The Daily Poster
Dirty Laundry
February 9, 2022“It’s all about big dirty money.”
-Adam McKay
(Producer, screenwriter, ‘Don’t Look Up!’)
Corporate owned media. Pretty much all of it. -dayle
The Daily Poster
Corporate Media Is The Misinformation Problem
BY DAVID SIROTA
“Misinformation” is all the rage these days — it’s the topic du jour. Pollssuggest we all agree that it’s a problem, and lately liberals appear most mad at it — but seemingly only at certain kinds of misinformation that originate outside the corporate media sphere.
Notably, the ire is rarely directed at a corporate media machine that systematically rewards and praises the purveyors of misleading propaganda, and continues to flood the country with information sewage.
This selective outrage is a huge problem — because the only way to systematically combat misinformation is to construct a Fourth Estate that develops some trust with the audience. That trust will never be rebuilt if liberals pretend to hate misinformation while they patronize a media establishment that fortifies the pathologies that originally created a credibility crisis.
Consider the past week of media news, while the Joe Rogan controversy dominated headlines:
NBC News hired Stephen Hayes, one of the key architects of Iraq War misinformation, to serve as a political analyst across all of its properties amid a media drumbeat for a war with Russia. Despite Hayes publishing the seminal book amplifying one of the most egregious lies of the Iraq debacle, NBC’s Chuck Todd lauded him as “a principled reporter and analyst who always puts truth and facts above emotion and sentiment.” Meanwhile, CNN just hiredanother Iraq War proponent, right-wing propagandist Jonah Goldberg.
Speaking of CNN, its employees effusively praised their network’s recently deposed president, Jeff Zucker, even after Zucker oversaw the lionization of Andrew Cuomo while the New York governor was shielding his health care industry donors from legal consequences amid a massacre of nursing home residents. Rolling Stone reported that one source said Zucker was personally involved in engineering the Cuomo promotion — and even helped write talking points for the governor.
Corporate media began touting a comeback for Cuomo and his brother, Chris, with no mention of the nursing home catastrophe, as if nothing bad happened over the last two years.
An MSNBC-platformed Washington newsletter blasted out propaganda touting Kroger’s “great pay and benefits” — even as thousands of its employees are struggling to afford basic necessities, and even as the grocery chain bankrolls lobbying groups working to kill union rights legislation.
The New York Times told its readers that President Joe Biden’s “big climate goals depend on Congress” — somehow not mentioning that they also depend on Biden, who has been using his executive authority to expand drilling at a faster pace than President Donald Trump.
Less than two years after the New York Times told its readers that 100,000 pandemic deaths under Trump was “incalculable,” the newspaper has now decided that 900,000 deaths is now a ho-hum story that Americans are bored with. “Though deaths are still mounting, the threat from the virus is moving, for now, farther into the background of daily life for many Americans,” the paper wrote.
MSNBC aired an interview with a New York Times columnist blaming inflation on workers getting COVID relief money, rather than on corporations using their monopoly power to fleece consumers with higher prices that then fund giant executive pay packages and shareholder dividends.
Obviously, multiple wrongs don’t make a right. Rogan platforming public health nonsense and environmental misinformation — and using racial slurs — is not somehow absolved by corporate media concurrently immersing the world in an ocean of self-serving bullshit. His behavior is bad on its own merits. Full stop.
But corporate media doesn’t get to lie the country into a war and a financial crisis, continue enriching right-wing fabulists, offer up news literally “presented by” corporate villains, and then pretend that a podcaster is the singular source of misinformation. And it sure as hell doesn’t get to feign surprise when after decades of lies, almost nobody ends up trusting corporate media about anything.
Despite crocodile tears about “free speech,” none of the central players in the hullabaloo are heroes or victims — they are all making a mint off selling controversy, garbage, and fake outrage. And it’s hardly a surprise that the loudest of them screaming about censorship have had little to say about the most pervasive censorship of all: corporate media’s near-complete erasure of economic and anti-corruption reporting that might offend business sponsors.
