The Media/Journalism Thread

[Vee]

I'm pretty sure Astead Herndon's latest meltdown (after spending most of 2025 so far tweeting about sports and ignoring Trump) raging against 'elitist Dems' and fighting with civilian accounts is against current NYT online engagement guidelines.

 

[Vee]

A good thread on the odious Alex Thompson, who finally got the book deal this week the 'boring' Biden era denied him. The only solace I have is knowing he will someday be out on his ass and out of favor again.

Today's horrific Bezos news at the Post I will leave for someone else to cover. I can only stomach so much in one day, and I have very limited mental bandwith for our current shitshow.

 

[janea4old]

screengrab of memo from Bezos

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https://x.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1894760153813275124

Jeff Stein @JStein_WaPo
Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today - makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there

I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know

 

https://bsky.app/profile/davidmaraniss.bsky.social/post/3lj3o3ozerc2df

 

Edited February 26 by janea4old

[Vee]

Astead takes another break from soccerposting for well, this:

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Someday he will be exiled to the political ash heap with the rest of the usual Bernie or Death suspects (because that's what he is; Astead used to hammer on about the 2020 primaries and was ranting again in a rare non-soccerpost last night about 'party elites' and online libs not understanding the candidate people want). Assuming we all live to see such a time, I can't wait.

[DRW50]

@Vee Thompson was also trying to play "gotcha" with some of the "centrist" Democratic accounts who had criticized him by showing them his book. I'm sure everyone is in awe of a book 3 people will buy. 

Astead is giddily retweeting the time Trump tweeted him years ago, Conor Sen is fuming over a centrist account pointing out that no one gives a [!@#$%^&*] (beyond the same Beltway figures on Twitter) about the book or his claim that Democrats are in the same place Republicans were after the Iraq War failures, etc. These people did so much to get Trump back in office and will do anything to avoid talking about the atrocities they have created.

[janea4old]

https://bsky.app/profile/propublica.org/post/3ljd3iamzc22g

ProPublica identified 95 Facebook pages that regularly post made-up headlines designed to draw engagement — and, often, stoke political divisions. The pages, most of which are managed by people overseas, have a total of more than 7.7M followers.

As Facebook Abandons Fact-Checking, It's Also Offering Bonuses for Viral Content
https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-meta-abandons-fact-checking-boosts-viral-content

 

Edited March 1 by janea4old

[janea4old]

[Vee]

[janea4old]

Here's a link for same NewYorker piece, for anyone hit by a registration/paywall thing:
https://archive.is/DIdSn

[wonderwoman1951]

i missed the news back in january that the ny times editorial page is cleaning house. here’s a free link to pamela paul’s farewell column.

i always found her an insightful voice of reason i will miss. apparently, charles blow’s recent departure was part of the shakeup, as well. 

pamela paul’s farewell column

[Vee]

 

[NothinButAttitude]

I was just coming in here to comment on this. These are some scary times with all these networks selling their souls for not only money but to appease a fascist. May this come back to bite every CEO that bowed down to him in the arse.