Killing the news: Sadly, the newspaper where I first wrote about 60 years ago became one of the latest victims of a vulture hedge fund. The Litchfield Independent Review will end its almost-150-year run this month, alone with the Hutchinson Leader and seven other Minnesota local newspapers. They are not alone. Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism reports on the devastating losses of small-town newspapers over the past two decades:
“Since 2005, the country has lost almost a third of its newspapers — 2,886 — and today has only 6,005 survivors, including 4,792 weeklies, or nondailies, that are often the sole source of news and information in their communities. North and South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota lost the most newspapers per capita between 2005 and 2023. All but a handful were weeklies.”
NPR reported a couple of years ago on what happens when hedge fund “investors” buy newspapers. Alden is the hedge fund that acquired and is now closing these nine Minnesota newspapers, and also owns the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
“Research shows that when local newspapers disappear or are dramatically gutted, communities tend to see lower voter turnout, increased polarization, a general erosion of civic engagement and an environment in which misinformation and conspiracy theories can spread more easily. …
“Coppins describes Alden as a specific type of firm: a “vulture hedge fund.” It has figured out how to make a profit by driving newspapers into the ground, he says, since Alden’s aim is not to make them into long-term sustainable businesses but rather maximize profits quickly to show it has made a winning investment.”
Election lies are growing faster than Pinocchio’s nose, boosted by Elon Musk and Twitter:
“Musk promoted a post from @EndWokeness, a popular account that promotes bigoted conspiracy theories, that claimed to have uncovered “data” showing that hundreds of thousands of “illegals” have registered to vote since the start of 2024. Musk shared @EndWokeness’ post with his 170 million followers and called it ‘extremely concerning.’”
But the “data” is completely false. Just one example: the bullshit post says that 1,250,710 new voters have registered in Texas during 2024 using only Social Security numbers, and that is evidence of “illegals” voting. First, the Texas Secretary of State says the total number of new voters in 2024 is 57,711. That is less than five percent of the bogus number touted by Musk and @EndWokeness. And the smaller number includes people who registered with driver’s licenses, not Social Security numbers. Second—well, for the second, third, and more reasons this is an absurd lie, just go and read Judd Legum’s Popular Information post. And become a subscriber, to help them keep on debunking the election lies.
Besides spreading election lies, Musk and his right-wing buddies among state attorneys general are harassing Media Matters for reporting on them. The Media Matters reporting that outraged the fascists was “a story by senior investigative reporter Eric Hananoki showing screenshots of explicitly pro-Nazi content on the site next to ads from major corporations like Apple, Xfinity, IBM, and Oracle.”
These lawsuits will inevitably be dismissed on First Amendment freedom of the press grounds, but fighting them takes hundreds of thousands of dollars and huge amounts of staff time that nonprofit news organizations cannot afford. Even more importantly, the abusive lawsuits stop reporting by journalists and media operations that cannot afford to incur the wrath of the right wing. And that hurts all of us.
Public Notice has a detailed explanation of exactly how the attack on Media Matters has been orchestrated in Texas and Missouri, and how Media Matters has responded by stopping its reporting on Musk—because they cannot afford to defend more baseless lawsuits.
Elon Musk also sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a research group that documented the upsurge in hate speech on Twitter. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit as “so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech.’
From Elon Musk to the master of lies: Trump claims that the U.S. economy is “a cesspool.” In fact, the U.S. economy is performing better than those of other developed countries, with inflation sharply down from 2022, low unemployment, and increasing job growth.
He also claims that January 6 defendants are “hostages” and “patriots” and promises to free those held in D.C. In fact, 27 of the 29 January 6 defendants held in D.C. have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officer in the attack, and 10 have already been convicted or pled guilty. Just Security debunks these outrageous claims:
“The January 6th D.C. inmates’ assaults on law enforcement include some of the most disturbing acts of violence at the U.S. Capitol. One convicted felon helped lead the assault on police guarding the Capitol’s external security perimeter, an ‘attack [that] paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds.’ Another inmate allegedly threw ‘an explosive device that detonated upon at least 25 officers,’ causing some of the officers to temporarily lose their hearing. ‘For many other officers that were interviewed,’ an FBI Special Agent’s statement of facts reads, ‘it was the most memorable event that day.’ Other January 6th inmates held in D.C.: ‘viciously ripped off’ an Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer’s mask; assaulted officers ‘with an electro-shock device;’ allegedly sprayed multiple police officers with a pepper spray; ‘struck an MPD officer with a long wooden pole multiple times;’ and allegedly used a ‘crutch and a metal pole’ as ‘bludgeoning weapons or projectiles against’ a ‘line of law enforcement officers.’ Still others assaulted officers with their fists, stolen riot shields, makeshift weapons or in other ways.”
