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Category: Journalism/Media

These lies about climate change just wouldn’t die in 2022

These lies about climate change just wouldn’t die in 2022

USA Today reports: There was a time – a recent time – when concern about the environment was relatively bipartisan, not a cultural flashpoint. A Republican, President Richard Nixon, established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. In the 1980s and 1990s, bipartisan majorities voted to strengthen the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, led by a Republican – Rhode Island’s Sen. John Chafee. Those days are gone, and today a wide range of misleading statements and outright lies…

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A local paper suggested Santos was a ‘fabulist’ before the election, but no one paid attention

A local paper suggested Santos was a ‘fabulist’ before the election, but no one paid attention

The Washington Post reports: Months before the New York Times published a December article suggesting Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) had fabricated much of his résumé and biography, a tiny publication on Long Island was ringing alarm bells about its local candidate. The North Shore Leader wrote in September, when few others were covering Santos, about his “inexplicable rise” in reported net worth — from essentially nothing in 2020 to as much as $11 million two years later. The story noted…

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How George Santos defrauded my old congressional district

How George Santos defrauded my old congressional district

Steve Israel writes: The media’s failure to dig into Santos shows the predicament that local newsrooms face in 2022. Newsday dominates the media landscape on Long Island. And its reporters do quality work—they turned out an important investigation just a few years ago that exposed racism in the local real-estate industry. But they don’t have the resources to cover everything—not even everything in their political backyard—and they appear to have written off NY-3 as low priority given the district’s Democratic…

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Tucker Carlson’s rage at Zelensky caps a year of getting things wrong

Tucker Carlson’s rage at Zelensky caps a year of getting things wrong

Greg Sargent writes: After Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a rousing speech to U.S. lawmakers this week, Tucker Carlson unleashed a diatribe that put schoolyard sadists everywhere to shame. “No one’s ever addressed the United States Congress in a sweatshirt before,” he seethed, slamming Zelensky as a “strip club” manager whose presence was “humiliating” to “the greatest country on Earth.” Carlson’s attack on the Ukrainian president, whose olive green garb was meant to dramatize his country’s wartime plight, has sparked outrage because…

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Media companies remain in codependent relationship with Twitter

Media companies remain in codependent relationship with Twitter

The Washington Post reports: When Twitter abruptly suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists Thursday night — in response to a baffling claim from new owner Elon Musk that they had endangered his safety — media bosses were quick to speak out in protest. The New York Times called the suspensions “questionable.” CNN said it would “reevaluate” its relationship with Twitter. The Washington Post demanded that Twitter reinstate the account of one of its technology reporters “immediately,” noting that he…

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Musk’s suspension of journalists on Twitter spurs U.S., international condemnation

Musk’s suspension of journalists on Twitter spurs U.S., international condemnation

The Washington Post reports: U.S. and international officials condemned Twitter and Elon Musk on Friday after the social media company abruptly suspended several U.S. journalists, expressing concern about retaliation and the potentially chilling effect on free speech. The moves invited sharp rebuke from public officials at the European Commission and the United Nations, as well as criticism from a U.S. senator. Even some of Musk’s own supporters, who advocate a broad interpretation of free speech, appeared taken aback by the…

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How Tucker Carlson became a war propagandist for Russian state-owned media

How Tucker Carlson became a war propagandist for Russian state-owned media

The New York Times reports: As Russian tanks were stuck in the mud outside Kyiv earlier this year and the economic fallout of war with Ukraine took hold, one part of Russia’s government hummed with precision: television propaganda. Spinning together a counternarrative for tens of millions of viewers, Russian propagandists plucked clips from American cable news, right-wing social media and Chinese officials. They latched onto claims that Western embargoes of Russian oil would be self-defeating, that the United States was…

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Is Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News?

Is Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News?