The real victim here is the general public.
We need a Fourth Estate that does not reward peddlers of the most outrageous lies — like, say, a Saddam-Al Qaeda “connection” — with prominent gigs.
We need television networks whose anchors don’t run out onto the airwaves to defend top brass amid reports that they helped politicians and political operatives effectively cover up a public health disaster.
And we need an information infrastructure that preferences accurate, verifiable, and indisputable facts so that the public can make informed decisions.
We don’t have much of that right now, in part because political tribalism has taught audiences to selectively love and hate misinformation based on whether it comes from “their” team.
Many liberals love monikers like “believe science” and see themselves as dispassionate protectors of the truth. But let’s be clear: If you’re a liberal who purports to hate misinformation but also cheers on Liz Cheney or Bill Kristol or some other war propagandist as a beacon of integrity just because you see them defending Democrats or bashing Donald Trump on your favorite TV network, then you don’t actually hate misinformation — you just happen to like your misinformation colored blue (even if that misinformation was previously colored neocon red).
Likewise, if you are a Rogan fan or a Fox News maven who purports to want the “real truth” while you cheer him or Tucker Carlson peddling climate denial and vaccine misinformation, then you don’t actually care about truth at all.
And if you’re in corporate media and think it’s OK for your news outlet to routinely skew and cover up the crimes of politicians and business, then you’re not actually interested in journalism’s mission to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.
The difference between “media” and actual journalism is the root of the misinformation crisis. We’re drowning in content that is increasingly valued only for its potency in the political wars, rather than judged on its factual merits and its choice of targets. That kind of media content strays farther and farther from reality because it’s about entertaining and inflaming rather than educating and informing.
The answer to misinformation, then, is not some censorship regime, and it’s not more intense fan culture around individual media icons so that everything is a self-enriching culture war between cable TV pundits and Spotify hosts.
The answer is an audience that actually values accurate and necessary information, even if it offends their preconceived notions — an audience that runs away from corporate media outlets that force-feed them lies and liars, and runs toward news organizations that report hard truths.
That’s the kind of news organization we’re working to build here. And we know it’s going to take a long time to build a true independent and trustworthy Fourth Estate in the wreckage of a corporate media landscape, where the flames of bullshit smolder and suffocate the discourse.
But that’s the only way forward.
#
From David.
“Friends:
Yesterday, I learned that I am a nominee for an Academy Award in the best original screenplay category for my work on the film Don’t Look Up. The fact that the film, a climate allegory, has achieved such critical and popular success is a testament to the growing demand for efforts that buck corporate media narratives and challenge power. I am stunned and truly grateful for this Oscar nomination. To celebrate this honor, we are making the replay of our Don’t Look Up live chat with director Adam McKay free for all members — please click here to watch. https://www.dailyposter.com/1-5-live-chat/ Thanks again for your support, and if you are able to financially support our mission, please consider becoming a paying subscriber or donating through our tip jar. Onward!
Rock the boat,
Sirota
“I want to dedicate this song to Rupert Murdoch.”
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Q8ldj7TKQ&list=RDAMVMJ_Q8ldj7TKQ
Darrell Lee, this is for you. {xo}
~
Dirty Laundry
The Eagles
I make my livin’ off the evenin’ news
Just give me somethin’, somethin’ I can use
People love it when you lose
They love dirty laundry
Well, I coulda’ been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don’t have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry
We got the bubble-headed bleached-blonde, comes on at five
She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye
It’s interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry
You don’t really need to find out what’s goin’ on
You don’t really wanna know just how far it’s gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry
Dirty little secrets, dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry
We can do “The Innuendo”, we can dance and sing
When it’s said and done, we haven’t told you a thing
We all know that crap is king
Give us dirty laundry!
