It was fascinating to see how The Columbia Journalism Review’s scathing criticism of MSM’s handling of the Trump Russia hoax was met with...crickets! The most respected, established source for professional journalism excoriated The NY Times, WaPo, etc., and everyone pretended that it didn’t happen. When does something change from a “conspiracy theory” to a “conspiracy”? Well, that would be a pretty good example.
It’s important to remember that, with all the major legacy media captured, just getting “the news” becomes an onerous, time consuming process. And this, leading up to the 2024 election, means that the average voter will have absolutely NO idea what the issues really are, and what the result of the last four years of Democrat control has done to this country.
"Ultimately, they want to ruin Fox News and cut off that resource for MAGA supporters."
Well, they don't have to – FauxNews has done that all by themselves. I know of very few fellow conservatives and Trump supporters who tune in to that channel for ANYTHING. Incidentally, that is not a new development – FauxNews has been losing viewers for a long time, but its viewership was artificially inflated because those numbers were subscribers to cable outlets that carried it as a basic channel in the bundle, not actual viewers.
Most of us, if we NEED to get an update on the nooz, it's NewsMax.
I have embraced being a white supremacist, a bigot, a homophobe, a xenophobe, a transphobe, queerphobe, and every other phobe. Those are what I'll be accused of being anyway, I might as well enjoy being all or any one of them.
Excellent piece as usual, Sasha! You truly are doing the Lord's work.
Poignant and oh, so true. I can understand your mourning of one of the things we Americans have always held dear, reporters who dug for the truth no matter how hard it was or how crooked the path to the truth. I’m old enough to remember the early days of 60 Minutes, and how those reporters, like Dan Rather, would confront the wrong doers in person and how brave and righteous we all thought they were. Now they denigrate James O’Keefe for doing exactly that same thing. Thank God there are still journalists, and writers, and even physicians, who are compelled and driven to seek the truth and write (or blog) about it. It’s substacks like yours and alternative platforms like Locals and Rumble that give creators a venue to reach those of us that still care to know the truth. Thank you, Sasha!
My white surburban housewife stopped to watch Bloomberg TV w/ me today as I was having lunch. She had given up MSM news long ago and prefers to put her head in sand. The Republican lady on show was young/pretty and having to preface and give all kinds of excuses to host - for just forwarding the notion that it’s okay to question the war in Ukraine (on heels of Sweden entering NATO). My wife commented how weird and strange that was. Yeah I said, not only weird but how ‘authoritative’ that this talking head had to watch her words so carefully to be opposed to killing & war — or else risk not being invited back to show. Anyway, in my little corner of world my life partner is waking up.
1. The rule of simplification - reducing all data to a simple confrontation between 'Good and Bad', 'Friend and Foe'.
2. The rule of disfiguration - discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
3. The rule of transfusion - manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one's own ends.
4. The rule of unanimity - presenting one's viewpoint as if it were unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure , and by 'psychological contagion'.
5. The rule of orchestration - endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.
Epps, after being on video several times concerning Jan. 6 exhorting movement into the Capital building. Why has he never been arrested, charged, or even questioned by the FBI?. Why did he appear on their most wanted list, but then just as quickly disappear from it? Why are so many questions about that man and his motives still unanswered? Why have so many from the Jan. 6 melee been arrested and thrown into solitary confinement? Then given long prison terms simply for walking around inside the capital building acting like uninvited tourists? The unequal treatment from all of it is shocking and definitely not what America is supposed to stand up for.
Biden sends 3000 troops to Europe. I'm sure Democrats are cheering this on, those waehawks. I can only imagine if Trump had done this. The media headlines in the morning would be children on the front pages with WORLD WAR 3 UPON US all over rhe front page news. But not so when we have a Democrat in the White House.
There is no journalism left. It is 100% leftist propaganda.
I think it died long before the date stated. It has slowly eroded over the last fifty years. The CIA has moles in the news agencies from the beginning of the creation of this rouge outfit started. the news has not been the news for a verry long time as it slowly became captured by large corporations for the sole purpose of controlling the narrative. Not even during the civil war was it truthful. The history of Lincolns murder was known to be a confederate-English operation. Booth was in Montreal several times planning the abduction, and finally the murder of Lincoln, along with members of his own government, and yet it was portrayed as a lone nut gunman. They had no intention of bringing him in alive just like Oswald, so investigative reporting has never been allowed with the exception of what the powers that be allow. this just gave cover for the truth. Jullien Assange is an example of what happens to real investigative reporters. I do not disagree with the article, just the pretense of honest reporting that never was.
