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Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
@equalityAlec
Dec 12, 2021 • 16 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
THREAD. I noticed something fascinating: many of the reporters concocting the new hysteria over "retail theft" are using the *exact same* words and patterns in each story. It's pretty wild. Let's take a look:
Let's use today's dangerous @chicagotribune article as an example. First thing to notice: who does the newspaper choose to use as sources? Here they are in chronological order: chicagotribune.com/business/ct-bi…
1. CEO of local retail lobby
2. National Retail Federation
3. Police
4. CEO of state retail lobby (5 paras!)
5. CEO of World Business Chicago
6. Pres. of restaurant lobby
7. CEO of Illnois Hotel lobby (7 paras!)
8. New hotel CEO (6 paras!)
9. CEO from earlier (7 more paras!)
Does this look familiar? Check out the sources in the very similar recent @AP article about "brazen" San Francisco "retail theft."
It's weird, but both those article source lists look eerily similar to what the New York Times published!
I cannot stress this enough: when you see articles like this, ask yourself: Why is this news? How did it get to the reporters? What is the goal of the article? How did they choose which voices to quote and which to ignore? Who benefits?
Next, did you notice that this article continues the pattern of the same exact words and phrases as other similar recent articles across outlets?

"brazen"
"organized crime"
"flash mob"
"smash and grab."

How is this happening?
One thing that many casual news readers don't know is that articles, and the specific words used in them, are often carefully crafted by expensive corporate marketing consultants. It's something wealthy business groups pay a lot of money for.
There is a big marketing industry for corporations and cops that teaches them to use the same words and phrases when they pitch journalists. It's not a coincidence that different journalists are all using same words, and those words were carefully chosen by wealthy people.
This is intentional, and it subtly changes the way we think. For example, the slick phrase "smash and grab" is pure marketing. It's vague, scary, and hard to fact check. Such theft is likely close to 0% of retail thefts, but it's all we're talking about. What does it even mean?
The result of all of this is a public massively distracted from far more important issues. Did you know that these same corporations engage in wage theft every day that dwarf all other property crime combined? Read this whole thread:
We must help each other become more critical consumers of the news, and we must hold journalists accountable for the role they are playing in scaring the public into deeply destructive human caging policies that crush poor people.
UPDATE: it’s especially interesting to compare the breathless Chicago tribune reporting with actual facts:
I hope the reporter @RobertChannick will publicly explain how he got this story idea. Who came to you? What was the pitch? Why did you decide it was “news,” and how did you decide on the sources you chose? It’s important to have these discussions publicly.
If you want more depth, I’ve written a longer piece about the massive and profitable bureaucracy behind these narratives, using hundreds of examples. yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-puni…
UPDATE: I'm wondering why @RobertChannick didn't mention same retail sources have ongoing federal lobbying campaign re:"brazen" theft. Many poor people will be caged b/c of the hysteria reporters are stoking, all collateral damage for a corporate campaign?

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More from @equalityAlec

Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
May 4
THREAD. Last night, the White House quietly sent out a press release notifying reporters that Biden would be seeking $37 billion for, among other things, 100,000 new cops. This is one of the most dangerous developments imaginable.
We are living at a time of rising authoritarianism. The situation is very precarious. Biden thinks this will make people vote for him over Trump. He's wrong. It will hurt him. And create fear and build narrative and physical infrastructure for fascism. theguardian.com/politics/2024/…
I'm going to list out what high level Democrats acknowledge in private but never say in public about what they know these cops will do. The vast bulk of these cops will go toward:
Read 11 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
May 1
The violence is being perpetrated *by pro-Israel mobs* and *police.* It’s all on video. Look how New York Times describes it—trying to convey falsely that it is people protesting peacefully against genocide.
Image
Image
How institutions like media, universities, legal system bureaucrats, etc behave now—whether they choose fascism or justice—will go a long way toward whether semblance of democratic life survives in our society. So far, NYT is walking us into the sea.
This is what the newspaper was describing above:
Read 7 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
Apr 26
As we see police in dozens of cities beating philosophy professors, tackling economics scholars, body slamming Fox camera people, and putting chains on 100s of students singing songs and enjoying seder, it's important to see that these are not a few bad apples.
What we are seeing is one of the primary functions of armed government bureaucrats. Police enforce *some* laws against *some* people at *some* times in *some* places
Each eruption of police crushing a progressive social movement--whether womens' suffrage, civil rights, LGBTQ, environmental, labor, anti-war--is a chance to educate people about why elites care so much about having expansive concentrations of government weaponry + surveillance.
Read 4 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
Apr 15
During one of my investigations early in my career, I met a Black teenager who was ticketed for sagging his pants (which was made illegal where he lived). He couldn't afford the ticket, so a judge and a prosecutor approved his arrest, and he was put in a cage.
Several hundred thousand people are jailed every year in the United States because they can't pay various court debts. This is actually a significant fraction of what municipal courts do, and a huge part of the job of police and prosecutors.
The people who talk about police violence, but frame the problem as one of "bad apples" don't want people thinking about the everyday violence all around us--the violence that has become so normal that many people live their lives without even noticing that it is there.
Read 4 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
Apr 8
THREAD. One of the most nefarious forms of copaganda is the "authoritarianism is actually what marginalized people want" trope. Here we are told Black people want the military to come into their community rather than, say, free medical care, housing, and guaranteed income. Image
Liberal elite opinion punditry is awash in this nonsense. It's similar to French propaganda in colonial Algeria and South African elite commentary during apartheid. And all share something in common: it works best when members who identify with the group make the argument.
The overall goal of commentary like this is to constantly *manage* the results of unjustifiable inequality with state repression rather than to make our society more equal.
Read 9 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
Mar 21
THREAD. Across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of children have been banned from visiting their parents who are awaiting trial in local jails. Why? A conspiracy to make money. We just filed two landmark civil rights lawsuits to stop it, but the story is unbelievable.
The lawsuits allege that Sheriffs banned family visits as part of a conspiracy with kickbacks from the multi-billion dollar jail telecom industry on the theory that they could all make money on expensive phone and video calls if families couldn’t visit their loved ones for free.
Children have a right to hug their parents, hold their hand, and look into their eyes. It's one of the basic liberties that the government cannot take away. And yet, most people in U.S. don't know that their local sheriff and a few private equity-owned companies are doing this.
Read 7 tweets

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