I now get my news from the BBC, Al Jazeera, The Bulwark, Substack and IHIP. I was faithful to CNN for decades. I’m from Atlanta and we love Ted Turner hence ,our devotion to CNN. I haven’t turned it on in at least a year, maybe two. I used to love 60 Minutes like my parents before me. I can’t watch it anymore. Bari Weiss is an idiot, Columbia educated doesn’t matter when you have zero common sense and come off as a self-important clown. Trump has ruined our country.
In this particular instance, the oligarchy buying up all the media isn't about making money. (Weird for them, I know!) They bought them to destroy them. A truly free press is anathema to fascism and that's the ultimate goal.
WaPo, LAthumbs, and the Critical Bias System will never have my eyes or money again. They might as well wank all the way over to the right. I don't know who independent and left-leaning viewers can count on, but quit dissing NPR and MSNow, and
Back in the 90s the right wing started buying up AM radio stations. Ratings tanked, but that didn’t matter. The purpose was to get other voices off the air - college stations, Air America, Jones Radio Network and other left leaning but low budget broadcasts. They crept along busily vacuuming up free speech as they went until they reached Voice of America and the big television networks. The thousand points of light were extinguished. Goal accomplished. Big Brother is on the air.
Although Al Franken was very popular comedian in that era, in which he wrote six books that sold millions of copies. Lots of people thought of him as an SNL veteran comedian, and not as a politician. Some of them had to have been what one might have called apolitical.
I had forgotten this – Franken announced his Senate run on Air America on the day of his final show, February 14, 2007.
I was laughing along, listening to Stephanie Miller joke as I drove up the Oregon coast and suddenly was listening to a man spewing hate. It took me a few minutes to figure out I’d moved out of range of one station into the range of the other. AM didn’t reach far. They had to buy a LOT of stations to cover an entire state.
Try driving through Alabama -- weirdo christianistic hustlers dumber 'n a bag o' hammers preaching their hatred, fear and ignorance. Listeners had no choice but to become proto Republicans
Many years ago my older, rather conservative, sister wrote me an unsolicited question, “what do you think of Bari Weiss?”
My first thought was “how is that godawful halfwit even on your radar?” followed by “why are you asking *me* this question?”
But I put those questions aside for a moment and proceeded to rip Bari a new asshole. Mainly by pointing out her shallowness, hypocrisy and dependence on various, obvious, logical fallacies Bari routinely employs in her attempts at constructing her self-serving arguments.
My sister did not respond to my response.
I only realized a few days later that she probably thought, “oh! Bari is gay. I bet my gay brother likes her! They are both teh ghey!”
Note: my sister was the first person I came out to. Her initial, gut reaction response was, “but… but… but what about Hell?!?”
I had a work-related Convo with a guy a couple of days ago. He was bemoaning how gay rights are dead as long as PAB is in office and how awful it is.
Also, he couldn't bring himself to vote for Harris. Maybe if they'd had a real primary and a different (white) person had won, he'd have been able to vote for him.
(Or her, but probably would have had to have been a him, I'm thinking.)
His fella couldn't convince him to vote for Harris. Not that it would have mattered in Georgia, but still, his thoughts on that election are representative of enough people whom, if they'd voted for Harris or not at all, would have been enough to have changed the outcome.
It has NOTHING to do with increasing viewership or delivering more content for MAGAs hungry for right wing news. It has EVERYTHING to do with silencing the Left so we have no voice. Period. Anybody who doesn't see this is completely blind.
This is what authoritarians ALWAYS do, and "control of the mass media" is, in fact, one of the 14 defining characteristics of fascism.
"Unfortunately, their bids for power come at the expense of good journalism, which we all need for a functioning democracy"
They know. They're counting on it. A functioning democracy might raise their taxes or, horrors of horrors, hold them accountable for their myriad crimes.
bwahahahaa!
"when they have full fat options like OANN"; that got me.
No remotely normal news outlet can ever give them the sheer lunacy they crave.
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This message as been brought to you by Brawndo. It's got what plants crave!1!!1!!
I now get my news from the BBC, Al Jazeera, The Bulwark, Substack and IHIP. I was faithful to CNN for decades. I’m from Atlanta and we love Ted Turner hence ,our devotion to CNN. I haven’t turned it on in at least a year, maybe two. I used to love 60 Minutes like my parents before me. I can’t watch it anymore. Bari Weiss is an idiot, Columbia educated doesn’t matter when you have zero common sense and come off as a self-important clown. Trump has ruined our country.
Could well be malicious incompetence.
The goal was to destroy reporting about the Republicans destroying the country. They all profit.
Dropped my LATimes sub for the Philadelphia Inquirer, one of the last true bastions of liberal truth-telling left.
In this particular instance, the oligarchy buying up all the media isn't about making money. (Weird for them, I know!) They bought them to destroy them. A truly free press is anathema to fascism and that's the ultimate goal.
The media have been aiding them to get to this goal for a long time.
