pass the absolute-perfection-in-diction test they're now demanding from Biden -- and routinely don't care about when it comes from word-salad Trump.
Such hypocrisy.

2024-07-11 01:50:27

It is disheartening to learn that more than 10,000 articles in science journals were RETRACTED last year.
I didn't realize that many had even been published.
If scientists wonder why they're losing trust in the broader society, this is one reason.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03974-8

2024-07-10 04:30:27

Blog post: The NY Times' neurologist story was a disgrace
https://dangillmor.com/2024/07/09/the-ny-times-neurologist-story-was-a-disgrace/

2024-07-08 23:29:26

Meanwhile, Big Journalism is treating the Republicans' increasingly effective voter suppression as either a non-story or something to be noticed once in a while -- when it is the official policy of the Republican Party to prevent likely Democratic voters from casting ballots or having their votes counted.
Why aren't media orgs as relentless about this? The logical answer is that they just don't give a damn.

2024-07-04 23:05:35

Annoying people have taken over one of my threads, but I don't get the desired result when I select "Mute Conversation" -- wondering if I have the wrong idea of how it works or what it's for...

2024-07-03 23:44:54

If the Democratic party gives in to its Biden panic and persuades him to step aside, there'd better be a modern equivalent of smoke-filled room where the factions make a decision on what the ticket will be -- and then stick with it, all of them, body and soul, no matter what.
This would, of course, involve an unprecedented level of vetting in a short period, and unprecedented unity.
Does that sound like Democrats?
Conceivably, if everyone focuses on saving us from a malevolent dictatorship.

2024-07-02 14:05:18

My new post: "At its moment of peril, democracy needs journalists to be activists"
"Dear journalists: This is your moment, your opportunity.
"It’s your chance, maybe your final one, to stand proudly for reality and democracy, for freedom of expression, for human rights. Stand up as journalism’s best — think Ida B. Wells and Edward R. Murrow, among so many others — did in earlier times as they challenged a tide of political evil and helped America change its course."
https://dangillmor.medium.com/8776aa9c99c3

2024-07-02 04:45:20

Good grief, journalists, stop calling the Supreme Court's six right-wing extremists mere "conservatives" --
They are extremists by any definition of the word, but your lazy language provides a fig leaf that only makes you look like saps.

2024-06-26 23:52:22

Paramount wiped out MTV News archives, and is now taking down old TV clips from the Internet.
Big Media (and small sites, for that matter) won't preserve the archives, so the rest of us will have to do it.
We need to get organized, and create a system that preserves the past. The Copyright Cartel will go nuts, so we need a safe way around them.
I hope smart people are working on this, right now. Because media companies don't give a damn about history.

2024-06-25 04:35:20

Those supposedly libertarian cryptocurrency boys are going with Trump. Of course they are.
https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-60/
The hypocrisy is a given. But in one key way it's a natural match, given all the sleaze in the sector and Trump's endless corruption.

2024-06-25 01:54:13

Anyone who creates media that third parties publish should always, always make a back-up of what appeared online.
I learned this the hard way when a former employer disappeared years worth of my blog from a major news organization's website.
It still sucks when companies take down archives, as Paramount has done with MTV News, but at least there's the possibility of resurrecting some of it if individuals save it.
https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/mtv-news-website-archives-pulled-offline-1236047163/

2024-06-22 05:29:16

It's pretty clear at the "AI" cartel has ignored the robots.txt instructions in wholesale ways.
This lack of respect for an industry norm is a lot like Trump's disrespect for political and legal norms.
It comes from a mindset that assumes what's acceptable is what you can get away with.

2024-06-16 01:46:03

Liberals who think protesters are the enemy are actively encouraging the police state that Trump world wants to impose on America.
They should understand this, but they are either willfully dense, or myopic.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/liberal-police-state-campus-protests/

2024-06-12 00:49:57

I thought I was unsubscribing from the relentless unwanted emails from the Democratic National Committee, but it turned out I was unsubscribing to only one of the many, many permutations...

2024-06-12 00:12:19

For God's sake, journalists (and everyone else), stop calling right-wing extremists "conservative" -- they are radicals who are trying to wipe out democracy, human rights, a livable environment, and so much more.

2024-06-10 02:01:15

When I'm czar of journalism, using the expression "lean into" (and its derivatives) will be forbidden.