Twitter is not as free speech as you may think. I am conservative and believe in God. My twitter page and comments reflected mainstream conservative thought and was not extremist in the least. I was permanently suspended about two weeks ago. I was given no reason and my request for exactly why I was suspended was ignored. I was able to still access twitter for a short timeframe and follow my old news sources but now, I have been severely rate limited. For all practical purposes, I have been completely blocked and removed from twitter without any reason given.
Maybe the big conservative accounts are protected by their large followings but the little guys are still getting hammered by censorship including shadow banning and suspensions plus in my case, access so severely limited that I no longer have access to twitter as an information source. I don't know how common these actions are now across twitter but would not be surprised if it is far more common than known. Those censored and pushed out of twitter have no twitter voice.
Would also like to say.... Thank you Substack. No matter what happens down the line. You guys have been great. I remember wondering to myself. Is there ever going to be anything interesting to read again? Was like the internet came to a full stop and went stupid. For more than a few years. Substack is awesome. And I am grateful for all of you for taking giant risks to be here.
Just an excellent column. The question is, why does an audience stay loyal to a journalist or channel that has lied to them repeatedly? Particularly after the triple-whammy of Russiagate, Covid, and the Hunter laptop.
It appears that you cannot shake the liberal audience from MSNBC even after the exposure of misinformation on a scale that is astounding.
That is what scares me about "news" today. That an audience becomes a willing accomplice to clear fabrications because it fits their comfortable narrative.
There was a time when lies once exposed detached the two, audience and news provider.
Today there are those who want to willingly go along with fabrications if that narrative is more soothing and comforting to their mind. That just baffles me, and concerns me tremendously.
It was fascinating to see how The Columbia Journalism Review’s scathing criticism of MSM’s handling of the Trump Russia hoax was met with...crickets! The most respected, established source for professional journalism excoriated The NY Times, WaPo, etc., and everyone pretended that it didn’t happen. When does something change from a “conspiracy theory” to a “conspiracy”? Well, that would be a pretty good example.
It’s important to remember that, with all the major legacy media captured, just getting “the news” becomes an onerous, time consuming process. And this, leading up to the 2024 election, means that the average voter will have absolutely NO idea what the issues really are, and what the result of the last four years of Democrat control has done to this country.
Terrifying.
"Ultimately, they want to ruin Fox News and cut off that resource for MAGA supporters."
Well, they don't have to – FauxNews has done that all by themselves. I know of very few fellow conservatives and Trump supporters who tune in to that channel for ANYTHING. Incidentally, that is not a new development – FauxNews has been losing viewers for a long time, but its viewership was artificially inflated because those numbers were subscribers to cable outlets that carried it as a basic channel in the bundle, not actual viewers.
Most of us, if we NEED to get an update on the nooz, it's NewsMax.
I have embraced being a white supremacist, a bigot, a homophobe, a xenophobe, a transphobe, queerphobe, and every other phobe. Those are what I'll be accused of being anyway, I might as well enjoy being all or any one of them.
Excellent piece as usual, Sasha! You truly are doing the Lord's work.
Poignant and oh, so true. I can understand your mourning of one of the things we Americans have always held dear, reporters who dug for the truth no matter how hard it was or how crooked the path to the truth. I’m old enough to remember the early days of 60 Minutes, and how those reporters, like Dan Rather, would confront the wrong doers in person and how brave and righteous we all thought they were. Now they denigrate James O’Keefe for doing exactly that same thing. Thank God there are still journalists, and writers, and even physicians, who are compelled and driven to seek the truth and write (or blog) about it. It’s substacks like yours and alternative platforms like Locals and Rumble that give creators a venue to reach those of us that still care to know the truth. Thank you, Sasha!
My white surburban housewife stopped to watch Bloomberg TV w/ me today as I was having lunch. She had given up MSM news long ago and prefers to put her head in sand. The Republican lady on show was young/pretty and having to preface and give all kinds of excuses to host - for just forwarding the notion that it’s okay to question the war in Ukraine (on heels of Sweden entering NATO). My wife commented how weird and strange that was. Yeah I said, not only weird but how ‘authoritative’ that this talking head had to watch her words so carefully to be opposed to killing & war — or else risk not being invited back to show. Anyway, in my little corner of world my life partner is waking up.
The five rules of propaganda
I have written a short substack essay on propaganda, and below are the five rules of propaganda, Please disseminate them far and wide. Thanks
https://drp314.substack.com/p/propaganda-thoughts
1. The rule of simplification - reducing all data to a simple confrontation between 'Good and Bad', 'Friend and Foe'.
2. The rule of disfiguration - discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
3. The rule of transfusion - manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one's own ends.
4. The rule of unanimity - presenting one's viewpoint as if it were unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure , and by 'psychological contagion'.
5. The rule of orchestration - endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.
Epps, after being on video several times concerning Jan. 6 exhorting movement into the Capital building. Why has he never been arrested, charged, or even questioned by the FBI?. Why did he appear on their most wanted list, but then just as quickly disappear from it? Why are so many questions about that man and his motives still unanswered? Why have so many from the Jan. 6 melee been arrested and thrown into solitary confinement? Then given long prison terms simply for walking around inside the capital building acting like uninvited tourists? The unequal treatment from all of it is shocking and definitely not what America is supposed to stand up for.
Speaking of journalism and propaganda....
Biden sends 3000 troops to Europe. I'm sure Democrats are cheering this on, those waehawks. I can only imagine if Trump had done this. The media headlines in the morning would be children on the front pages with WORLD WAR 3 UPON US all over rhe front page news. But not so when we have a Democrat in the White House.
There is no journalism left. It is 100% leftist propaganda.
I think it died long before the date stated. It has slowly eroded over the last fifty years. The CIA has moles in the news agencies from the beginning of the creation of this rouge outfit started. the news has not been the news for a verry long time as it slowly became captured by large corporations for the sole purpose of controlling the narrative. Not even during the civil war was it truthful. The history of Lincolns murder was known to be a confederate-English operation. Booth was in Montreal several times planning the abduction, and finally the murder of Lincoln, along with members of his own government, and yet it was portrayed as a lone nut gunman. They had no intention of bringing him in alive just like Oswald, so investigative reporting has never been allowed with the exception of what the powers that be allow. this just gave cover for the truth. Jullien Assange is an example of what happens to real investigative reporters. I do not disagree with the article, just the pretense of honest reporting that never was.
Twitter is not as free speech as you may think. I am conservative and believe in God. My twitter page and comments reflected mainstream conservative thought and was not extremist in the least. I was permanently suspended about two weeks ago. I was given no reason and my request for exactly why I was suspended was ignored. I was able to still access twitter for a short timeframe and follow my old news sources but now, I have been severely rate limited. For all practical purposes, I have been completely blocked and removed from twitter without any reason given.
Maybe the big conservative accounts are protected by their large followings but the little guys are still getting hammered by censorship including shadow banning and suspensions plus in my case, access so severely limited that I no longer have access to twitter as an information source. I don't know how common these actions are now across twitter but would not be surprised if it is far more common than known. Those censored and pushed out of twitter have no twitter voice.
I don't recognize my former profession.
"Lies have consequences." How could anyone working for the MSM say that with a straight face?
.
Never Underestimate Envy.
Pure Envy.
Everytime "An Authority" Is "Concerned"
They Are Actually Concerned
That You Are Capable Of What They Are Not.
- You'll Get Used To It.
Although Your Responses May Change.
.
I don’t believe “they” can ruin Fox News. Fox’s ruination was self-inflicted…(whether unintentional or by design)…and is all but complete.
Would also like to say.... Thank you Substack. No matter what happens down the line. You guys have been great. I remember wondering to myself. Is there ever going to be anything interesting to read again? Was like the internet came to a full stop and went stupid. For more than a few years. Substack is awesome. And I am grateful for all of you for taking giant risks to be here.
Just an excellent column. The question is, why does an audience stay loyal to a journalist or channel that has lied to them repeatedly? Particularly after the triple-whammy of Russiagate, Covid, and the Hunter laptop.
It appears that you cannot shake the liberal audience from MSNBC even after the exposure of misinformation on a scale that is astounding.
That is what scares me about "news" today. That an audience becomes a willing accomplice to clear fabrications because it fits their comfortable narrative.
There was a time when lies once exposed detached the two, audience and news provider.
Today there are those who want to willingly go along with fabrications if that narrative is more soothing and comforting to their mind. That just baffles me, and concerns me tremendously.
"We sit...in front of yet another viewing of...Broadcast News..."
"Well, Jane...thanks for stopping by..."