“As a nation, we have begun to float off into a moral void, and all the sermons of all the priests in the country (if they preach at all) are not going to help much. We have got to the point where the promulgation of any kind of moral standard automatically releases an anti-moral response in a whole lot of people. It is not with them, above all, that I am concerned, but with the “good” people, the right-thinking people, who stick to principle, all right, except where it conflicts with the chance to make money. It seems to me that there are very dangerous ambiguities about our democracy in its actual present condition. I wonder to what extent our ideals are not a front for organized selfishness and systemic irresponsibility. If our affluent society ever breaks down and the facade is taken away, what are we going to have left?”
-Thomas Merton, 1961
Monday, February 1, 2022
February 1, 2022“There’s a new kind of vaccine on the horizon — and it could help target all coronaviruses, not just Covid-19.” [CNBC]
“The US Army’s “pan-coronavirus” vaccine could protect against any COVID variant.” [CNET]
THE DAILY POSTER
A Potential COVID Game-Changer
BY WALKER BRAGMAN, ANDREW PEREZ
“…U.S. Army’s new pan-coronavirus vaccine recipe is not restricted by intellectual property restrictions and share the information with the world.
According to the Army, early research shows that the Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle (SpFn) vaccine, developed by scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, can “provide broad protection” against COVID-19 and future variants. The SpFn vaccine must still undergo Phase 2 and 3 of human trials, but if it proves successful, distributing the new vaccine around the globe could be a game-changer in the fight against the COVID pandemic.
Image: U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Anthony Nelson Jr./Department of Defense via AP
Developed over nearly two years, the vaccine promises efficacy against all variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as previous SARS viruses.
Most importantly, the Walter Reed vaccine is being developed directly by public agencies, so there won’t be the same intellectual property issues involved in sharing it as there are with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.”
The Independent/UK
James Cromwell: ‘We must speak truth to power – that’s where change comes from’
(Ryan Rogers)
James Cromwell: ‘When you reach a certain age, you have everything taken away from you’
The ‘Babe’ and ‘Succession’ star talks to Adam White about his romantic new role and the importance of continuing to fight against the forces that infantilise older people
“In a conversation that covers everything from politics to pigs to protest, Cromwell’s adoration for weepy British reality shows is a mere aside. But it also gets to the root of him. While he’s played dreadful people before – the corrupt police chief in LA Confidential, a Nazi doctor in American Horror Story: Asylum – he is most often associated with morality, goodness, or gently telling a talking hog, “That’ll do, pig.”
Off camera, whether protesting for animal rights or leading anti-capitalist sit-ins, he is capable only of empathy for society’s most vulnerable. He also sports a kind of eternal youth, an older man still seeing the world through innocent eyes. “To me, I’m 19,” he jokes. “I still make the same 19-year-old mistakes. Hopefully not as many, but just about. Those same dreams and desires still inform everything that I do. And for a funny-looking six-foot-six guy, I haven’t done too badly.”
Cromwell is calling from the log cabin in upstate New York that he shares with his wife, Anna. She owns 13 acres of land, all of which is currently blanketed in winter snow. Cromwell’s brother-in-law lives next door with his family, and performs most of the legwork around the property. “He cuts down the trees and ploughs the meadow, and I just sit here and get fed,” he chuckles.
There is a pragmatism to the way that Cromwell talks about death. He broaches the subject often, unfussily, as if it would be pointless not to acknowledge that it’s nearer than it used to be. But it also feels jarring at times. Cromwell is still visibly passionate about the work he has to do, and his face still bears the twinkly wisdom that made him so endearing in Babe.
Cromwell also liked what Never Too Late [his new film] says about elderly people – who, he says, regardless of their individual capabilities, tend to be infantilised by society and shut off from the world. “When you reach a certain age, they say, ‘That’s it, you’re finished, don’t drive a car, we don’t want to see you any more.’ You have everything taken away from you, and you don’t exist in the world as a viable entity.” He waves his finger at his camera. “Unless you give something back to yourself. You’re still alive, you’re still learning. You can still contribute, you can still make a difference, you can still inspire. And what else is there?”
