Last week, I happened to glance over at the newspaper rack at my local grocery store. It’s been 3-4 years since I stopped reading the local paper. But as a journalist and former newspaper editor and publisher, I can’t help be a little curious about what’s on the front page.
Thank you for writing this. We haven't had a functioning media in this country for a long, long time, which is why I appreciate your reporting as well as that of others in the new media. Yes, it's hard to know where to start, what to believe, who to trust. It's also time consuming. But a government of the people, by the people, and for the people requires the people to be informed and engaged. We got ourselves into this mess, so we'll have to get ourselves out of it.
I read that article too and I agree. It was a moronic liberal opinion peice. But, really, I was elated to see that they are no longer able to ignore us and they are not even making fun of us. They are just whining about "misinformation" and it is weak. The truth will still crawl out from underneath that pile of crap they keep spewing.
The roots to all this "woke" think go all the way back more than 50 years, in my personal experience.
I took a journalism class at UMKC (c. 1971), taught by a senior editor of the Kansas City Star, who almost immediately began teaching his class (very large, full of hopeful future "journalists") to basically lie by inventing facts, spinning the "narrative," and other dishonest yellow "journalism" type things.
Needless to say, being a stickler for the truth at age 20 (and a male) that didn't set well with me, so I quit that class and, only many years later, struck out on my own to publish, edit and write my own newspaper in a rural Texas county (my exposés of the local Ku Klux Klannish sheriffs were not received well by many locals, and a systematic campaign against myself, my family, etc., with complicit and lawless local courts involved, led to a faux "conviction" and prison sentence for a year, back in 2006).
Even here in "conservative" Florida the local rags all get their "news" leads from AP mainly, and the opinion page editors select mainly letters from other liberals, or "conservatives" who can easily be seen as mindless or confused, along with editorial cartoons from the ultra liberal such as (my former college roommate) Monte Wolverton, for instance.
Thankfully there are still alternative sources, such as Substack, where a far better quality of real journalism yet survives, to poke a stick in the eye, and take away revenue streams from all those pretend "journalists" and "editors."
Well I hope that my very woke, free local paper hangs on a while longer. I pick up 5-6 copies/week to line the bottom of my aviary. I don't even bother with the crossword puzzle any more.
The entire MSM apparatus is engaged 24/7 in what could described as the "controlled demolition" of "reality" itself. At this point it is clear that most American's know almost nothing about the actual 'real world' in which events occur before those events are "spun" into propaganda blurbs by journalists such as those referenced in this post. Instead of analysis we get Orwellian mantras: "War is Peace, Follow the Science, Love is Hate, Trans-women are Women, Ignorance is Strength, Safe & Effective."
The people of whom you speak are cultists. Instead of being educated in school and learning to be free and critical thinkers, they were indoctrinated with leftist political dogma and slogans.
Your story reminds me a bit of what Sally Bedell Smith wrote about Hillary:
"Her subordinates - who called her 'The Big Girl' or later 'Big Mama' and wore badges saying 'Hillaryland' - had a starry-eyed devotion that was almost cult-like.
"One of Hillary's friends said: 'They were all afraid to say no to her.' "
In For Love of Politics (2007), Smith writes:
"Hillary’s aides congregated on the OEOB [Old Executive Office Building], where the atmosphere had the distinct feel of a sorority. The First Lady had never supervised a staff before the campaign, when she bonded with the small group of women in 'Hillaryland,' which was both a state of mind and a geographical space. This cadre expanded so much in the White House – to roughly thirty people – that she had more senior officials than the Vice President. Only one man served on her staff, press aide Neel Lattimore. Hillary called her advisors 'upbeat, optimistic, positive problem-solvers, and they were all fiercely loyal, tight-lipped, and so brimming with esprit de corps that they wore special 'Hillaryland' lapel pins.
"Hillary’s top assistants – Maggie Williams, Evelyn Lieberman, and Melanne Verveer – were liberal stalwarts and close contemporaries who had worked for the Children’s Defense Fund and People for the American Way. The rest of Hillary’s aides were overwhelmingly young, and their starry-eyed devotion was almost cultlike…"
And the people you describe were all probably ecstatic when Rihanna grabbed her crotch and sniffed her fingers last Sunday.
You have captured our situation and depicted it with photographic realism. Thanks especially for letting readers who are interested in real journalism know where to find it.
Yeah, sadly, this generation seems permanently stuck in middle school years where everyone must look the same, think the same, do the same and scorn everyone who doesn't fall in line. For the world's sake, I hope one day they "grow up".
There is no concept of truth in any MSM. It’s all narrative if it doesn’t fit the narrative it’s not ever going to be reported on. The racist in Wisconsin that mowed down people at a Christmas parade. Never to be seen in the MSM again. We can all state many examples
"Spout misinformation." Sounds a lot like "debunked" or "conspiracy theories." Or, as is often the case, the truth. The obedience fetish is especially strong with Covid, vaccine injuries, and Jan. 6. Great column, Margaret.
Yes I have the same concern why is that it is mostly young white liberal women that think this way and obey blindly what the media says? In Manhattan that is all you see and hear and In the inner cities you don't see young Hispanic or even black women blindly obey even they have there own issues.
I do think it’s a young woman issue.. but I see it a little more in terms of a hive mentality. These girls above all want to fit in. They want approval. You see it in the women who are out there promoting gender changes in their children. It’s an evil sort of mindless “ virtue signaling” that says .. look I’m one of the cool kids now. Everyone should listen to me because I’m the expert here .. I’m the victim, my kids a victim and I have something to say. 🙄The end result is the same. No one is allowed to disagree.
And the quality of the writing… ack! Misplaced modifiers, use of quotation marks where there ought to be italics or underlines (as in book titles, even the Epoch Times does this).
Thank you for writing this. We haven't had a functioning media in this country for a long, long time, which is why I appreciate your reporting as well as that of others in the new media. Yes, it's hard to know where to start, what to believe, who to trust. It's also time consuming. But a government of the people, by the people, and for the people requires the people to be informed and engaged. We got ourselves into this mess, so we'll have to get ourselves out of it.
I read that article too and I agree. It was a moronic liberal opinion peice. But, really, I was elated to see that they are no longer able to ignore us and they are not even making fun of us. They are just whining about "misinformation" and it is weak. The truth will still crawl out from underneath that pile of crap they keep spewing.
Insightful assessment - thank you.
The roots to all this "woke" think go all the way back more than 50 years, in my personal experience.
I took a journalism class at UMKC (c. 1971), taught by a senior editor of the Kansas City Star, who almost immediately began teaching his class (very large, full of hopeful future "journalists") to basically lie by inventing facts, spinning the "narrative," and other dishonest yellow "journalism" type things.
Needless to say, being a stickler for the truth at age 20 (and a male) that didn't set well with me, so I quit that class and, only many years later, struck out on my own to publish, edit and write my own newspaper in a rural Texas county (my exposés of the local Ku Klux Klannish sheriffs were not received well by many locals, and a systematic campaign against myself, my family, etc., with complicit and lawless local courts involved, led to a faux "conviction" and prison sentence for a year, back in 2006).
Even here in "conservative" Florida the local rags all get their "news" leads from AP mainly, and the opinion page editors select mainly letters from other liberals, or "conservatives" who can easily be seen as mindless or confused, along with editorial cartoons from the ultra liberal such as (my former college roommate) Monte Wolverton, for instance.
Thankfully there are still alternative sources, such as Substack, where a far better quality of real journalism yet survives, to poke a stick in the eye, and take away revenue streams from all those pretend "journalists" and "editors."
Well I hope that my very woke, free local paper hangs on a while longer. I pick up 5-6 copies/week to line the bottom of my aviary. I don't even bother with the crossword puzzle any more.
The entire MSM apparatus is engaged 24/7 in what could described as the "controlled demolition" of "reality" itself. At this point it is clear that most American's know almost nothing about the actual 'real world' in which events occur before those events are "spun" into propaganda blurbs by journalists such as those referenced in this post. Instead of analysis we get Orwellian mantras: "War is Peace, Follow the Science, Love is Hate, Trans-women are Women, Ignorance is Strength, Safe & Effective."
The people of whom you speak are cultists. Instead of being educated in school and learning to be free and critical thinkers, they were indoctrinated with leftist political dogma and slogans.
Your story reminds me a bit of what Sally Bedell Smith wrote about Hillary:
"Her subordinates - who called her 'The Big Girl' or later 'Big Mama' and wore badges saying 'Hillaryland' - had a starry-eyed devotion that was almost cult-like.
"One of Hillary's friends said: 'They were all afraid to say no to her.' "
In For Love of Politics (2007), Smith writes:
"Hillary’s aides congregated on the OEOB [Old Executive Office Building], where the atmosphere had the distinct feel of a sorority. The First Lady had never supervised a staff before the campaign, when she bonded with the small group of women in 'Hillaryland,' which was both a state of mind and a geographical space. This cadre expanded so much in the White House – to roughly thirty people – that she had more senior officials than the Vice President. Only one man served on her staff, press aide Neel Lattimore. Hillary called her advisors 'upbeat, optimistic, positive problem-solvers, and they were all fiercely loyal, tight-lipped, and so brimming with esprit de corps that they wore special 'Hillaryland' lapel pins.
"Hillary’s top assistants – Maggie Williams, Evelyn Lieberman, and Melanne Verveer – were liberal stalwarts and close contemporaries who had worked for the Children’s Defense Fund and People for the American Way. The rest of Hillary’s aides were overwhelmingly young, and their starry-eyed devotion was almost cultlike…"
And the people you describe were all probably ecstatic when Rihanna grabbed her crotch and sniffed her fingers last Sunday.
You have captured our situation and depicted it with photographic realism. Thanks especially for letting readers who are interested in real journalism know where to find it.
Yeah, sadly, this generation seems permanently stuck in middle school years where everyone must look the same, think the same, do the same and scorn everyone who doesn't fall in line. For the world's sake, I hope one day they "grow up".
There is no concept of truth in any MSM. It’s all narrative if it doesn’t fit the narrative it’s not ever going to be reported on. The racist in Wisconsin that mowed down people at a Christmas parade. Never to be seen in the MSM again. We can all state many examples
"Spout misinformation." Sounds a lot like "debunked" or "conspiracy theories." Or, as is often the case, the truth. The obedience fetish is especially strong with Covid, vaccine injuries, and Jan. 6. Great column, Margaret.
Yup. Exactly.
Margaret...don't worry about this publication--USA Today Network--all woke liberal and progressives. The Palm Beach Post belongs to this...yuck!
Yes I have the same concern why is that it is mostly young white liberal women that think this way and obey blindly what the media says? In Manhattan that is all you see and hear and In the inner cities you don't see young Hispanic or even black women blindly obey even they have there own issues.
I do think it’s a young woman issue.. but I see it a little more in terms of a hive mentality. These girls above all want to fit in. They want approval. You see it in the women who are out there promoting gender changes in their children. It’s an evil sort of mindless “ virtue signaling” that says .. look I’m one of the cool kids now. Everyone should listen to me because I’m the expert here .. I’m the victim, my kids a victim and I have something to say. 🙄The end result is the same. No one is allowed to disagree.
And the quality of the writing… ack! Misplaced modifiers, use of quotation marks where there ought to be italics or underlines (as in book titles, even the Epoch Times does this).
But yes, where are the truth seekers???