The once-principled group issues P.R.-scripted excuses or engages in obfuscation to avoid taking stances that would offend its liberal donor base -- even if it means ignoring a censorship and free speech crisis.
Like so many left-liberal media outlets and activist groups, ACLU was financially struggling until Trump and the #Resistance movement he spawned enriched them. So they are now captive to that donor base: one that cares not about civil liberties (they oppose those) but liberalism.
So even as anti-establishment leftists - along with right-wing voices - are increasingly targeted by Silicon Valley monopolistic censorship, @ACLU is purposely hiding from online censorship debates because establishment liberals support tech censorship.
Given the atrocity of poor countries not being able to afford vaccine as their population dies, it's worth remembering what Lula did with HIV medications: constantly threaten to break the patent to get lower prices, then broke it to make generic pills:
Lula's threats and then patent-breaking provoked fury and threats of WTO retaliation, but he wasn't willing to watch Brazilians die of a disease for which rich countries had effective treatments. To this day, Brazil provides free HIV medicine to all people with that disease.
I'm not saying India or Brazil or anyone else should do this with the COVID vaccine. The retaliation is real for countries which do it. But there's something uniquely horrible about watching humans die of a disease for which effective vaccines have been created.
In the U.S. corporate media, the surest way to advance is to loyally spread lies and deceit from the U.S. security state. Jeffrey Goldberg and Ken Dilanian are perfect mascots for this perverse reward and incentive system. CNN's newest hire is just the latest example.
Bertrand was no ordinary Russiagate fanatic. There was no conspiracy theory too unhinged for her to promote. So she joins CNN's stable of former operatives of the US security state whose propagandistic scripts she loyally peddles. *That* is the US media:
Good morning to everyone from the brave and brilliant @rosemcgowan, who liberals turned into a hero until they realized they couldn't control her, just like they do to anyone who doesn't fully submit to Party orthodoxies (read about Cindy Sheehan to see that playbook):
For those who don't recall, Cindy Sheehan became a liberal/media hero after her son, Casey, was killed in the Iraq War & she valiantly hounded George Bush & Dick Cheney. But then she did this and they declared her crazy & bad: don't hear from her anymore:
There's a reason this is the person who gave birth to the current form of MSNBC liberal politics, rhetoric, and mentality, including hand-picking @maddow. @KeithOlbermann remains important solely as a museum to understand where and how it all started:
Very excited to launch our freelance program today at Substack -- "Outside Voices" -- where we'll be regularly publishing new writers and some established ones to do independent reporting and commentary for freelance pay competitive with large outlets:
Our debut article is by @lwoodhouse, reporting on the abuse of anti-free-speech laws to target various activists as "domestic terrorists" on both right and left, with a focus on how this repressive model is being weaponized against animal rights activists
"This dismal [War on Terror] history should be an obvious cautionary tale about the hazards of enhancing the state’s power to surveil and prosecute people for politically motivated acts. But in the wake of the Capitol Riot, progressives have gained an appetite for more."
The primary cope on which corporate journalists are now relying to demean and minimize Substack is it mostly only has opinion-writers and not those who do "real reporting." No matter how times they repeat it, it won't become true, though may be soothing.
In all the attempts by corporate journalists to nervously grapple with the success of Substack, the one thing you'll almost never see is any self-critique. The taboo question is why have so many people lost both trust & interest in these big media institutions? Think-piece that.
There's this bizarre paradox that the corporate media employees who love most to decree who does and doesn't do "real reporting" have never themselves broken any big stories, while those they try to malign as mere opinion writers repeatedly have. Such a desperate inversion.
" Francisco J. Diaz, the medical examiner, said the autopsy found no evidence the 42-year-old officer suffered an allergic reaction to chemical irritants, which Diaz said would have caused Sicknick’s throat to quickly seize."
"Diaz also said there was no evidence of internal or external injuries....Diaz said he could not comment on whether Sicknick had a preexisting medical condition, citing privacy laws."