OT: Transgender women athletes banned by IOC. *rages*
The IOC are up there with FIFA in the "bunch of fuckheads" stakes
"Democracy dies in the dark[ness created by our billionaire boss, Jeff Bezos]".
WaPo, LAthumbs, and the Critical Bias System will never have my eyes or money again. They might as well wank all the way over to the right. I don't know who independent and left-leaning viewers can count on, but quit dissing NPR and MSNow, and
I don't think any of them really thought they were going to get MORE readers.
"Oh, Bari honey! We didn't hire you to remake news media. We hired you to burn it."--
The Ellisons (probably).
Back in the 90s the right wing started buying up AM radio stations. Ratings tanked, but that didn’t matter. The purpose was to get other voices off the air - college stations, Air America, Jones Radio Network and other left leaning but low budget broadcasts. They crept along busily vacuuming up free speech as they went until they reached Voice of America and the big television networks. The thousand points of light were extinguished. Goal accomplished. Big Brother is on the air.
Air America was kinda rubbish though. I listened to it and it was ok, but isn't going to draw in Suzie Forklift or whoever.
"It was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010."
We're just not the target market for AM radio stations.
Although Al Franken was very popular comedian in that era, in which he wrote six books that sold millions of copies. Lots of people thought of him as an SNL veteran comedian, and not as a politician. Some of them had to have been what one might have called apolitical.
I had forgotten this – Franken announced his Senate run on Air America on the day of his final show, February 14, 2007.
Wasn’t that Rachel Maddow’s station though? She was never rubbish. I think she was actually more engaging on her radio show than she is now on TV.
I think her podcasts prove that her natural medium is audio, as she will be the first to tell you!
And that is EXACTLY why Trump is in the White House today. Mission accomplished.
I remember driving across the mid-west in the 90’s. Of the loud AM stations I could pick up, four had Rush Limbaugh on.
I was laughing along, listening to Stephanie Miller joke as I drove up the Oregon coast and suddenly was listening to a man spewing hate. It took me a few minutes to figure out I’d moved out of range of one station into the range of the other. AM didn’t reach far. They had to buy a LOT of stations to cover an entire state.
Try driving through Alabama -- weirdo christianistic hustlers dumber 'n a bag o' hammers preaching their hatred, fear and ignorance. Listeners had no choice but to become proto Republicans
On AM anyway. FM is hanging onto talk radio by a thread with NPR.
Many years ago my older, rather conservative, sister wrote me an unsolicited question, “what do you think of Bari Weiss?”
My first thought was “how is that godawful halfwit even on your radar?” followed by “why are you asking *me* this question?”
But I put those questions aside for a moment and proceeded to rip Bari a new asshole. Mainly by pointing out her shallowness, hypocrisy and dependence on various, obvious, logical fallacies Bari routinely employs in her attempts at constructing her self-serving arguments.
My sister did not respond to my response.
I only realized a few days later that she probably thought, “oh! Bari is gay. I bet my gay brother likes her! They are both teh ghey!”
Note: my sister was the first person I came out to. Her initial, gut reaction response was, “but… but… but what about Hell?!?”
Sigh.
But what about Hell? That's just a story they tell us to keep us in line and clearly they don't believe in it themselves.
At least not *for* themselves.
I had a work-related Convo with a guy a couple of days ago. He was bemoaning how gay rights are dead as long as PAB is in office and how awful it is.
Also, he couldn't bring himself to vote for Harris. Maybe if they'd had a real primary and a different (white) person had won, he'd have been able to vote for him.
(Or her, but probably would have had to have been a him, I'm thinking.)
His fella couldn't convince him to vote for Harris. Not that it would have mattered in Georgia, but still, his thoughts on that election are representative of enough people whom, if they'd voted for Harris or not at all, would have been enough to have changed the outcome.
I *knew* it! All youse gheys KNOW EACH OTHER! (/s)
It’s a big club. The initial all-encompassing meet-and-greet was exhausting.
If Bari comes in, pretend we don’t know her.
Oh, I'd just get tired and pretend to have a headache and go home.
I hope you didn't invite Ric Grenell.
No one wants Ric around. No one. He’s so needy and bitter.
Nope. He's out of our club.
"... and promises them that everything bad in the world is the fault of people they do not like."
Speaking of which...
https://substack.com/@hops934300/note/c-215584674?r=2m6hve&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
I keep thinking about the Handmaid's Tale (TV show) when the protagonist says by the time we started protesting it was too late.
It has NOTHING to do with increasing viewership or delivering more content for MAGAs hungry for right wing news. It has EVERYTHING to do with silencing the Left so we have no voice. Period. Anybody who doesn't see this is completely blind.
This is what authoritarians ALWAYS do, and "control of the mass media" is, in fact, one of the 14 defining characteristics of fascism.
Yup. But they will never control the media these days without closing down the internet access in the US à la China.
"Unfortunately, their bids for power come at the expense of good journalism, which we all need for a functioning democracy"
They know. They're counting on it. A functioning democracy might raise their taxes or, horrors of horrors, hold them accountable for their myriad crimes.
Can't have that, peasants!