🍉 Dr. Thrasher 🔻 Profile picture
Aug 26, 2019 14 tweets 13 min read Read on X
1/x Short thread on why all journalists ought to read @BernieSanders' (very good) @CJR essay: "we do not have enough real journalism in America right now is because many outlets are being gutted by the same forces of greed that are pillaging our economy. " cjr.org/opinion/bernie…
@BernieSanders @CJR 2/x For awhile, I've been saying journalists need to reckon with the fact that ***IF*** we want to practice journalism professionally and full time w the resources needed, we must create the economic conditions for journalism to exist in U.S. society
@BernieSanders @CJR 3/x This means giving up the idea of "objectivity" (itself a lie) & instead embracing that journalists have a LONG history of subjectively embracing trying to create/bolster a society which they think will allow journalism to flourish.

I.E...
@BernieSanders @CJR 4/x ...major journalists and news outlets have long supported the U.S. military (abroad & at home), police departments, business & industry under the naive belief that a (so-called) "free market" & American Democracy™️ were needed for a "free press" to exist.

However...
@BernieSanders @CJR 5/x...this is misguided on two fronts.

1. Many journos who support the US military/police STILL cling to a fiction of objectivity. (What they really support is the status quo of a certain race/class/nationality)

2. The voracious "free market" depends on an ever weaker press
@BernieSanders @CJR 6/x How can anyone argue a "free market" allows for a free press?

San Francisco is one of the densest concentrations of wealth the world has ever seen.

It's mainstream press? GUTTED.

It's alt-weekly press? GUTTED.

slate.com/culture/2015/0…
@BernieSanders @CJR 7/x Press in NYC, a global center of finance, is still going but is constantly under assault.

There is no lack of capital sloshing around.

There is a lack of will for it to be shared in projects which benefit the many, such as journalism—and @BernieSanders outlines this well.
@BernieSanders @CJR 8/x Journalists cannot rely upon the benevolence of oligarchs to keep the presses churning & the servers streaming; as I wrote a couple weeks ago, @nbj914 was doing wonders w @PacificStand. Patrons can—and do—pull out anytime.
@BernieSanders @CJR @nbj914 @PacificStand 9/x The Intercept, funded by a billionaire, had cut backs...at a moment when a pub based in the US and Brazil could not be in need of more, not less, robust coverage.

Journalism as a profession needs to push for the economic conditions to exist...

cjr.org/business_of_ne…
@BernieSanders @CJR @nbj914 @PacificStand 10/x And why should the profession be afraid of embracing a political/econ agenda for it to exist? Many other (more nefarious) professions have no compunction about trying to create an environment in which they can survive.

Journalists already form unions, have trade groups...
@BernieSanders @CJR @nbj914 @PacificStand 11/x Journalism would do well—like coal, oil & corn—to demand all POTUS candidates give a detailed plan like @BernieSanders' of how the profession will do under their administration...which would require a society w decent wages, affordable housing & breathable air FOR journos
@BernieSanders @CJR @nbj914 @PacificStand 12/x As 2020 nears, if journos don't try to create a society in which they themselves (& the profession) can exist, then they themselves (& the profession) will be relegated to more consolidation, less autonomy & less freedom—as @BernieSanders outlines cjr.org/opinion/bernie…
@BernieSanders @CJR @nbj914 @PacificStand 13/x Too many journalism fix schemes involve, "Let's see if we can hack/disrupt within the current, ever more dystopian, militaristic, economic horror show."

But what if such crumbs aren't enough & journalism needs...

needs...

an economically fair society in order to exist?

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with 🍉 Dr. Thrasher 🔻

🍉 Dr. Thrasher 🔻 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @thrasherxy

