The “fake news” phenomenon could turn out to be the most important turn of events in the Trump era. The simple reason is it has awoken millions of normies to the realities of mass media in America. Most white conservatives accepted that the news was real, but biased in favor of one side, the Progressive side. They never stopped to think that maybe the news was not even real, that the Prog news outlets were making stuff up. Now, most white conservatives assume the news is fake.
That is a positive development, one that our side can certainly exploit. It is a handy tool for whenever the megaphones start blasting the latest propaganda from our rulers. Simply yelling “fake news” has become a useful way to prevent the Progs from framing the debate, at least with regards to politics. The other aspect of the fake news stuff that is useful is that the mass media is no longer capable of doing real news. Mass media is no longer a feedback loop for the ruling class. It is just agit-prop.
The origins of fake news lie in the New Journalism that emerged in the 1960’s. Telling a story around the facts of a news event turned out to be a good way to go from ink stained wretch to rock star. Guys like Truman Capote and Norman Mailer were stars, because they made the news compelling. Why stick to old fashioned reporting, when telling a colorful tale, with colorful portraits of the main players, based on real events, was the road to fame and fortune? The result was New Journalism became the default.
An instructive anecdote in the book Banana Sunday, by the old Telegraph reporter Chris Munnion, is about the new breed of reporters from America arriving in Africa. These “reporters” would show up and spend their time in the hotel bar, picking up tidbits from the real reporters, who went into the field to gather news. They would then salt their pre-written stories with these facts. As a gag once, the real reporters made up crazy tales to tell around the Americans. All of them fell for it, but they were never called on it.
That seems to have been the lesson American media people figured out over the decades. There was never going to be a penalty for faking their stories, just as long as it was not too egregious. As long as the “reporting” fit the prevailing narrative, the copy would be accepted without question. That is how Bob Woodward allegedly interviewed Bill Casey, while Casey was in a coma. It is why Stephen Glass was able to sell whoppers to the New Republic. It is why Rolling Stone fell for the Virginia rape hoax.
Fake news is just one result. The other is the media no longer has the ability to do real news. From top to bottom, the business is staffed with people trained to tell stories. The “journalists” are tasked with taking what is given to them and spinning a colorful tale around it. That means cultivating cozy relationships. It is why close to two hundred journalists went to work in the Obama administration when he took office. The line between reporter and subject no longer exists. It is just one big story factory.
A good example of this is what is happening in college sports. The Feds have arrested five coaches and half a dozen others in a bribery scandal, involving Adidas, a major sneaker company. Read the filings by the prosecutor and it is clear they have a lot more information that they are withholding. This is already a huge case involving famous people. Rick Pitino is one of the biggest names in the sport. This will probably get much bigger and alter the economics of American sports forever.
Of course, anyone the least bit familiar with college athletics has known it is dirtier than boxing and it always has been. The sneaker companies bribe youth coaches, college coaches and college administrators. The recently fired Athletic Director of Louisville had his daughter on the payroll of the sneaker company doing business with his school. At high school camps and tournaments, runners and street agents are there “advising” kids and their parents, with handfuls of cash. It is dirty from top to bottom.
This is something that everyone has known for years. Yet, the people tasked with “covering” college sports never bother to report on this stuff. The “hard hitting investigative teams” are always too busy looking for white supremacy to notice outright bribery going on in the sport. All a sports reporter had to do was hang around the AAU circuit for a summer and he could have a book’s worth of stories. But that would mean mixing it up with the dirt people and why do that when the pay is the same for selling the narrative?
This was the situation with the steroid scandal in baseball. The beat writers for baseball spend their whole lives with the players. They travel on the road with them and they spend time together with them in the locker room. The one time a reporter mentioned that Mark McGuire had androstenedione in his locker, the reporter got in trouble. It is why sports reporters are the most oblivious people in the business. Noticing is so dangerous to a career that only the oblivious survive. The result is nothing but safe fake news.
