November 19, 2024
I started writing a post last week about President-Elect Donald Trump working on building his cabinet (Editor’s note: More of a junk drawer, amirite? *rimshot*) and just kinda fizzled out. The truth was, I didn’t want to write about it. I still don’t, really, so that post is remaining in my Drafts folder for now.
A significant part of the issue was me questioning what I was doing here. Reposting the news? If people want to know what’s going on, well, they can watch/read the news themselves. They don’t need me to chew it up and regurgitate it back to them. And then I came across a couple of news stories that are more about the news than anything else.
First up was a story about a neo-Nazi march that happened in Columbus, Ohio, last weekend. This story, on its own, is a bad enough event, showcasing that racists are feeling emboldened after Trump’s electoral victory. The story was touched on by CNN’s Dana Bash on air yesterday, as she spoke with a representative from Ohio. She stated, “We don’t know what side of the aisle this comes from. I mean, typically, neo-Nazis are from the far right. You had protests from the far left at your house as a Jewish member…” So one of the most mainstream and middle-of-the-road news organizations just used “both-sides-ism” on Nazis. Cool, cool.
Then, there was the story about Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. The MSNBC couple who host Morning Joe together took a trip to Mar-a-Lago last Friday to meet with the President-Elect. According to them, they were there as “reporters” to “do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but talking with him.” They also happily noted that the once-and-future-president “seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues,” but neglected to give many more details about the conversation. Not surprisingly, the pair is getting flayed on social media for their overly friendly and fawning segment — from both the left and the right, with veteran media critic Jeff Jarvis stating that the meeting was a “betrayal of their colleagues, democracy, and us all. It is a disgusting show of obeisance in advance.” And this from a news network that is generally seen as on the political left.
So that brings me to the last bit of news-about-the-news that I wanted to share. A friend of mine passed along a link to an aggregator of independent media, with the comment, “When Trump’s FCC starts revoking licenses for ‘liberal media’ … it’ll be the mainstream outlets like CNN/ABC/MSNBC. The only watchdogs left will be these smaller nonprofits. So might as well add them to your arsenal now.” The list, created by independent journalist Brendan Conley, describes itself as “more than 300 independent, community-based, member- and audience-supported, nonprofit, not-for-profit, cooperative, and social justice oriented news publications, primarily based in the United States and Canada.” As we move forward into the next four years, I strongly encourage anyone who cares about news media and independent journalism to look into this:
So with that, I’ll turn my internal question around to you, my friends and readers. How should I proceed? What do you need? What are you looking for when you click on a link to Zoidland? Please let me know either in the comments below, on social media, or contact me privately. And thank you all for being who you are.
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