Mar 22
I have been getting really angry at liberals lately. I am not wholly sure why, but it has something to do with feeling gaslit when they pretend like verifiable truths aren't true, in (likely vain) the hopes Biden will stay in power because it benefits them, if almost no one else.
It is provably true that 2.5 as many people have died of Covid under Biden than under Trump, even tho the latter had the vaccines & the former did not. And it's true that death by genocide, record homelessness, and this latest ban on gay pride flags happened under Biden.
Liberals pretend like this simply isn't true, or that it doesn't matter. But it is true, so either a) it doesn't matter to them that Biden has done these things or b) they don't think he could control them. But if he can't control it, then c), it doesn't matter who is president.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 22
There is a video of an Israeli drone that is so disturbing, it is worse than the most horrifying, torture porn scene Hollywood could ever imagine. I can't fathom the terror of the last man killed, hunted after seeing his friends blown up, knowing the end is coming. But selfishly—
what I find equally is terrifying is that there isn't an elected Democrat in Washington, or federal spokesperson, who will condemn it. It could be narrated in all its horrors and Matt Miller or Kirby or Jean-Pierre will look bored and say, "Yeah, so what?"
They won't condemn it. They don't mind it. It's coming here! Even liberal San Francisco voters just gave their police department the right to use drones! Every horrifying thing we have seen in Israel, every depraved act of SAW-like torture used on Palestinians, it's coming here.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 9
The list Biden supporters want voter to overlook is getting long:

— "killed by an illegal"

— Record deportations

— 900,000 dead from Covid (2,000+ more every week)

— 30,000 murdered in Gaza, 2 mil starving

— Record (Black & other) ppl killed by police

— Record homelessness
—No minimum wage increase

— End of Roe w/o federal abortion protections

— Record rent burdens

— Dismantling of Covid safety net

— Record number of gas & oil leases

— Widely popular Medicare for All dead on arrival

— Failure on student debt relief

—Record household debt
— End of science guiding CDC

— Increased politicization of federal public health policy

— Failure to upgrade ventilation

— Record pentagon budget

— rapid post-Covid-relief child poverty

—13% of Americans food insecure

—record criminalization of homlessness
Read 5 tweets
Mar 1
I've said this a few times these past months: I will never be the same after seeing the tank flattened human, the child without a head, the lynched baby girl hanging from the building, the child turned into soup carried in a plastic bag by their screaming father, the girl
wither her intestines gushing out, that other child without a head, the screams that gave me nigtmares from the first nights of bombing (back when there buildings), the rotting decomposing bodies, the splayed women in the streets who's been shot next to a dead mule, the ziptied
and blindfolded men found inside trash bags, Montaser's swollen eye feeding cats after everyone in his family had been killed (before he was killed), the girl have her leg amulputated by her dad without anesthetic on the dining room table, the screaming wife beating chest
Read 9 tweets
Mar 1
There are a few ways I think queer theory can be helpful in thinking about Aaron Bushnell. This isn't about his sexuality or an abstract thread on philosophy. But as an AIDS and queer studies scholar, I see various stories where queer theory might help some readers. This is one.
First, "family": queer theory developed in the early shadow of AIDS, when LGBTQ ppl have no legal connection to each other. Lovers & friends were often shut out of being able to speak about the deceased, whom they know better than the dead's (often estranged) family of origin.
Queer theory helps us to accept that we do not only have to listen to the family of origin of someone when they die. Other relationships are just as legitimate. Friends, lovers and co-workers are just as valid as narrators of the dead as family of origin.
Read 17 tweets
Feb 23
1. So, I looked up the cop who killed himself and the first person he ever arrested, Tabitha "Tabby" Smith, and the way his memorial page uses cop imagery but doesn't mention he KILLED A WOMAN AND HIMSELF while texting is something to behold...Let's read it closely...
A cop car with dancing snow, a photo og a man, "beloved husband" and the words "In loving memory of Robert John "RJ" Leonard Jr, April 27, 1988 to Feburary 15, 2024
First, notice it says "Upon completing the police academy, he became a deputy sheriff at the Meigs County Sheriff’s Department, where he instantly became part of the family. He truly loved his brothers and sisters in blue." But what's missing here?...   Robert John “R.J.” Leonard, Jr., age 35, of Decatur, formerly of Hannibal, NY, unexpectedly passed away on Thursday, February 15, 2024.    R.J. did construction for most of his life, until recently moving to Tennessee to pursue his dream of becoming a police officer. Upon completing the police academy, he became a deputy sheriff at the Meigs County Sheriff’s Department, where he instantly became part of the family. He truly loved his brothers and sisters in blue. He also loved sports, especially football (Go Eagles), boating, fishing, and the outdoors, but most of all he loved spending ti...
Missing is that HE KILLED HIMSELF & THE FIRST PERSON HE ARRESTED TEXTING WHILE DRIVING! But there's room to say "He also loved sports, especially football (Go Eagles), boating, fishing"—!!!HE DROWNED A WOMAN!—"& the outdoors, but most of all he loved spending time w his family."
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(