This inability and unwillingness to do real news has been a boon to the Dissident Right. We saw that in the election. The fake news was so sure Hillary would win, they had magazine covers pre-printed and ready to go in advance. It is why their attempt to censor alternative media has been a failure. They simply do not understand what they are up against as they do not know anything about us. The clever boys on social media easily subvert the narrative and turn it against the fake news media.
For a long time, the media was a weapon the ruling class could use to keep the public in line. Newspapers would sell the claims of each faction in the political class, thus defining the bounds of political discourse. Then television became the voice of the ruling class in the living room of every home. The internet was supposed to be the voice on everyone’s desktop. While that remains true, the loss of credibility is now turning the mass media into an expensive wall between us and them.
That is a useful metaphor. The media used to inform the ruling class on trends among the Dirt People. Instructions from the rulers flowed through the press to the Dirt People. The responses flowed back up through the media to the Cloud People. Now, the media is a wall between the two. The people in the media face in toward their masters, rather than looking out over the wall at the rest of us. For those involved in dissident politics, this is useful as it makes it more difficult for the people in charge to respond.
But Tom Wolfe is my favorite writer, and while he was colorful, he was truthful to a fault. Otherwise…yeah.
One additional thought I had is that if the political media is that corrupt, then it is equally true of the financial media. Every stock that is touted along with all the analysis is as close to a charade as any story on Trump.
great article. I wonder how they ever pull out of the tailspin? are there any historical equivalents where the news media rehabilitated itself? Became honest men in search of the truth? it seems like the news has to be self-regulating because the alterntative is even worse with the regulators telling you what is the truth and what to write, but most news is sold in conjunction with advertisements which are inherently dishonest as well. Hell even the review system on Amazon is fake news. its pretty disheartening. at least when there are cameras everywhere we can look and listen for ourselves to decide what is real
Calling it in from the bar at the hotel for Americans.?
According to anonymous sources close to the action…..
Gosh, when the publisher, editor, or more likely ad sales executive gives you the Mad Libs to fill in with a few “real” words….
SO how did that Jurno-List thingie work again…?.
Lest we forget…http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/10/wikileaks-list-least-65-msm-reporters-meeting-andor-coordinating-offline-top-hillary-advisors/
Speaking of how crooked college athletics is, I got my first taste of it when I was attending what one would call a Power 5 Conference school in the 1980’s. This was on the academic level where the schools would bend over backwards to ensure their prized athletes would get the grades needed to continue to play whatever sport they were in.
My junior year in school, I had signed up to take an accounting class, needed the credits in it for my major. When you would sign up for a class, it listed the time, day of class and usually the teachers name. Most of the time the teachers name said “Staff”, meaning you had no idea what teacher you were going to get.
So when I get the class, I mention to some friends what the teachers name is. First thing I am asked is who did I pay off to get in this teachers class. Of course being completely naive I asked why? I was told when players from the Football and Basketball had to take the economics class, the powers that be would make sure they got into her class – aka easy “A” grade. Sure enough there were at least 7 athletes in there from FB and BKB, but a couple of baseball, track, tennis, you name it guys and gals.
After the first week of class, you never saw them in there again except on the days we had to take tests. Another class I had, diff semester, had the QB from the football team in there. Technical writing class. He barely showed up, would bat a few winks at the adoring girls in there who would gladly do his homework for him.
Then when you watched games on TV, on occasion they would point out the 3.92 GPA of the player on the screen, but when you had some of these kids in your class, you knew they were dumb as rocks outside of a playbook. Now is it possible the kids were really smart and got the good grades on their own merits? Sure, I’ll throw a 5% chance of that being out there.
Once in a while you’ll see some story about academic infractions against a student-athlete, but IMHO, this is just throwing a bone out to the masses to give the illusion that it is cracked down on and not tolerated.
I have waited a long time to pour salt on Cronkites’ grave.