The Guardian reports: Rupert Murdoch rarely has to answer for the alternative realities presented by his hugely profitable US cable network, Fox News. Its conspiratorial claims of a parade of cover ups from the 2012 Benghazi attack to the climate crisis and Covid-19 have been lapped up by Fox viewers and scorned by much of the rest of America, and then the world moved on. But on Tuesday, the 91-year-old billionaire media mogul will be obliged to answer difficult questions…

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Associated Press fires reporter behind retracted ‘Russian missiles’ story

Associated Press fires reporter behind retracted ‘Russian missiles’ story

The Daily Beast reports: The Associated Press scared much of the world last Tuesday when it alerted readers that “a senior U.S. intelligence official” said “Russian missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people.” That report, which was widely cited across the internet and on cable news, was taken offline the following day and replaced with an editor’s note admitting the single source was wrong and that “subsequent reporting showed that the missiles were Russian-made and most likely fired…

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New York Post takes aim at Trump, and hits a nerve

New York Post takes aim at Trump, and hits a nerve

The New York Times reports: Since Election Day last week, The New York Post’s front pages have been merciless to former President Donald J. Trump. First, the paper heralded his political rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, as “DeFUTURE.” A day later, it illustrated Mr. Trump as Humpty Dumpty about to have a great fall. Then, on Wednesday, the paper relegated Mr. Trump’s announcement about his latest run for president to a small headline at the bottom of the page:…

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The Intercept’s story about government policing disinformation is total garbage

The Intercept’s story about government policing disinformation is total garbage

Mike Masnick writes: Do not believe everything you read. Even if it comes from more “respectable” publications. The Intercept had a big story this week that is making the rounds, suggesting that “leaked” documents prove the DHS has been coordinating with tech companies to suppress information. The story has been immediately picked up by the usual suspects, claiming it reveals the “smoking gun” of how the Biden administration was abusing government power to censor them on social media. The only…

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Fox News has become a platform for Russian propaganda

Fox News has become a platform for Russian propaganda

William Saletan writes: For seven months, Russia has waged a vicious war of aggression in Ukraine, killing thousands of civilians. To make matters worse, in the past two weeks, Vladimir Putin has illegally annexed parts of Ukraine and has once again threatened to use nuclear weapons. A principled American conservative TV network might advocate a muscular response to this behavior. At a minimum, it would tell the truth. But Fox News is unconstrained by such principles. In primetime hours, it…

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Four years after Khashoggi’s murder, assaults on press freedom are getting worse

Four years after Khashoggi’s murder, assaults on press freedom are getting worse

David Ignatius writes: On the fourth anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, we should demand accountability from Saudi Arabia, louder than ever. But we should also denounce, as Khashoggi would have, the assaults against press freedom in so many other countries that continue unabated — and often go unremarked. Khashoggi’s last column, received by The Post the day after he went missing, was about the need for “free expression,” not just in Saudi Arabia but everywhere that authorities try to suppress…

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Israeli army: ‘High possibility’ soldier killed reporter

Israeli army: ‘High possibility’ soldier killed reporter

The Associated Press reports: The Israeli army said Monday there was a “high possibility” that a soldier killed a well-known Al Jazeera journalist in the occupied West Bank last May, as it announced the results of its investigation into the killing. In a briefing to reporters, a senior military official said a soldier opened fire after mistakenly identifying Shireen Abu Akleh as a militant. But he provided no evidence to back up the Israeli claim that Palestinian gunmen were present…

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Insiders reveal how Erdogan controls Turkey’s newsrooms

Insiders reveal how Erdogan controls Turkey’s newsrooms

Reuters reports: When President Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law suddenly quit as finance minister in late 2020, four staff in Turkey’s leading newsrooms said they received a clear direction from their managers: don’t report this until the government says so. The resignation of Berat Albayrak, which he announced in a Sunday evening Instagram post, was reported by international and independent Turkish news outlets. The lira soared on hopes of a new direction for the beleaguered economy. But for more than 24 hours,…

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Trump is increasingly being cold-shouldered by Fox News

Trump is increasingly being cold-shouldered by Fox News

The New York Times reports: It’s been more than 100 days since Donald J. Trump was interviewed on Fox News. The network, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch and boosted Mr. Trump’s ascension from real estate developer and reality television star to the White House, is now often bypassing him in favor of showcasing other Republicans. In the former president’s view, according to two people who have spoken to him recently, Fox’s ignoring him is an affront far worse than…

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