Thread by @AlanRMacLeod

[Thread] 2019 was the year I moved away from academia and "became a journalist". So here are some of the highlights.

My most read stories were on the worrying trend of presenting horrible dystopic stories as uplifting "perserverance porn" @FAIRmediawatch
fair.org/home/media-jus…

@FAIRmediawatch I also wrote one for @guardianopinion on how out of touch media see nothing wrong with poor Americans using dog insulin or fish antibiotics instead of proper healthcare.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion Venezuela is still a big topic for me. Read this rundown on how the media manufactures consent for regime change in the country by suppressing alt opinions. It was commissioned by a leading liberal outlet then bosses ironically killed it. @venanalysis

venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14314

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis Earlier this year I became a staff writer at @MintPressNews. One of my first longforms was on how vampiric corporations are literally harvesting the blood of America's poor reaping enormous profits.

I think some of my best writing.

mintpressnews.com/harvesting-blo…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews In April I wrote for @FAIRmediawatch watch about how the word "dictator" is reserved in media for enemies of the US government- whether they're dictators or not- and never used for "our" bad guys.

fair.org/home/dictator-…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews I've gotten a chance to interview a lot of interesting people this year. Here is me and @_whitneywebb for @MintPressNews talking to @yashalevine about the secret military history of the Internet, and how it was never as free and open as we think it was.

mintpressnews.com/mintcast-inter…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine In April I wrote for @FAIRmediawatch on how corporate media are dead against you having free healthcare (#M4A), and will tell you anything in order to stop you believing you can have it.

fair.org/home/corporate…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine This really goes along with a generalized anti-@BernieSanders media war that has been going on. See my November piece on the #BernieBlackout

mintpressnews.com/bernieblackout…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders I also wrote about the factcheckers' war on Sanders for @TheCanaryGlobal

thecanary.co/us/us-analysis…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal One of the best things about working at @MintPressNews is being able to write long form deep dives into subjects. I went back into the @nytimes archives and found they've supported virtually every US-backed coup in history.

mintpressnews.com/long-history-n…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes In September I published a study about how 98% of the time the word "oligarch" is used in our media, it is to describe Russian or ex-Soviet bloc countries. Our oligarchs are called "businessmen" or even "philanthropists"

fair.org/home/russia-ha…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes On that topic, I explored the negative role Bill Gates plays in the world for @MintPressNews. He isn't a philanthropist, he's a menace to society who, despite supposedly giving his money away, keeps getting vastly richer.

mintpressnews.com/faux-generosit…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes This piece in @FAIRmediawatch discussing Bill Maher may also have been the most controversial– and widest read– article I wrote this year.

fair.org/home/the-phony…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes Hey! Did you know one of Twitter's executives is an active UK military officer in its online propaganda batallion? Probably not because the media ignored the story.

fair.org/home/media-ign…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes That is except @Tareq_Haddad, who also spectacularly quit Newsweek, but not before a tell all interview with me where he laid out the enormous pressure to conform journalists are under and government penetration of his newsrom.

mintpressnews.com/newsweek-journ…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes @Tareq_Haddad Another big study I did this year was on the worldwide protests, and how the media has ignored most of them to focus on one: Hong Kong.

E.G. There were 737 @nytimes and @CNN articles on Hong Kong, 50x more than the much bloodier Haiti protests.

fair.org/home/with-peop…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes @Tareq_Haddad @CNN This month I wrote about how big weapons companies and banks saw their shareprice rocket after Boris Johnson's election victory. Thank God the military industrial complex is safe from the threat of a pacifist Prime Minister.

mintpressnews.com/uk-weapons-man…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes @Tareq_Haddad @CNN I've been published in a lot of great places this year: @NewStatesman, @guardianopinion, @jacobinmag, @Salon etc. Here's my first @TheGrayzoneNews article on how journalists admitted planting fake news stories about Venezuela in the media.

thegrayzone.com/2019/12/09/sex…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes @Tareq_Haddad @CNN @NewStatesman @jacobinmag @Salon @TheGrayzoneNews Earlier this year I wrote in the @AHTribune about the fake news coming out of Venezuela about humanitarian aid, something the @nytimes was later forced to admit.

ahtribune.com/world/americas…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes @Tareq_Haddad @CNN @NewStatesman @jacobinmag @Salon @TheGrayzoneNews @AHTribune And just this week I wrote about how the Venezuelan military who defected to the US-backed coup attempt and fled to America after it failed have been locked up in ICE concentration camps for 8 months since!

mintpressnews.com/pro-coup-venez…

@FAIRmediawatch @guardianopinion @venanalysis @MintPressNews @_whitneywebb @yashalevine @BernieSanders @TheCanaryGlobal @nytimes @Tareq_Haddad @CNN @NewStatesman @jacobinmag @Salon @TheGrayzoneNews @AHTribune All in all, it has been quite a journalistic 2019. Here's to a better 2020!