Journalists are the fakers who facilitate all the other fakers: politicians, scientists, union leaders, academics, movie makers, feminists, environmentalists, diversity nuts, gender nuts, etc. if we can undermine them maybe we can bring down the whole house of cars.
Its funny that the agitprop hollywood films of the 40s – 70s about the fearless reporter committed to honesty and uncovering corruption are referred back to as if they were a real phenomenon.
The films were nothing more than a cultural conditioning exercise so people would accept mainstream propaganda as if it were somehow truthful. Memes like this are incredibly powerful and live for generations. Newspapers have always been a tool for social control from their inception.
Why do you think the main ownership and editorial control has always rested with the same drivers of society and despite losing a truckfull of money each year they are always supported? But don’t look there think of the scruffy hard drinking reporter myth. and that is what it has always been . A Myth.
All well and good.
I will pass on the high fiving and victory celebrations though. My question is this: The progs n’ Donks know the narrative has collapsed. Their trained zippers in the media don’t work any more. Most of them are still flummoxed and dazed; but a few of the smarter ones are right on board with ‘What Happened’ and – unlike Hillary – have no illusions about what really took place with their loss. Initially they were very vocal – even liberal fat head, Michael Moore publicly came out and said the Donks deserved to lose and that for them to win again they will need to give the party back to the people.
Obviously the establishment won’t let THAT happen – so what are they gonna do? Other than the usual liberal nutters and howler monkeys… the more advanced primates have gone ominously silent. How DO they get away with their little games in an age where everyone right up to the president himself – has a cell phone/camera and Twatter account?
I think there’s more dirty tricks in the works – I suspect increased attacks on personal rights and freedoms of white people to become the new normal for them, if I had to hazard a guess…
I’m reminded of a loony leftist sports radio guy in Chicago named Dan Bernstein. Graduated from UNC Chapel Hill. The guy’s show became unlistenable a few years ago because he just couldn’t resist interjecting his politics into sports. The guy was so pro-black I’m pretty sure he fantasized about blacks having sex with his wife. Anyway, when the fake classes scandal broke a few years ago, not. a. peep. about. it. from him. Because not only was his Alma mater, but it was just another example of how educational institutions bend over backwards for black people.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-27/in-fake-classes-scandal-unc-fails-its-athletes-whistle-blower
Yeah, we live next-door to the Hill; not a lot of fallout from that yet. The “Wal-mart” fans are still on board.
You can’t fix stupid.
Now that the fakery has gotten some attention, it’ll be interesting to see if people prefer bogus news or legitimate news as time goes on. Sort of like pheromone insect traps: The bugs like the fake stuff better than the real thing.
They have been making up the news since the days of Randolph Hearst. Its only with the advent of the internet that they have been getting caught doing it.
you misspelled “Julius Caesar”
A little historical research will show that they have making up the “news” since immediately after Herr Gutenberg.
Excellent column; summed up in one sentence, “As long as the “reporting” fit the prevailing narrative, the copy would be accepted without question.”
This is very much like what Don Surber says in his blog (which I highly recommend,) as he is a retired newspaper man. His two books (“Trump the Press” and “Trump the Establishment”) are excellent on the topic of President Trump’s election and “news” coverage of it.
Don’s blog:
http://donsurber.blogspot.in/
A college president whose school is routinely in last place in a renowned NCAA football conference must decide how many white women matriculating there will he accept must he allow to be raped so his new football coach can recruit enough black thugs so his college can win enough games and be invited to a big post season bowl game and derive serious money from the invitation.
I suspect that he must be willing to accept that at least ten white women will be raped by the black rent-a-thugs in the first four years of his new football coach but a few female eggs must be broken if a bowl game omelet is going to be produced.
O, and ESPN has made a lot of “diversity” hires but where are these women and why are they silent while their sisters are being raped by the rent-a-thugs?
that’s no way to talk about Baylor
Same thing happened with Vandy in the SEC.
