Thread: The End of the Media As We (Now) Know It
1) Last week I discussed what was possibly one of President Trump’s most brilliant offensive moves, his neutralizing of the left’s greatest weapon (the media) since day one of his campaign.
1) Last week I discussed what was possibly one of President Trump’s most brilliant offensive moves, his neutralizing of the left’s greatest weapon (the media) since day one of his campaign.
2) As their greatest weapon loses more power by the day with people waking up & realizing the constant attacks on President Trump are false narratives & hatred rather than news, any attempt they make at landing a strike on him has been greatly diminished.
3) But as much as a dwindling audience is harming their revenue in terms of ad dollars, there is a new battlefront, not devised by Trump but by those loyal soldiers attacked by the media simply for standing by his side, that may prove even more effective: lawsuits.
4) CNN has already had to settle their lawsuit with Nick Sandman, the MAGA teenager who was relentlessly attacked by the media for simply standing in place as he was heckled by a Native American who lied about his record in the Marine Corps.
5) The original suit was for $275 million, and although the exact price tag hasn’t been made public, it was the first chink in the armor against the Main Stream Media (MSM).
6) If you’ve never read Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday, it would be a great primer for what we’re about to watch unfold over the next year or so.
7) It tells the tale of Gawker, a trashy gossip online magazine famous for ferociously attacking celebrities, being taken down by billionaire Peter Thiel when they outed him as being gay. Thiel himself didn’t launch the lawsuit, but rather funded former wrestling superstar...
8) Hulk Hogan for his legal battle against Gawker’s overreach on his personal life.
Gawker, much like CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and many others believed that they could contort the first amendment to protect them from whatever they said, no matter how outlandish, untrue...
Gawker, much like CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and many others believed that they could contort the first amendment to protect them from whatever they said, no matter how outlandish, untrue...
9) ...or salacious. Like many businesses they had an insurance policy that would fund their legal defense if taken to court - but like all things, at some point even insurance policies run out, as did Gawker’s ability to destroy reputations for the sake of “entertainment.”
10) It will be interesting to see if history repeats itself, which is starting to seem very likely. Sandman has already settled with CNN, but has outstanding lawsuits against the Washington Post, NBC and a host of other personalities who attacked him.
11) On top of the Sandman lawsuits, California Congressman Devin Nunes has filed multiple lawsuits for those libeling & defaming him with false claims based on the Russia Hoax v1.0 and 2.0.
12) In 2019 Congressman Nunes filed suits against Twitter and “Republican” (RINO) strategist Liz Mair, McClatchy, Fusion GPS (of dossier fame), Ryan Lizza & Esquire magazine publisher Hearst, CNN and this month filed against the Washington Post.
13) Much like the suit funded by Theil & brought by Hogan against Gawker, the media put all of their faith in blanket protections afforded by the first amendment (even though they’re the first to call for an end to those same protections for conservatives)...
14) and didn’t pay attention to specific state laws (Kentucky laws, where Sandman lives, are what allowed his suit to go forward) or the specifics of libel or defamation against politicians.
15) Even if these suits aren’t allowed to go forward or are settled out of court, we can thank the shrewd business tactics of insurance companies for one inevitability: the days of fake news and “anonymous” (see: fake, made up) sources must come to an end.
16) Insurance companies take on these contracts as a matter of risk. Like a casino understanding the averages and that the house always wins in the long run, insurance companies will not write policies that are sure to lose money through massive, continuous and ongoing lawsuits.
17) As long as these media companies have insurance policies, they can be used to fund legal defenses up to the amount covered by the policy. But what happens when that policy runs out, and the media companies, already facing dwindling ad revenue, must fund those lawsuits...
18) ...out of their own pocket?
Or more importantly, what happens when insurance companies will no longer write policies for media companies who use anonymous (fake) sources?
Or more importantly, what happens when insurance companies will no longer write policies for media companies who use anonymous (fake) sources?
19) The media has been given a choice: go back to the journalistic integrity standards that used to be practiced, or be sued into oblivion.
The choice is theirs, and it seems that either one they take, the American people will win.
/End/
The choice is theirs, and it seems that either one they take, the American people will win.
/End/
@threadreaderapp unroll, please
Another battlefront:
