I’m thinking about organizing a simple crowd source project. Sort of like #StopRush did, volunteers in 25 markets would record (on one spreadsheet), all the topics covered by the broadcast news networks. We need to see just how bad this news-skew situation really is.
When I was younger, and far more naïve, I would think “leave that job to the journalists.”
Chuh, we know better now, eh?
Media pundits watch cable products, which are a poor reflection on what most Americans are seeing on local news. This is yet another crisis we won’t be talking about while “journalists” like @jmartinNYT are using their access to enrich themselves rather than inform us.
If you miss my context, Martin used the new journalism standard of sitting on top of information (the McCarthy tapes) that might have impacted our general welfare, until it could be used to sell a book. And too many of his peers applaud him for it, or worse; envy him.
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Sorry about the length. I didn’t have time to keep it brief.
Okay, so if Jack is on the level with his
new-agey ruminations about Musk’s intent, then part of Musk’s global town square rhetoric is probably predicated on @jack’s vision for @bluesky, where Twitter becomes the global utility
“pipeline” that it always should have been, relying on open #fediverse concepts
@jack@bluesky and/or protocols (present and future).
If that is even close to the case, then Musk’s acquisition of Twitter may be a blessing in disguise, because that’s where Twitter always should have been going in the first place (and presumably, had been heading), and this
There is another thing to consider here. @elonmusk is not wrong that Twitter should be a paragon of free speech. Most sensible people agree with that. He just doesn’t understand yet how hard it is to regulate speech of any kind when there are 100s of millions of
@elonmusk users and activity that must “scale.” But by pretending he does, he forces the rest of us to confront just where we are. Has it really been helpful to bifurcate into a red and blue online universe? Or into those “on twitter,” or those banished to fringe (but
@elonmusk growing) networks like “Gab, Parler, TrumpSocial, 8chan, etc.?” Has it served society to have millions of these craven, power mad crackpots talking only to each other, while the rest of us occasionally mock them from afar, but don’t ever engage them directly
I realize this won’t be a popular view, but Musk may be doing humanity a favor. We’ve been largely sidestepping the question of “permissible speech” and how it’s enforced for many years. If we really believe in it, it’s time we define it better, and how we enforce
it. As I listen to many liberals, I hear an illiberal shift toward less speech. I personally never thought speech was our problem. It’s private ownership of mass media that can exert significant control over it that matters more than what permissible content is.
Choosing fuzzy, largely undefined “less speech” is popular with many, right up until you broach that old thorny issue of “who decides” what less speech looks like? That’s when things always get ugly. It’s easier when you have a large public mandate, as post-war
Anyone who watched @MattGaetz snickering at the MTG heading today, must understand that there is no bottom for these Republicans. None. In this respect, they are just like Putin. There is no way they will ever return to “normal” politics, and there is no way we can
@mattgaetz survive as a nation with this ongoing level of crazy where pluralistic governance is basically impossible? We are simply no longer a functional Republic. We are pretending that we are. And we are treading water until Republicans return to power and prove that
@mattgaetz we’re not. Perhaps we’ll surprise ourselves and stop them from retaking Congress. But I sure am not betting on that.
So what changes anything? Your favorite Twitter accounts cannot tell you. Our pundits and politicians can’t tell you. So who will tell you—and
We’re all enjoying the MTG fails, but saying “I don’t recall” rarely hurts. It’s not going to win this. They need evidence, and while I may have missed something, but I haven’t seen or heard of much that can’t be labeled political speech. I never thought they’d prevail.
PS. I really hope I am wrong, but I doubt that will be the case. It’s not that she didn’t want to promote the event. But that doesn’t show intent to engage in insurrection.
Once again, our good and evil Constitution protects a LOT of speech. Speech that empowers the bad guys as often (or more often) than the good guys.
Sadly, Greg, as you know, many of us don’t need to hear this. But your boss does, as do the bosses of your peers throughout the media, who , but for some trite sloganeering on their banners, have been ignoring them for years. Until the national morning and local
TV news start discussing these matters, nothing is going to penetrate the dysfunctional public mind of his foundering country. Until the @LesterHoltNBC’s, @GayleKing’s, and @NorahODonnell’s get green-lighted by their networks to even mention these things more than
@LesterHoltNBC@GayleKing@NorahODonnell in passing they will never rise to the level of daily mentions necessary to trigger or impact a national discourse on these matters, so urgent to the survival of the American experiment. An experiment that is about to die in the lab unless and until we can get