I mostly wonder about the still existent VERY NUMEROUS consumers of fake news outlets. Apparently, the majority of the population does not want real news, just entertainment. And, sorry to say, this majority are the very Dirt People this blog claims to root for. What´s the logic here? The Dissident Right can work on establishing better and more comprehensive information channels for their own, but should be aware of the inevitable minority status of the audience they will ever be able address.
I’m going to disagree with you.
Most of the “fake news” (agitprop is a better term, but I digress) comes from the traditional news outlets or MSM. The consumers of the MSM are largely older people and while they may constitute a significant portion of the population, they’re on their way out. Generation X and younger groups gather their news from the internet. As many have pointed out on here, the Internet has allowed much of the controlled narrative to be exposed as false. This explains why Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. have been doing what they can to suppress the dissent: deplatform, “hate speech,” false association, delisting from search results, etc.
Another question would be if the MSM has such a hold on the Dirt People, how did Trump ever win? Hillary was crowned weeks before a vote was ever cast. A defeated person does not even show as they know they have lost.
On a side note, my wife and I were enjoying a fine Maryland tradition of steamed crabs with her family. A few years ago, these same family members acted like I was a complete bigot complaining about Mohammedans and illegal invaders. They were doing the exact same complaining Saturday night. All I could think is “thank God, maybe we all do have a chance.”
oh man you need a red pill fukking stat!!
either you are new here, or you don’t actually understand what you are pretending to read. just a couple of weeks ago that Zman did a couple of posts on NRO and the whoores running Conservative Inc.
Yep. They are talking to each other, not to us. They do talk, or should I say, preach at us. In fact they seem to think we are foreigners because the preaching is getting louder, as if they think the din will get us to better understand. Remember, they think we’re stupid. Again, this is simple projection by simpletons.
Remember, when attempting to translate in a foreign country, American liberals speak English S-L-O-W-L-Y and L-O-U-D-L-Y…
I wonder if they are capable of learning, before it’s too late for them. I sincerely hope not.
They’re like a foreign species, aliens among us.
Must look the same from their side.
Not journalists.
Narrative mongers.
The owners of the large media companies are Cloud People.
Don’t forget advertising, the loci of stupid!
Savage says 4 to 5 agencies control 90% of the ads.
And as Whiskey said, 90% of the buyers and agency coordinators are liberal women, who live to stir sh*t up while waving “pick me!” at their dusky dream-Obama paramours.
It’s unfortunate that the term “fake news” has entered our lexicon because it denotes merely the imagining of news or just making up news for the sole purpose of creating a sensation (and generating viewers/readers and more profit).
A good example of fake news – exploited to good effect, for instance, by publications like the National Enquirer – would be “Elvis reported visiting the astronauts in the orbiting space station.”
That would be a good fake news story (and about as truthful and accurate as 99% of the crap we hear/read from the mainstream propaganda organs when they “report” on anything).
Today’s fake news is simply propaganda and should be called this.
It has a specific purpose and goal and that is to support the left liberal-progressive agenda and destroy all those not in that NKVD / gulag loving left wing / fascist ideological camp.
(By the way, check some of the comments of Hitler and Goebbels about communism; they really had much in common with it).
Propaganda is purposeful and carefully crafted to sway public opinion and arouse people to action on the streets or in the voting booth. And this is exactly what the media does.
You will note that even when ratings drop (and along with that, ad revenue), the lefty media does not change course. They would if they were just pushing fake news. But they are not. They are ideologically invested in disseminating their propaganda; they are true believers.
Too bad that people – like Trump – simply do not use the more accurate term, “propaganda,” in lieu of “fake news;” it (the noun propaganda) certainly has a more sinister tone and conveys more honestly what we are being fed by news “organs.”
(The Bolsheviks often used the term “organs” to describe their govt. services. Maybe it reminded them of blood and guts).
I see what you are getting at, but “fake news” is so Trumpy to say and so “dirt people” in its simplicity. Propaganda is a more accurate term, but it just sounds like a big word inserted into a second rate college essay.