2024-06-03 01:27:47

The Washington Post is about to lurch sharply to the right politically as former Murdoch apparatchik solidifies his grip on the organization. Current editor Buzbee is out, and he's bringing in people from Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and the Telegraph (right-wing UK news org).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/06/02/sally-buzbee-washington-post-steps-down/

2024-05-26 03:58:12

"Jerky, 7-Fingered Scarlett Johansson Appears In Video To Express Full-Fledged Approval Of OpenAI"
The Onion, of course...
https://www.theonion.com/jerky-7-fingered-scarlett-johansson-appears-in-video-t-1851496932

2024-05-15 04:05:41

It should be astonishing that after Trump publicly asked Big Energy for a $1 billion bribe, Big Journalism just shrugged and moved on.
It is not astonishing.

2024-04-24 17:23:32

The word "conservative" now means right-wing extremist, and news organizations should be clear about that. They should make a major point of explaining that the traditional definition of conservative no longer applies in today's common usage of the word.
They don't, of course, and this is undoubtedly a source of confusion for news consumers.
Another example of the willful imprecision of journalism...

2024-04-21 23:33:19

Texas is an evil, evil place, Exhibit 63,005: "Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant patients, leaving one woman to miscarry in a lobby restroom"
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-04-20/emergency-rooms-refused-to-treat-pregnant-patients-leaving-one-to-miscarry-in-a-lobby-restroom

2024-04-20 01:13:23

A vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a vote for Trump. It truly is as simple as that.
Don't let anyone gaslight you on this.

2024-04-04 02:14:37

The endlessly spinning wheel in Ubuntu software update has returned me to the command line, which no average user of a modern operating system should ever, ever have to use...

2024-03-13 19:56:21

Fascinating project just launched by the @npub1l0j…r2eg (home of Wikipedia): Wikifunctions, "a library of code functions to support the Wikimedia projects and beyond, in the world's natural and programming languages."
https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Wikifunctions:Main_Page

2024-03-12 22:51:33

Any way to filter out posts that have embedded links to pages that contain twitter.com links?

2024-03-12 21:25:56

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@npub1x2u…lnzq the communities are worse off. I guess I want clear there!

2024-03-12 18:15:43

to the surprise of absolutely no one who's been paying attention -- but nonetheless good to know that the data prove it -- the hedge fund and private equity looters are much worse for local news coverage than "regular" capitalists. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3939405

2024-03-11 19:50:57

@npub102c…225a The "Vehicle Privacy Report" in your story gave me wildly inaccurate information about my car...

2024-03-08 02:54:11

I absolutely guarantee that Big Journalism (especially TV) will make its highlights reel of Biden verbal stumbles -- all but ignoring the forceful and deep look into the stark differences between the incumbent administration and the pile of rot that the previous one wants to reinstall.

2024-03-03 23:16:41

Every news story about Biden "failure" on immigration should emphasize that a) the Democrats caved into essentially all of the Republicans' demands; b) the Republicans then torpedoed the legislation; and c) the Republicans explicitly acknowledged that their reason for killing it was to avoid giving Biden anything he could use in his re-election campaign.
The fact that very, very few Americans know this is just one more atrocious -- but typical -- failure of journalism.

2024-02-25 17:27:29

Trump went off the teleprompter in an eruption of particularly demented fear and loathing. And he did it at the major "conservative" -- that is, right-wing extremist -- conference that welcomed Nazis and featured a social-media nutcase who said his ilk would finish the job they were doing on Jan. 6.
You would not know about all of this if your source of political news is the Washington Post.

2024-02-20 21:44:52

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I did a registry tweak but hard to know if it worked...
Luckily my main OS is Linux anyway.

2024-02-19 22:12:14

Dear journalists who remain on Twitter:
You actively participate on a site operated by an extremist right-winger who promotes other extremists who want, among other things, to end democracy. The end of democracy means, in case you haven't grasped this yet, the end of freedom of expression.
This means you are actively supporting his business -- and you're doing it for free.
Please grow a spine, and stop helping the people who hate you and want to destroy what you do.

2024-02-18 16:32:47

If Ukraine falls, and thanks to the Trump-controlled Republican Party it very well might, the consequences will define a terrible new epoch in human affairs.