He was touring the American South with a theatre troupe at the peak of the Sixties civil rights movement, and then got involved with anti-war activism in the Seventies. His work in guerilla theatre – protest plays often performed in public and without permission from the authorities – saw him cross paths with Black Panthers, anti-capitalists, and those opposing sexism, homophobia, nuclear power and environmental cruelty.
“I can’t say I’m a revolutionary because that would mean total commitment. But I’m on the cusp, and my time will come when my voice is required again and my presence will make a difference.” Before we say goodbye, he delivers one last soliloquy down the camera lens – the consummate performer. “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he bellows. “We must rage against the dying of the light!”
Full article; he speaks about his role on Succession and how he helped the creator expand and deepen the part, as well as his activism and the climate crisis.
February 2022 Monthly Forecast
“DISCIPLINE”
Hang in there…..be patient…..wait for right timing…..stay in your own lane.
“This month is all about taking your commitments to the next level of responsible action, staying out of other people’s drama, and trusting the integrity of your intentions to manifest the perfect opportunities when the timing is right. Welcome to the year of the water tiger!
The month starts right out with somewhat glitchy challenges testing our flexibility, will, and resilience for sudden changes manifesting in small setbacks or new opportunities. A new moon in Aquarius on January 31/February 1 sets a stage where anything can happen. Preparedness requires the discipline of staying positive and in your truth no matter what. You can go down the rabbit hole of feeling irritated, self-deprecating, impatient with yourself and others, or simply critical and judgmental about everything. Or, you can be disciplined about being your best self; optimistic, generous, kind, compassionate, accepting, and in gratitude. Not everyone will have this outlook on life, so it is best if part of your discipline this month includes being discerning about where and whom you spend time with.
The distractions of drama, addictive behaviors, overthinking, ambivalence, obsession, blame, and wishing it were different than it is, are all part of ego’s determination to keep you from moving forward into the opportunities you can create for yourself. The discipline is much about not listening to the negative voice that wishes to keep you small and limited. The discipline is also about staying on the path, doing your inner work and persevering in your spiritual practices, self-care and personal growth. By this time, we all know what we need to do to make progress. This month we can engage the discipline needed to follow through.
Discipline is not always fun. We resist it especially when it comes from the outside. This month you will have the opportunity to become your own authority and to activate your own inner discipline guided by personal truth and authentic motivation. You can make it more fun by seeing it as a game to be played between ego and essence. Who will win? Discipline yourself to experience awe and wonder at the eccentricity of life, and to be inspired to engage your creativity in new ways, driven more by your intuition than by the rational mind.
As the water tiger launches a need for action, ready to pounce and leap into the next step, the discipline will be to wait for right timing with patience and to think before you leap. Be spontaneous but not impulsive and give the need for action an outlet through physical movement and disciplined practices.
The third chakra is activated this month as the will to manifest something takes hold. We are all weary of being held back, thwarted in our plans, and more than ready to move forward. Watch Impatience as it can easily turn to Martyrdom if you leap into something before the timing is right.
Finding the balance between being and doing, giving and receiving, masculine and feminine, will and receptivity, generosity and gratitude, and determination and flexibility, is an important factor in navigating the month. Too much of one or the other can cause you to feel off center and irritated. Observe with conscious presence what is affecting you and how. It could be the expectations of others, your own fears, or a misguided sense of responsibility that is throwing you off balance. This is where staying in your own lane becomes a necessary discipline as well as the art of listening to your intuition.”
[Full forecast at powerpath.com]
“Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. CREATE WHATEVER CAUSES A REVOLUTION IN YOUR HEART.”
-Elizabeth Gilbert
[Thank you for posting, Dr. Charity Dean. -dayle]