Hear the term “fake news” and Trump and the MSM just so naturally come to mind. And it is easier to chant at an event than the word “propaganda”.
Dutch, my drill sergeant like to refer to it propa-goddamn-ganda. I like the way his version rolls off the tongue.
Speaking of the Russia, Russia, Russia collusion: Its still being framed. The MSM has no shame. They have a cush sinecure whoring themselves out so they won’t give it up. The story was that Trump was a Russian agent subverting this great “democracy”. Now it seems to be that the Russians were constantly trying to effect the elections and are still trying to misdirect the people of the West by their nefarious actions. Ignoring, of course, that Russians have been constantly trying to effect the events in the West since 1917, suddenly it becomes a major problem now that “Nazi’s” are in control of the once beautiful worker’s paradise. The focus is “See, we weren’t wrong! While we couldn’t deceive….I mean prove that Trump was bribed and compromised, we at least got the facts about the evil Russians right!”
It is foolish to make claims that threaten human life on the internet. I would never make such a claim myself. I just want to point out that the only thing that will make the MSM stop their chicanery is some examples being made via some caps in some asses. Gnome sayin?
read Conrad’s “Secret Agent” the russians have been russian a lot longer than since 917 🙂
The lack of actual effort to go out and report on things in the media, is probably also just part of the general trend in this country where it seems like hard work is generally frowned upon. I see it all over the place where people just “phone in” their jobs, and actually EXPECT to be able to do that – and will get pissed if they can’t.
The wife and I are constantly saying to each other : ” here’s another person who can’t do their goddam job”. It ranges from customer help on the phone, to car mechanics – all the way up to doctors. I personally see this is a societal issue – in that people have gotten the welfare bug so deeply lodged in their psyche – they just can’t see their way thru to actually putting out extra effort to get work done any more. They pay lip service to having a job – when what they really want is to just get paid.
You’ve already addressed this in other columns , but it’s probably also a feminization effect going on here. Women in general , will not do shit like become front line combat reporters. The ones who have done it – are few and far between, and don’t usually last too long. Jordan Peterson addresses this disparity between men and women and work here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV2yvI4Id9Q . He talks about how women just simply don’t want to work the way men will work. High level high priced female lawyers – all start bailing out when they’re in their 30’s.
“Who wants to work like that – that is the issue”
Women simply don’t want to do it.
One of his statements is:
“some men obsessed with being at the pinnacle of their particular dominance hierarchy – will happily work 80 hours a week. They will forego everything else”
Being an actual reporter requires a lot of work. And like the old movies used to show: it might actually get you killed if you report the wrong shit. I don’t see this being a driving motive for female reporters: they want to be in front of the camera, be famous, talk to famous people, get into the locker room and see men without their shirts on – etc.
The other night on the local Chronicle show (local news and topics of interest), there was a segment about a journalism program at one of the local colleges (might have been BC – I don’t recall). The thing that struck me was that out of 20 odd students – there was maybe 4 males. And the segment was about how the class took a trip to Greece. All of the comments revolved around “refugees” – and there was no commentary at all about how maybe the local Greek population didn’t want the interlopers there. They also spent a few minutes on local responses to the refugees – like Golden Dawn and other “fascist” organizations.
In other words it seemed like the reason the class went over there – was to justify their virtue signalling.
There wasn’t any real “reporting” going on. They didn’t stray out of the path that was laid out before them – etc. IMHO – if their professors were any good: that should have been a complete failure on the course. They did what they were told – that’s not what a REAL reporter does.
But that is what women do. They don’t stray outside the lines.