Meanwhile, China also is stepping up its U.S. election attacks.
“Some of the Chinese accounts impersonate fervent Trump fans, including one on X that purported to be ‘a father, husband and son’ who was ‘MAGA all the way!!’ The accounts mocked Mr. Biden’s age and shared fake images of him in a prison jumpsuit, or claimed that Mr. Biden was a Satanist pedophile while promoting Mr. Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan. …
“Ms. Thomas and other researchers have linked the new activity to a long-running network of accounts connected with the Chinese government known as Spamouflage. Several of the accounts they detailed previously posted pro-Beijing content in Mandarin — only to resurface in recent months under the guise of real Americans writing in English.”
Trump’s dangerous foreign adventures: Trump sends Richard Grenell around the world, as his foreign policy envoy—an unprecedented attempt by a presidential candidate to interfere in U.S. foreign affairs. He has recently interfered in the peaceful transition of power in Guatemala, repeatedly visited the Balkans as Trump’s “special envoy,” and worked on business deals in Serbia and Albania with Jared Kushner. The Guardian reported:
“’There are many aspects to what Grenell is doing,’ said Joe Cirincione, a veteran Washington foreign policy and arms control specialist. ‘One is grift, looking for business deals, particularly in Serbia, where Trump has longstanding business interests and Trump seems to be helping him pursue this.
“’Another is more sinister. It looks as though Grenell is trying to build up a developing authoritarian network of rightwing leaders to form this authoritarian axis that Trump might govern by – ranging from Putin to [Viktor] Orbán [prime minister of Hungary] to Erdoğan.”
Trump himself has been in conversation with Mohammed bin Salman, the murderous Saudi crown prince. Like the shenanigans of his “envoy,” Trump’s conversations interfere in U.S. government relations with the country and are likely linked to his business operations.
“Former President Donald J. Trump spoke recently with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, their first publicly disclosed conversation since Mr. Trump left office in January 2021, according to two people briefed on the discussion who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. …
“[N]ews of their discussion comes at a time when the Biden administration is engaged in delicate negotiations with the Saudis aimed at establishing a lasting peace in the Middle East, building on diplomatic ties between Israel and a number of Arab states forged through the work of the Trump administration. …
“Mr. Trump has other reasons to maintain warm relations with Prince Mohammed. The former president and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and former senior White House adviser, established close ties with the crown prince while in office and have capitalized on that good will in their private businesses since leaving government.”
Then there’s Trump’s frequent praise of ultra-right Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán. Orbán is more than another right-wing Trump ally. Heather Cox Richardson noted the continuing closeness between Orbán and Trump and CPAC:
“’We cannot ignore it when the Speaker of Hungary’s National Assembly asserts that Putin’s war in Ukraine is actually ‘led by the United States,’” [U.S. Ambassador David] Pressman said. “We cannot ignore a sitting minister referring to the United States as a corpse whose nails continue to grow. We can neither understand nor accept the Prime Minister identifying the United States as a ‘top adversary’ of our Ally, Hungary. Or his assertion that the United States government is trying to overthrow the Hungarian government—literally, to ‘defeat’ him.” …
“The ambassador called out Orbán’s ‘systematic takeover of independent media,’ the use of government power to ‘provide favorable treatment for companies owned by party leaders or their families, in-laws, or old friends,’ and law defending ‘a single party’s effort to monopolize public discourse.’ …
“Pressman called out Orbán for his open support for Trump—Orbán visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week and has repeatedly expressed his hope that he will be returned to the White House—and his active participation in U.S. partisan political events.”
Ken Paxton seems to have nine political lives. After beating back an impeachment attempt by the Republican-controlled legislature, he has once again managed to get rid of criminal charges by the expedient of a plea bargain without a plea.
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton skated again, getting an agreement from prosecutors to dismiss felony charges if he pays restitution of $271,000, does 100 hours of community service, and takes 15 hours of legal ethics classes. Prosecutors did not require him to actually enter a guilty plea to the felony charges. This smarmy deal follows his acquittal by Republican legislators in an impeachment trial. Still pending: an FBI investigation into corruption allegations and a state whistleblower lawsuit by former aides.”
Call him Kevlar Ken, the Texas Observer says, in an article the felony security fraud charges, the failed impeachment, the continuing whistleblower lawsuit, and an ongoing FBI investigation.
Mary Turck
News Day 