Media Manipulation

A report co-published by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the MIT Center for Civic Media finds that conservatives have scant reason to complain about news coverage.

We document that the majority of mainstream media coverage was negative for both candidates, but largely followed [Fuckface von Clownstick's] agenda: when reporting on Hillary Clinton, coverage primarily focused on the various scandals related to the Clinton Foundation and emails. When focused on [Fuckface], major substantive issues, primarily immigration, were prominent. Indeed, immigration emerged as a central issue in the campaign and served as a defining issue for the [von Clownstick] campaign.

Eric Alterman:

What’s going on here is that conservatives are winning a war that liberals, centrists and, indeed, anyone who believes that politics should be tethered to recognizable reality don’t even know they are fighting. Racism and Islamophobia from outlets like Breitbart and the lunatic ravings of Infowars’ Alex Jones — which somehow make even Breitbart appear relatively reasonable — drove the news coverage of the election even in our most prestigious outlets. Twitter and Facebook were dominated by phony stories designed to discredit Clinton, and cable news, in its ceaseless quest for ratings and the advertising dollars that follow them, reinforced these priorities, allowing [von Clownstick] surrogates to lie with impunity and without correction.

Update (October 30):  While constantly derided as "fake news", Media Matters demonstrates how CNN actually enables von Clownstick's agenda.

[I]f CNN is truly worried about the sort of people who tell you that an apple is really a banana, the network should deal with the stable of pundits it has hired to provide viewers with knee-jerk defenses of the president. Those ... apologists -- some of whom were previously on [Fuckface's] payroll -- actively harm CNN’s journalism, frequently bringing panel discussions to a screeching halt with claims so dishonest they approach parody, at times drawing on-air rebukes from the network’s anchors. The pundits force the network to constantly debate whether the apple is really a banana.

Update (November 4):  Get ready for a surge of propaganda through Sinclair Broadcasting's centralized control of local news.

Update (November 12):  Steven Rosenfeld says social media propaganda is here to stay.

Update (November 24):  Rick Gell argues that cable news doesn't spend enough time on crucial issues. Meanwhile, the FCC is attacking free speech with a proposal to end net neutrality.

Update (November 29):  Pam Vogel has a list of cities Sinclair is expanding into.

Update (December 9):  Jacob Sugarman documents the hostile, right-wing takeover of media outlets.

Update (December 19):  Sinclair requires their stations to broadcast pro-von Clownstick propaganda from former aide Boris Epshteyn.