The Chompsky Weekly #70
In which climate death is more important than the Queen's (RIP).
Hello,
Very much overshadowed by other news, the 21st anniversary of 9/11 is today.
Last year, I pulled together a bunch of research and interviews around the extensive video footage captured on that day, and the media and conspiracy narratives that followed.
I’m proud of it, so I’m sharing it here again:
Oh and, also overshadowed by other news, we’re all about to enter a new era of pain, unless we, you know, demand that something change:
It’s Sunday September 11th, 2022
Media News
Liz Truss is reportedly planning to “dilute” the incoming Online Safety Bill. Free speech concerns had been expressed from both left and right over wording in the bill saying speech that was “legal but harmful” must be addressed. Truss says “tweaks” are needed to protect free speech. (FT)
Michelle Donelan has been appointed Culture Secretary after Nadine Dorries resigned last week. Donelan has worked in television, including in marketing for Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment. PACT has sent an open letter to the Prime Minister in Dorries’ wake, asking her to halt the privatisation of Channel 4. (Variety)
The second Reach strike, a three-day walkout planned for Sep 13-15, has been postponed in light of Queen Elizabeth’s passing. In addition, a new pay offer has been made by the company to the union, and workers will vote on it next week. (Hold the Front Page)
Emily Maitlis has been highly praised, and also come under fire, for her 2022 MacTaggart lecture in which she criticised governmental influence within the BBC. She questioned the broadcaster’s apology to the government for her criticism of Dominic Cummings, and the appointment of “agent of the Conservative party” Robbie Gibb to the board. She vocalised her fears for democracy due to corporate press interference. (The Guardian)
Robert Telles, a government official in Las Vegas, has been arrested for the murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German. German had previously reported on “turmoil” in the public office that Telles oversaw. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Conservative politicians in the US have been distributing campaign adverts styled as newspapers to groups of registered voters, tailored to their community. One in Chicago is ‘titled’ the “Chicago City Wire”; one in DuPage County called the “DuPage Policy Journal” showed “two full pages of photos of men – mostly Black and Latino” whom the publication says will be released from prison because of Democratic legislation. (NBC Chicago)
California’s new budget has promised $25 million for local news fellowships. The funding will be distributed via UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2023. (Nieman Lab)
After its recent securing of $42 million in residuals from Netflix, the Writers Guild of America has done the same for its members with payments owed by Amazon. A settlement of $4 million has been agreed for 37 writers, from 31 films on Prime. WGA West said Amazon has “been systematically undervaluing imputed license fees”. (Deadline)
The Saudi and Gulf Co-operation Council, a media watchdog for Middle Eastern states, has demanded that Netflix remove all content deemed to violate "Islamic and societal values and principles". Details on violating content haven’t been given, but it’s assumed that LGBT representation is a primary target. (BBC)
Ralph Nader has launched a Washington D.C.-based print newspaper, the Capitol Hill Citizen, setting out to address the “scoop-obsessed” Washington press and the “gulag of clutter, diversion, ads, intrusions and excess abundance” of online news. “The paper’s coverage centers on the issues that Nader had devoted his career to exposing[…]: the growth of corporate influence on Capitol Hill, the steady erosion of congressional power, the perennial corruption of U.S. lawmakers and, of course, the follies and failures of the mainstream political media.” (Politico)
Workers at Conde Nast publications that don’t have their own individual unions (e.g. The New Yorker, Pitchfork) have won voluntary recognition from the company for their publisher-wide union:
Campaigns + Content
SIGN UP: to Independent Media Outlets
If you live in a British city, chances are that you have a local, independent news outlet. If you don’t, there are national and international news teams that are doing fantastic work, rebuilding a trustworthy news culture, that could do with your ongoing support.
30 minutes after the news of the Queen’s passing broke, it was reported that we are on the brink of hitting several key climate tipping points.
The ongoing minimisation of crucial news under sensational clickbait needs to stop. We can only stop this juggernaut by focusing on building alternatives.
If you’re one of my Bristol-based followers, join the Cable, the newspaper I now work with. Supporting us monthly will help us become sustainable.
There are other city outlets such as The Manchester Mill and Leicester’s Great Central Gazette, but also national and international investigative teams such as The Ferret in Scotland, and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London.
READ: The Race Class Narrative Report
A new report by CLASS shows how progressive narratives are utterly failing to compete with the hard-right’s “anti-woke” narrative. The report gives an analysis of the hard-right strategy and how it works, and offers two alternative, progressive narratives for inclusion that outperform the ‘anti-woke’ narrative in research testing.
Ellie Mae O’Hagan, the head of CLASS until recently, says that the anti-woke narrative is so strong and coherent that of 500 progressive sources tested, the research team did not find one that delivered a narrative that outperformed the current right-wing strategy. “We found Liz Truss is a key messenger” for anti-woke narratives, she added.
READ: Mic Wright’s blog is always a fun read, but particularly cutting this week as he takes on the blanket fealty clickbait response to the Queen’s death:
That’s all folks. See you next week.
Love.Eliz