1/ Gannet(USA TODAY)/NewMedia sealed a billion dollar merger at the end of 2019 making it the largest corporate chain of local newspapers in the country, and its controlled by a few hedge funds. 🧵

nytimes.com/2019/11/19/bus…
2/ The merger was facilitated by Apollo Global Mgt and the first thing they did was to plan layoffs for journalism staffs, which had already been decimated by cuts over the last two decades as the internet has rapidly replaced print news in profitability.

latimes.com/business/story…
3/ New Media was owned by SoftBank, a Japanese owned investment firm with what seemed at the time to be a pretty soft spot for Trump, and an eagerness to aggressively expand it's direct foreign investments in the U.S.

niemanlab.org/2017/02/newson…
4/ NewMedia has a reputation for decimating journalism and turning news outlets into...well whatever you want to call it. In an 11 page memo, the Journalists/Writers Union called it a bad deal.

newsguild.org/mediaguild3/wp…
5/ Apollo Global Management is the company that financed the billion-dollar merger(buyout). In the last 5 years, their investments in media have been very large...but most surprising was their aquisition of Constellis(#EricPrince #Blackwater)

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Gl…
6/ Earlier this year, Apollo Global's founder Leon Black resigned after it was discovered he had given rapist/human trafficker Jeffery Epstein at least $158 million dollars.

theguardian.com/us-news/2021/m…
7/ Making things even murkier was the connections to the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, largest individual donor to the GOP. He didn't like the Las Vegas Journal covering a court case, so he just bought the newspaper. It worked.

businessinsider.com/the-editor-of-…
8/ Gannet sealed a nearly $500 million deal to advertise sports books. A pretty sweet deal for everyone...except for the newspapers themselves, journalists, taxpayers(yes), sports, sports fans, readers, advertisers, athletes...

#OperationOrangeJuice

seekingalpha.com/article/446146…
9/ I'm sure the casino people would never use the credibility of a newspaper to lie about betting odds.

🙄

espn.com/chalk/story/_/…
10/ So what will become of the news then, are we to see the same kind of abuse of the public trust that Sinclair Media engaged in when they did their mass apology across their TONS of local news stations?

#FakeNews
#OperationAvalanche
11/ With Bryan @BWilliams quitting @MSNBC, Chris Wallace moving to @CNN, and publications like the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times all sliding to the right, the distortive effect has already been measured.

allsides.com/blog/how-does-…
12/ In innocent little 'ol Florida, the coordinated and staggeringly dishonest coverage of Mom's For Liberty with a top-down professional political operation has already become apparent.

#OperationOrangeJuice
#MomsForLobotomy
13/ And wouldn't you know it, #BrevardCounty's Tina Descovich, co-founder of Mom's For Liberty is like best buds with State Rep. Randy Fine...a FKN CASINO GUY!

#OperationIvy
#MomsForLobotomy
14/ And for me, this is the kicker. Gannett was formed from the success of @FloridaToday, a local newspaper birthed right here in #BrevardCounty, grew into @USATODAY, and eventually a fortune 500 company. Guaranteed Al Neuharth is rolling in his grave.

adage.com/article/media/…
/15 I have been lucky to have been a guest columnist with Florida Today, and despite these cuts and perditions, vulture-capitalists bastardizing their good name, they are still winning awards and producing excellent writing and journalism.

google.com/amp/s/amp.flor…

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More from @Matt_Fleming321

19 Dec
1/ What is Moms For Liberty? 🧵

This new REPUBLICAN group started in #Brevard County, FL. They spread across the country(like COVID), calling themselves "non-partisan" and "grassroots", they are neither. Last week, they formed 4 large PACs. Let's dive in!

#OperationAvalanche ImageImage
2/ FACT: The Republican agenda IS to privatize public education, and put that tax money into their own private piggy banks. They have already taken several steps down that road, and that's not an exaggeration.

newrepublic.com/article/163817…
3/ Matt Gaetz sponsored a bill in 2017 that would have completely elimated the U.S. Department of Education @usedgov

#Wokened
#OperationOrangeJuice
thepulsepensacola.com/2017/02/gaetz-…
Read 33 tweets
19 Dec
1/🧵Tiffany Justice may not be as well connected with these political circles, but she is right down the road, and had her share of scandals. She is the current spokesperson for the Moms, probably bc she doesn't have the same kind of hiding financial connections as the other 2. ImageImage
2/ Her tenure as a school board member was marked by several scandals, accusations of an affair with the superintendent, and abuse of her office. She even tried to have someone criminally prosecuted for gossip.

veronews.com/2020/06/04/jus…
3/ Of course her political views were generally racist, papered over with pretend Christianity like the KKK does, and she again overstepped her bounds in trying to control a committee that was set up for parents to help close racial achievement gaps.

veronews.com/2018/03/08/ind…
Read 5 tweets
19 Dec
1🧵/ Bridget Ziegler is a current school board member in Sarasota County, FL. She has stepped aside in her role with the Moms probably b/c of the conflict of interest with her job as a school board member, running for re-election.

vice.com/en/article/k78… ImageImageImage
2/ Also in Sarasota is traitor Mike Flynn, racist State Sen. Joe Gruters, Chair of The RPOF, the #CyberNinjas who did the #Fraudit in AZ, and the founder of the MAGA Patriot Party.

3/ Some excellent research on Joe Gruters Chair of #RPOF, Christian Ziegler(Bridget's husband, and Vice Chair of RPOF), and the scummy world of political financing they all dwell in, by @gal_suburban 🍻

Read 6 tweets
19 Dec
1/🧵 Tina Descovich is the ringleader of the "#MomsForLiberty" circus. She is a former school board member in #Brevard, and she was defeated by #JenniferJenkins for her seat in 2020. The same Jennifer Jenkins who State Rep Randy Fine is being investigated for threatening. ImageImageImageImage
2/ The "small office" she claims to work out of is also home to many other interesting things, including an org she had with the other founding "mom", Bridget Ziegler, over 2 years ago. ImageImageImageImage
3/ Before she was a school board member, her website says she was a marketing/PR/HR professional who has close ties to the defense industry. With Randy Fine, we can add casinos to that list.

Playing russian roulette with kids' lives during #Covid makes a little more sense now. ImageImage
Read 7 tweets
18 Dec
News you can use. Scroll down under this tweet to see today's collection of things I found interesting. Try not to laugh...

December 18, 2020.
Derelict?

He incited the mob with lies, he invited the mob to D.C., he encouraged the mob and they became angry, he directed the mob and they marched to the capitol. And he had lots of help. That's not dereliction, thats insurrection.

Read 8 tweets

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