2024-02-12 23:21:03

Republicans -- and only Republicans -- torpedoed the border legislation. But half the public thinks the Democrats are equally responsible. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/12/biden-border-polls/
Big Journalism isn't solely responsible for this mis-impression. But it is largely at fault.
This commentary, which does a service by pointing out the public's ignorance, is far, far too easy on the media.

2024-02-11 16:24:43

For Trump (and Republicans in general), America's political journalists consistently normalize lies, corruption, racism, misogyny, and blatantly obvious mental confusion. If it's covered as a story, it's a one-day story and everyone moves on.
But Big Journalism rakes Biden and prominent Democrats over the coals when they violate any one of those norms -- in "news" eruptions that go on and on.
This isn't a media blind spot. The only logical explanation at this point is that it's willful.

2024-02-06 16:50:23

Taylor Swift adopted one of Elon Musk's worst moves: launching lawyers at a student who's doing a totally legal (and useful) thing: tracking of her highly polluting private jet. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/06/taylor-swift-jet-tracking-legal-threat/

2024-02-03 18:33:42

Are there any security cameras that:
-- store to cloud (e.g. Dropbox) with encryption in transit and on the server;
and
-- don't require a subscription to use essential features?
I would gladly pay more up front for something I can control.

2024-02-02 21:48:13

"Musk is the ugly reflection of our collective ineptitude, apathy and stupidity, and as long as he goes unpunished he will continue to pollute our physical and mental environment in ever more grotesque ways."
From an author who has studied Tesla and the EV business better than almost anyone else -- and who has well-justified contempt for Musk and his acolytes. https://niedermeyer.io/2024/02/02/its-the-impunity-stupid/

2024-01-24 00:15:58

America's love for giant vehicles -- is killing pedestrians. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/01/higher-vehicle-hoods-significantly-increase-pedestrian-deaths-study-finds/

2024-01-11 00:57:42

Mr. "Free Speech" Musk's latest, wildly hypocritical banning (temporary, for now) of journalists he and his right-wing friends hate is no surprise whatever.
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/10/free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-temporarily-bans-journalists-as-free-speech-absolutist-bill-ackman-threatens-slapp-suit-against-journalists/
It's also not surprising anymore that Big Journalism people continue to actively support Musk's platform, by actively posting there. (And some of their employers continue to advertise there, albeit fewer than before.)
He's evil. They're pathetic.

2024-01-03 07:42:53

Too many American stores are already using facial recognition to spy on their customers. They don't deserve your business.
Conversely, a number of chains have pledged not to use it.
Here's a helpful listing, with suggestions on action you can take to help rid our culture of rampant use -- and guaranteed abuse -- of this pestilent technology.
https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/stores/#scorecard

2023-12-23 00:12:41

Ken White (aka @npub15qw…3p2z) has a terrific essay on the pure hypocrisy of Substack's managers.
It comes down, in key ways, to this: They are choosing to publish Nazis while not allowing other kinds of (legal if repugnant in some cases) speech. They have a right to decide these things, as they should. It's their choices that are disgusting.
I hope Ken leaves for a service that is less hypocritical and mercenary -- and I promise to subscribe to his paid edition if he does.
https://popehat.substack.com/p/substack-has-a-nazi-opportunity

2023-12-21 23:37:21

A bunch of people who use Substack for publishing their newsletters asked the company why it's making money from fascists who also use the site.
They were told, albeit politely, to get lost.
It's their move -- and if I may suggest, "move" is the correct word.

2023-12-21 02:24:25

Police doing the bidding of extremists to curb freedom of expression -- this is a trend. It should scare you, and it should prompt you to fight back. https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/southern_berkshires/great-barrington-gender-queer-book-police-ban-classroom-du-bois-middle-school-aclu-rights/article_14ba4abc-9eb9-11ee-83c9-0b3ff1c1b9dd.html

2023-12-12 01:18:17

Again, Slack (owned by Salesforce) is changing its look and feel. But this time users aren't allowed to stick with what's familiar and works just fine.
Software companies do this routinely.
It's as if the furniture dealer had the right to come into your home and rearrange everything -- but you weren't allowed to put things back where you liked them.
It's simple corporate arrogance, and the software business is absolutely brimming with it.

