The Chompsky Weekly #74
In which Van Gogh's painting is fine, calm down.
Hello!
This summer was a great time for me to join the journalism industry proper:
Bron Maher at Press Gazette reports that journalist redundancies are “rising in the UK, US and Ireland as publishers brace for a recession.”
Over in Australia, PIJI’s latest Australian News Data Report holds a mirror to our situation, showing the news sector has “experienced the third largest market contraction within a single quarter since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
“The sector’s volatility has extended well beyond the first closure of non-essential businesses in March 2020 […] the news industry remains vulnerable to external shocks” - in particular, the sharp rise in printing costs which has led to “at least 11 news mastheads across the country explicitly or implicitly closed due to price increases […] Many of these closed outlets were regional and remote.”
In other news, yes, I’m really enjoying my regional journalism job while it lasts, thanks.
It’s Saturday 15 Oct, 2022
Media News
Just a week after the first phone hacking case against the Daily Mail was launched, another has arrived: against the Sun. Murdoch and his executives always claimed a ‘few bad apples’ defence, isolated within the now-shuttered News of the World, and denied use of illegality to obtain stories at its other British red-top. (The Guardian)
A report by Meta has detailed a “months-long” Russian fake news campaign spread throughout Facebook and Twitter. Several stories mocked up as though originating from outlets such as the Guardian and Der Spiegel promoted doubt of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and warning about natural gas shortages. These were “an extensive Russian influence operation to promote the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine that targeted people across the European Union and U.K.” [Image below] (Politico)
Liz Truss held a car-crash press conference in which she announced the sacking of Kwarteng as Chancellor and a policy U-turn, answering only 4 questions from journalists before a swift exit. She left the room to demands for apology by journalists. Reports from both left- and right-leaning press were disdainful. (The Guardian)
Just Stop Oil supporters threw tomato soup at Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ painting, hanging in the National Gallery, attracting a huge amount of attention to their cause. After glueing on to the wall beneath the soup-drenched frame, one of the young people asked: “What is worth more: art or life?”, anticipating the immediate outrage that followed. The painting was covered by a glass panel and was not damaged. The two young women have been charged with “causing criminal damage to the frame”. (BBC)
The Wall Street Journal [a Murdoch-owned paper] reports that Murdoch is “exploring” the idea of re-merging parent corporations Fox Corp., which owns Fox News and a number of local TV stations and streaming service Tubi, and News Corp., under which sit his UK papers and publisher HarperCollins, after splitting them in 2013. (WSJ)
Turkey has announced a new ‘disinformation’ law that will result in up to 3 years jail time for anyone found guilty of spreading “false information on the country’s security, public order or welfare” online. President Erdoğan has been widely criticised for cracking down on press freedom, with the country ranking among the worst in the world by press freedom monitors. (Bloomberg)
After a year-long investigation, Google is facing an anti-trust lawsuit from the EU. The company’s ad business which, with sales of more than $100bn last year, accounts for 80% of company revenue has an “unfair advantage over rivals” due to its dominance over multiple facets of the online ad industry. If the lawsuit succeeds, it will be Google’s fourth billion-euro fine. (Reuters)
Channel 4 has bought a number of artworks by “problematic” people such as Hitler, Picasso and Rolf Harris for “Jimmy Carr Destroys Art”, a televised debate about separating art from the artist. Director of programming Ian Katz says the show demonstrates Channel 4’s dedication to taking risks. (The Guardian)
Alex Jones has been ordered to pay almost $1 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims for a years-long hoax campaign that the tragedy was “faked” by parents. (Reuters)
1 in 3 children lie about their age to open social media accounts that let them access adult content, says new data from online/broadcast regulator Ofcom. (BBC)
CNN has shut down its ‘Vault by CNN’ NFT project after just a year. Collectors who spent thousands of dollars of ‘minted collectibles’ have accused them of a “rug pull”. (The Verge)
Ofcom is investigating GB News for a second time for its COVID vaccine coverage, after they broadcast an interview with author Naomi Wolf who claimed the vaccines are part of an effort to “to destroy British civil society”. (The Guardian)
VICE has published portions from Kanye West’s interview with Tucker Carlson that had been removed by Fox News, in which he makes bizarre conspiratorial and anti-Semitic claims. West rants about “fake children” that had been placed in his house to “sexualise [his] kids”. West’s claim that he has been vaccinated, something Carlson has railed against on his show, was also edited out. (Motherboard)
In a memo to employees, America’s largest news publisher Gannett has announced numerous austerity measures, such as cutting employer pension contributions and voluntary redundancy. (@BenMullin)
Adnan Syed, whose mishandled murder conviction formed the basis of the first ‘blockbuster podcast’ Serial, has been released from prison after charges were unceremoniously dropped by Baltimore authorities on the basis of DNA evidence. (NBC)
Graham Norton gave an interview at the Cheltenham Literature Festival this week in which he claimed that John Cleese and JK Rowling’s complaints, via their still-huge platforms, of being ‘canceled’ was use of the “wrong word […] the word should be ‘accountability’”. He noted also that being asked for his opinion on trans issues was inappropriate, questioning why the bulk of the public discourse did not include requests for comment from trans people themselves. (Yahoo)
Campaigns + Content
BREAKING: UK learns to read the news!
The government has recently closed a round of funding for media literacy campaigns in the UK, signaling that the country is taking the problem of disinformation - by trolls if not oligarchs and editors - more seriously. Media literacy also features in the government’s new (if problematic) Online Safety Bill.
This in-depth solutions feature by the BBC claims that Finland has found the key to fighting fake news:
“The Finnish school system is the cornerstone of the fight against fake news. Critical thinking and media literacy have been part of the curriculum for a very long time.”
US midterm elections: Does Finland have the answer to fake news?
Helen Pidd profiles the now-jailed online stalker and former BBC local DJ Alex Belfield, who harassed Jeremy Vine and other presenters for a decade. He leveraged the alt-right ecosystem, including collaboration with Katie Hopkins, to bolster his profile and carry out his disturbing harrassment campaigns:
‘I love you, and there’s nothing you can do about it’: will jail silence Jeremy Vine’s stalker?
Numerous podcasters (including unionised staff from Parcast and Gimlet, as seen in last week’s newsletter) have complained about Spotify’s shelling-out of their shows. They claim the company is paywalling, refusing to market, and then dropping shows - citing low audience numbers. Podcast reporter Skye Pillsbury tracks the fall of Gimlet, one-time NYC darling, now ‘sidelined’ by its own parent company:
Your one laugh for the week:
See you next week.
Love.Eliz