Thread by @Shoq

HOLY FUCK! Trump is running Build the Wall commercials— on @CNN! ! With
some Rambo narrating. When in the hell did this start????

It ends with: "I'm Donald Trump and I approved this message."

I got chills. Seriously. This is coming off the rails, folks.

@CNN What matters about this ad is the context. This isn't promoting an existing program (I don't believe Obama even made an ad for ACA).

This is promoting a private interest; a personal obsession. One that he's shut down our entire govt to force us to pay for. Let that sink in.

@CNN Of course it was probably campaign money. None of that matters. What matters is that this is more evidence that this media-obsessed lunatic is pushing a private war against brown people that we're all supposed to pay for, simply because @annCoulter despises them.

@CNN @AnnCoulter And of course. That's just one of the other outrages. And one many will focus on. But to me, that's "just @CNN." But running a private PR campaign to spend our money on a @potus obsession that's he's holding 800,000 workers hostage over? That's some news right there, Skippy.

https://twitter.com/BettersMrs/status/1081787141779320832

I keep saying only full-bodied effort to punish sponsor's of networks that keep using surrogates & paid stooges as "analysts" is the answer. But there is another:

We shame liberal pundits who appear on these shows. They're building their brands at our nation's expense.

We wouldn't be missing much and it wouldn't take long for @CNN and @MSNBC to stop using these vapid proxies gish-gallloping thru fields of truculence. Their producers know it's just puppet theater and there are dozens of academics and serious pundits who could replace them.

We have to stop bitching about what these networks do and start pushing back against them much harder. Republicans have brought us to this awful place because network executives fully and openly admit they're destroying America because it's a great business doing so. Google it.

.@RichSantorum isn't paid to inform. Only to spew vapid conservative rhetotric based on nothing but the GOP talking points he read 10 minutes ago on the toilet. And any modestly-informed viewer knows it. Yet still these Faustian puppet productions go on, day after ruinous day,

But every day, someone says "we need a new Fairness Doctrine." No, that's a relic from the radio days and was never what people think it was, or did what they think it did. (Google that too). And even liberals would hate it, even if someone figured out what it would even do.

We must stop pretending silver bullets will prevent cynical media executives from deliberatly selling disinformation, acrimony and bitterness because shareholders shower them with bigger compensation. (The average big boss makes over $60 million a year destroying our discourse.)

Even modest boycott efforts (I prefer @goangelo's term ,"negative branding,") have worked. #StopRush, @slpng_giants @GrabYourWallet and others have had SOME moderating impact. But they lack scale needed to discourage programs like @TuckerCarlson's that sow discord BY DESIGN.

The wider Left ignores the obvious solution: pressure sponsors to just avoid these opinion slop-monger shows the networks pretend are serious people with serious ideas. That leaves only we the people to redress this wretched situation. Chase-off sponsors & we mitigate the slop.

I propose a new organization. Not a tax-emempt project like @Mediamatters. The moment they put on brass knuckles. the far-right shrieks at the IRS to revoke their 501(c)(3) status. So they bring sporks to the gunfight. They do a lot with sporks, but they lack the rapier's edge

We don't need one more advocacy group writing websites, Snapchats & eloquent op-eds. I envision a well-armed tactical swat team; trained rapid responders who document propaganda and lies as they happen, publish them, openly, and demand networks and/or sponsors explain them.

At the same time, this team would produce explainers & documentaries (e.g. thebrainwashingofmydad.com), and seed the national airwaves with experts and narratives that elevate everyone's awareness of what corporate & political agitprop is, how to spot it, and how we can stop it.

It would be the Left's Manhattan project, dedicated to restoring truth, integrity & accountabilty in publishing that counters the Right's projects which have openly sought the exact opposite since Lewis Powell first told them to in the 1970s (shoqvalue.com/powellmemo)

As I've mentioned this week, the always inspiring @jen_senko and I are discusssing how this idea might form. We can't do it alone. I'd prefer to NOT do it at all. I have a project with a similar goal, but a different approach, and the public speaking would literally pain me.*

(* Due to a dental bone graft gone wrong. I have a permanently and painfully numb lower-lip. No one hears or sees anything, but it literally hurts to speak after just 5 minutes. Even on the phone. This is no small reason that I've been know to tweet a lot. )

But I've waited years for someone to do this. No one steps-up, and Trumpsim run amok has been the result of this conservative assault on truth and decency by big media. All because media executives want to make a nice shareholder profit at our expense. It must end—or we will.

So, if our ongoing research and discussions tell me it's doable. and enough people step-up to say they will help fund this iniative. I will at least offer to drive the bus until better, younger, and way smarter people than me can be hired to get behind and drive.

It can't be done with chump change. @mediamatters has scores of paid staffers & an annual budget of over $12 million. But if right wing cranks can raise $15 million for a border wall no one will ever build, perhaps the Left raise enough to fund a war to reform our broken media?

The outrage most feel about this crisis is fueled every time @CNN has a @Ricksantorujm, @Corylewandowski_ or @amykremer on the air. With a real effort, each outragous things these grifters say could be used to raise more money to help punish the people paying them to say it.

Finding funds to even start raising the big money needed can't be done w/o people your help. You need to tweet this thread, discuss this idea, share it with friends, and reply with how much this kind of initiative might be worth to you, your family, and our collective futures.

If enough of you promise to chip in, we'd proceed to a real proposal and goFundMe campaign. If it can meet a seed-stage amount that can fund professional fund raisers and compensate key staff, I am willing to do this, I think @jen_senko is too (but I don't speak for her).

If you want it to happen, you can't lie back & watch. Help us build the project and find the money. Call your rich liberal Uncle Justice or Aunt Freedom and ask them to jump-start this project so we didn't have to jump over dollars to scrounge for nickels. Join this fight.

It's really not that big a problem. We've seen efforts before that prompt the media to change course. We just need to be a lot more forceful and methodical about it. We need to bring powerful weapons into this fight. While we still have enough democracy left to try.

Thanks for reading, caring, and sharing. If we stop waiting around for an unknown force or divine intervention to end this despicible state of affairs we might be the change America (and humanity) needs right now. Evil people fill the voids that the complacent leave behind.

#EndTheAgitProp #ReformTheMedia #pushBackOnBullshit #NeverAcceptTheUnacceptable #BeTheChangeYoureWaitingFor #LetsDoThis

.@warkin to @brianstelter "We're at war in 9 countries." And most people might be able to name 2 or 3, if that. That's how poorly our media does its job. But @politico can tell us all about how unlikable @ewarren is, and @ABC's @MatthewJdowd can demand apologies for namecalling

@warkin @brianstelter @politico @ewarren @ABC @matthewjdowd And here's @jaketapper with the disgusting new breed of Federal grifter, @MickMulvaneyOMB.

Count the lies that will fly right by without comment or correction. There will be many. There always are.