2023-12-10 23:33:35

A reminder that there is NOTHING Musk can do that will prompt journalists to stop supporting his business.
Disgusting on his part, as usual.
But disgraceful on their part.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/558/731/171/264/423/original/7f1f9c56c9da9398.png

2023-12-04 12:50:03

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The job of journalism, given what is increasingly likely next year, is not to politely notice that a Trump dictatorship is in the works.
The job of journalism should be -- if journalists actually care about the end of democracy -- to become activists, not mere observers.
Activists working to save democracy, not least because journalism itself will be among the first institutions hauled to the chopping block if democracy dies.
Please, journalists: Care enough to take the risk.

2023-12-04 12:41:51

The New York Times' top editors must imagine that they are being brave with this story -- "Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First" -- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/us/politics/trump-2025-overview.html
In fact, the Times is demonstrating standard Big Journalism weakness.
There is no "may" about it. There is only "will" -- he and his sycophants and apparatchiks-in-waiting are gearing up for dictatorship.
They say so. They plainly mean it. And they know the guard rails won't hold if they get power this time.

2023-12-01 23:35:05

New policy: Won't go to restaurants that have online menus with no prices alongside the dishes...

2023-12-01 23:11:17

NY Times has some great reporting here: Just as the administration of George W. Bush blew off warnings of the 9/11 attacks, Netanyahu's government blew off highly specific warnings a year ago about the Hamas plans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html

2023-12-01 06:13:04

Trump's pure contempt for courts that don't do his personal bidding gets louder and louder, and it looks more and more like judges aren't going to do a thing about it beyond impotent warnings. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/30/court-reinstates-trump-gag-order-fraud-trial

2023-11-30 00:10:34

The New York Times continues to send advertising money to Elon Musk -- who hates journalism and boosts extremists.
The New York Times allows/encourages its journalists to pour their work into the malignant platform.
The New York Times hosts Musk at an event. He tells his critics to go fuck themselves.
Such great company the Times and its journalists are keeping...
https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-responds-to-companies-that-pulled-ads-from-x-go-fuck-yourself-233913570.html?src=rss

2023-11-22 01:01:00

You should stop using Google Chrome. The company is following through on its threat to ban the ad/tracker blockers that a) help protect your privacy and b) make your web experience much more pleasant.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/google-chrome-will-limit-ad-blockers-starting-june-2024/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

2023-11-19 22:33:07

The Washington Post is still all in on false balance, with a "both sides" story that puts Trump's lies on the same plane with Biden's truths. Headline:
"Trump and Biden take shots at each other, looking past rest of GOP field"
No obviously no link from me, but enduring disdain for the editorial malfeasance that allows such garbage to appear.

2023-11-14 17:43:44

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@npub19kr…8m4r That study says is a classic in circular, unsupported logic. It starts from a statement, and assumption, that platforms should pay for the privilege of linking to journalism. It then decides, in a fairly arbitrary way, how much.

2023-10-26 23:20:52

Apple TV+ was a reasonable deal at $69 per year and a little less so at $7/month. It's not a good deal, IMO, at $10/month and $100/year.
So when our annual subscription runs out next spring, we'll just cancel -- as we've done with almost all of the streaming services -- and renew periodically for a month at a time to catch up on service exclusives we really want to watch.
The streamers seem convinced there's no price elasticity in what they offer.
Prove them wrong.

2023-10-26 17:34:33

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@npub1ytq…9rrp I need to learn a lot more about this...

2023-10-25 20:57:44

The Associated Press -- like essentially every other major journalism outlet -- has totally normalized extremism.
Calling the new house speaker a "staunch conservative" -- a pathetically weak euphemism for far-right extremist -- is only the latest example of Big Journalism's collapse into willful helplessness.
It's journalistic cowardice in the face of a movement that aims to bring down democracy, and by extension journalism.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/297/649/320/301/291/original/414a916eb844c19e.png

2023-10-22 22:14:49

The increasingly extremist UK government is now tracking -- and storing -- what librarians and others say on social media so it can punish them later on. What a vile regime this has become. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/21/uk-government-keeping-files-on-teaching-assistants-and-librarians-internet-activity

2023-10-16 12:26:08

Children's book publisher Scholastic is doing everything it can to please bigots, which is terrible for education: https://popular.info/p/scholastics-bigot-button?utm_campaign=email-post&r=qs4z&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

2023-10-04 00:15:50

More Supreme Court corruption: "John Roberts and Samuel Alito own shares of companies that could score billions in tax relief from the outcome of Moore v. United States."
From The Lever (which, sigh, doesn't have a Mastodon presence): https://www.levernews.com/justices-have-financial-interest-in-major-tax-case/

2023-10-02 23:09:41

(I doubt there are any writers who would have turned down the opportunity that Isaacson was given in doing the Jobs and Musk biographies.)