My take away from this – was that all these journalism majors will be looking for jobs as “reporters” when they graduate – at Huffington Post or some similar feminist virtue signalling factory.
editorializing as ‘news’ has been the dominant theme for decades. with the advent of the internet, those who find it impossible to suspend reality in order to believe editorials as news have an outlet and use it. the MSM’s days of controlling the flow of information/data and covering for the ruling class are over and both groups know it.
now, ‘hate speech’ is the meme being used to control the net with virtue signalling trolls using such a specious argument to assume the mantle long held by the MSM, ie, shills, poseurs and sycophants for the ruling elite. they do so by overt censorship. think google and facebook as examples. their censorship assures those wallowing in this delusion will end up as the MSM has today, replaced by those who truly offer an open and unadulterated flow of information and data.
the wall has been breached by the net. the censorship wall being built now will be breached, as well. just as the MSM has lost all credibility, save among the ideologues who agree with them, so will those who are now censoring what they don’t like will lose, too. so be it. it will be deserved, just as the MSM deserves the ridicule it now receives.
The sad point that this illustrates is The end of high trust civ. If we can rebuild it, it will be on the ashes of the once great USA.
MSM isn’t a platform for the left, it is the left, and will not be held accountable for lies because that is why they are there.
Trump’s ability to tar the MSM as “fake news” has to be either one of the luckiest or savviest pieces of political jiu-jitsu in recorded history. It never fails to crack me up how the MSM cooked up the term fake news for their own purposes to bash Trump. It was all part of the Russia, Russia, Russia “collusion” with perfidious Macedonian content farmers pushing fake news stories on the orders of Vladimir Putin to discredit Cankles. But when they tried to float that narrative all Trump had to say was “You know what. You guys are fake news!” and it’s stuck to them like glue ever since.
I wouldn’t necessarily call it lucky. I think it’s more like you said…they were guilty of psychological projection and opened the door into their own faces by calling anything pro-Trump “fake news”. It took “the Deplorables” about 8 seconds to take them down, and just like “the Deplorables”, Trump took “fake news”, appropriated it for his voters, and ran with it successfully.
You only had to watch one or two debates (GOP and Presidential) to see that “fake news” was working over time to elect Clinton, and to nominate the designated-loser from the GOP.
Fake news isn’t simply making stuff up, or twisting it. Fake news also includes the fact that so much of the media is there to do the Government Party’s blocking and tackling for them. Somebody causing some trouble? Don’t send the government after them…just send some reporters who selectively edit and destroy your life, your family, your reputation. Got some damning information about Bill Clinton flying the rape jet to the pedophile island? Oh, well, let’s just muddy that up and assure people it’s all very confusing, and not what you think, and oh, look, squirrel! Got a former government employ who violated the Espionage Act with her illegal “private” server…hey Colin Powell did that! Is she passing out and demonstrating obvious symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease? That never happened, and who the hell let that guy with the smart phone inside the Press Ropes!?!?
Which is why whistle-blowing will become the only reliable form of news going forward. Privacy is becoming non-existent due to technology and surreptitious surveillance, and this will lead to unfiltered root-level source material being uploaded onto the web for all to see. I’m waiting for the weather forecast to become politicized, and then the cat will really be out of the bag.
You didn’t have to wait long. A lot of the hurricane coverage, including a very biased piece on 60 Minutes last Sunday, implies that the hurricanes were much stronger due to global warming. Since the frequency of hurricanes, which is objectively measured, have been lower in the past decade, they can only lie about the cause of the intensity.
The weather channel is political and got very much so for a while. They started cross programming with the Today show and other NBC stuff. Somewhere along the line there was a conflict with directv and their demands for more money got them removed from the lineup and weathernation was brought in as a replacement. TWC then lowered their demands and got put back on and the NBC crap was dropped, but they still push the AGW junk every chance they get.
Yessir, politicized since the founder left- and all I want to see is the gosh-damm weather without waiting through endless stupidazz stories.
I use the Weather Radar app now- shows the whole country instantly, live, with the major storm fronts.
(I’m in most of them or trying to detour, so I really wanta know. Kek the damm “weather” channels. Idiots.)
Depends on how you define it. I agree so long as the whistle blower has a face and a name. A lot of fake news relies on anonymous “whistle blower” sources.