2023-09-29 00:59:00

Dear journalists: By remaining on the deadbird site you are actively supporting a business whose owner in in league with people who want to end our democracy. He's further eviscerated what was left of the team that was trying to keep election information honest (for typically inane Muskish reasons).
Please admit, at least to yourselves, that you're not merely using a handy platform. You are collaborating with him. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/09/28/elon-fires-half-of-extwitters-election-integrity-team-because-a-manager-liked-a-tweet-calling-him-a-fucking-dipshit/

2023-09-28 11:55:30

Now that Reddit has squashed its moderators and killed third-party apps, leaving many subreddits much worse than they were before the company's arrogant moves, it's moving on to make regular users' experience worse. https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/28/reddit-is-removing-ability-to-opt-out-of-ad-personalization-based-on-your-activity-on-the-platform/?guccounter=1

2023-09-26 23:31:22

A reminder that in Trump world, it's all corruption all the time -- and always has been.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-letitia-james-fraud-lawsuit-1569245a9284427117b8d3ba5da74249
Yet for decades, federal and New York State law enforcement ignored his serial fraud and other crimes.
If they'd done their jobs, this career criminal would never have captured the White House.

2023-09-24 05:31:46

Misinformation researchers are under vicious attack from Republicans, who have made lies and deceitful propaganda key tools in their campaign to overthrow democracy. The attacker aren't just burning honest education these days. They're burning the research that makes learning even possible. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/23/online-misinformation-jim-jordan/

2023-09-22 21:50:55

Apple's reported friendliness toward "right to repair" and environmental laws is a sham, and a scam. The company has one goal only: make more money, which means selling more devices.
Read this from @npub1hyk…3p33 -- and reconsider your devotion to one of the planet's greediest operations. https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

2023-09-22 06:41:48

One of the most evil people of our age, Rupert Murdoch, has trained his principal heir and successor -- his son Lachlan -- to be just as evil. So the Murdoch family's Fox "News" and other democracy-loathing media companies will continue poisoning the public sphere.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/business/media/rupert-murdoch-fox-retire.html
The Murdochs' malign influence will continue. And Big Journalism will continue to pretend the Murdochs' media properties are legitimate.

2023-09-20 22:59:31

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@npub13vv…0sze Yes it works -- thank you again. @npub13j6…38hv

2023-09-20 22:55:39

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@npub13vv…0sze You don't happen to know what the Linux command would be, do you? @npub13j6…38hv

2023-09-20 02:16:03

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@npub1hyp…aehm On that we completely agree.

2023-09-20 02:08:58

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@npub1hyp…aehm If the big outfits left, the small ones would go, too. I'm asking for leadership (haha).

2023-09-20 01:16:58

Environmental policy in the UK has reverted to "let it burn" -- https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66857551

2023-09-20 00:48:52

Trump's brownshirts -- amplified by Musk's deadbird site -- are a growing danger. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/opinion/trump-elon-musk-twitter.html
Big Journalism is steadfast, of course -- steadfastly supporting Musk's business.

2023-09-12 22:26:54

USENET, one of the original -- and always decentralized -- social networks, never completely went away. Now it may be on the verge of a comeback. https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/30/usenet_revival/

2023-09-11 01:20:25

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Pathetic capitulation to an extremist bully -- a decision to support his company -- is simply a business decision for the New York Times. That's the only plausible explanation.

2023-09-11 01:05:31

Data strongly indicate that Musk's deadbird apparatchiks are throttling links to the NY Times. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/10/2023/twitter-appears-to-throttle-new-york-times
Needless to say -- despite his relentless attacks on journalism and free speech (that he doesn't like), and his amplification of right-wing extremists -- the Times' journalists continue to pour their work into the site. That is, they are boosting his business.
And the Times continues to advertise on the site.
Musk tells journalists to bend over, and they say "Sure!"