What I am envisioning is audio and video from first-person witnesses using cell phones or drones. Also, things like long range microphones are now commonly available accessories.
Did you see the the W3C controversy? (((They))) know that the media is a dead horse and will jump on the internet. First, they will DRM everything, then they will destroy competition and independent content creators, finally turning the internet into old television.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/amid-unprecedented-controversy-w3c-greenlights-drm-web
“It was a task of a lifetime, we’re dealing with a political environment that I’ve never had any experience with,” Strange said. “The political seas, the political winds in this country right now are very hard to navigate and hard to understand.” defeated Senate candidate Luther Strange
The realignment continues.
We hardly knew ye either, Luther.
What amazes me about that quote is that I think he genuinely means it. Scott Adams has the metaphor of people in the same theater watching two different movies. It shouldn’t be possible but I can’t argue with reality.
It is the analysis of a man standing inside the walls of the Cloud City, and facing in.
Exactly on point
The expectation of fair play and a high trust society where bribery isn’t normal is the definition of white privilege. That’s the whole point of the Hajnal line cultural divide.
Z Man;
Excellent diagnosis. It’s pretty obvious (now) that figuring this situation out, figuring out how to exploit it and observing that the rest of the field remained in ignorance was one big factor in Pres. Trump’s decision to run in 2015. Having shared the same waters for decades, he apparently knew that while the media sharks may have sharp teeth, they are lazy swimmers. Blood-in-the-waters comes to them in NYC, I guess.
The amazing thing is that they *still* haven’t figured out that he’s on to them. Either that or they aren’t smart enough to figure out what to do about it. For example, they were all busy, busy, busy spinning up the outrage machine about how Puerto Rico was just like New Orleans under Katrina when he made a high G turn into the NFL-flag business late last week. A coupe of tweets was apparently all it took: Put a pan full of excrement in front of the NFL-sports ball media complex and they all promptly stepped into it. They didn’t even notice it was sticking to their shoes and pants until yesterday.
Begun, the amusingly clumsy backpedaling has.
As further validation (if any is needed): For a while in the mid ’90’s I was briefly put over our business unit’s small PR department during a reorganization. So I figured I’d better sit down with them to figure out what they did against the possibility that I’d be suddenly charged with defending their jobs (or deciding not to). Turns out, *they* wrote the relevant news stories, not the typical reporter. The news cycle began with either our folks faxing (in those benighted days) out a routine periodic press release far and wide or us getting a press inquiry, which prompted a fast-turn ‘backgrounder'(rewritten press release – made the reporter feel special). The reporter then changed a few words or details and ran the piece. Just like in Africa. And these were the localish media folk, where one supposedly learned the reporting business.
Now I want to see a Wire like show about a reporter version of Jimmy McNulty that everyone in the business hates because he’s the only ass hole among them who genuinely cares about doing good reporter work.
It’s an interesting point. The cluelessness on display by the elite is staggering, and could probably only be attributed to information flow.
They keep wading into these displays as if they can’t see what it looks like from out here in dirt people land. That probably means they don’t know what it looks like from out here, because the world they live in is completely isolated.
it has always been thus. make them feel pain, and they will change course. this guy had the right idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik
“The fake news was so sure Hillary would win, they had magazine covers pre-printed and ready to go in advance. It’s why their attempt to censor alternative media has been a failure.”
This is also the case in science. Just the other day I saw that the Dutch meteorological department had already filled out the 2017 monthly averages for September, October, November, and December on their official web site.
If anything science has mirrored the media over the same period. The climate change scam, however, was that one step too far.
I’ve been writing about exactly this for some time:
https://medium.com/@BaruchK/fake-news-isnt-new-to-us-83c7235a34fa
https://medium.com/@BaruchK/on-all-the-news-thats-fit-to-print-originally-published-30-november-f2c436b7ce1e
https://medium.com/@BaruchK/market-failure-for-manufactured-consent-e7838e7aa977