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[calicocatfancier]

9/27/23 My Buzzsumo Visit

My Buzzsumo search was on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The website propublica.org was the top two websites on the list.  Facebook had the highest number of engagements (143.6k), followed by X (aka Twitter 100K), Pinterest (92), and Reddit. The number of links was 1.9k, and the Evergreen score is 85.  Total engagement: 425.2K. 

[calicocatfancier]

9/20/20 Ben Meiselas, One of the Golden Boys with the MeidasTouch

Ben Meiselas is the co-founder of the MeidasTouch Network (MTN), which he started with his brothers, Brett and Jordan.  The MeidasTouch is responsible for thousands of anti-Trump videos on YouTube and other social media sites.  They have posted over 6,500,000 videos and have over 1.6 million subscribers according to YouTube.

Ben and his brothers promised to always state the truth on their MeidasTouch vids.  In the 11/28/2020 issue of the “Hollywood Reporter,” Brett stated, “We are very careful and put a lot of thought into our messaging and into everything that we create, but we also don’t sit on it for weeks to make sure that everything about it is absolutely perfect. [emphasis added].  We need to be current. We need to be provocative. We need to be truthful and on top of it and continuously get the message out.”

A Google search showed some cracks.

During the December 2020 debate between Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), a strand of her long hair appeared lighter than other strands.  Her critics claimed that this was proof that she was wearing a wire, and Ben was one of those critics.  He shared this theory with his 100,000+ followers.  The allegation was soon refuted.  

The Meiselas brothers’ transparency took another hit after an interview with Seth Hettena, a freelance writer for the Rolling Stone.  He interviewed the brothers in December 2010, and the article ran in the April 2021 issue.  The headline read, “The Trouble with MeidasTouch,” and the opening continued, “The brothers behind the breakout anti-Trump PAC are the golden boys of the #Resistance, but when ‘Rolling Stone’ took a look beneath the surface, their response turned Trumpian.”  Ouch!

Mr. Hettena continued, “The group spent more than $1 million on an advertising strategy that it calls revolutionary but campaign veterans and independent experts say is nonsensical and a more effective tool for fundraising than for helping Democrats win elections. And despite its promised transparency, MeidasTouch’s financial structure makes a dollar-for-dollar accounting of its spending impossible — and, according to a former Federal Election Commission attorney, raises some of the same legal issues that got the Trump campaign into trouble in 2020.”  That had to hurt. 

The brothers made the declaration that they had supported Democratic nominees with their money.  Mr. Hettena made the distinction that MeidasTouch were using other people’s money, not their own. 

The brothers used their platform to protest Mr. Hettena’s article in a 40-minute rant.  Among other statements, Ben declared that he doesn’t earn a salary for his work on MeidasTouch and that he has also shut down a significant portion of his law practice since Covid started.  He described Mr. Hettena as a hack freelance who wants to write a journalistic hit piece on them because of their SuperPAC status.  

Is Seth Hettena really a hack?  To find out, I did a background check on the investigative journalist.  A Google Scholar search yielded many links.  I learned that he wrote two books: Trump/Russia: A Definitive History, which documented the two world leaders’ history together.  Jane Mayer, author of “The New York Times’bestseller, Dark Money, wrote "Hettena is a first-rate reporter and wonderful story-teller, and the tale he tells here is mind-boggling.”   

Hettena clearly supports the anti-Trump rhetoric created by the Meiselas brothers, but he has a problem with their SuperPac status.  For starters, the reporter stated that after the brothers declared a six-figure advertising airtime buy, a search of invoices TV stations filed with the Federal Communications Commission shows the group spent less than $80,000 worth of donor money.

I don’t share Ben Meiselas’s opinion that Seth Hettena is a political hack.  He has written two well-received books and was endorsed by a New York Times columnist.  In addition to The Rolling Stone, Mr. Hettena has written for other reputable journals like The New Republic, and he is currently working on an expose of the CIA and Navy Seals in Iraq.  Mr. Hettena applauds the MeidasTouch Network for the good that they do.  His problem is with SuperPacs in general, an opinion he shares with many others.  The Brennan Center for Justice outlined those concerns on their website. as documented in their blog “10 Years of Super PACs Show Courts Were Wrong on Corruption Risks.

The MeidasTouch continues to air hundreds of videos per month.  The ex-president is less of a focal point in these videos as the brothers have targeted other far right Republicans as well.

As the saying goes, nobody is perfect, which clearly applies to the Meiselas brothers.  But I applaud their efforts trying to keep our nation intact.

[calicocatfancier]

10/4 Shattered Glass

1.  How could they have caught Stephen Glass earlier in what he was doing?

I think the fact-checking team allowed their admiration for Stephen to diminish their objectivity in reviewing his work.  I also believe that Stephen’s manager, Mike, should have been more like a boss and less like a friend to his staff, which he argued with his boss’s decision to make the writing staff count the commas in their magazine.  The most objective of the entire staff was Mike’s replacement, Chuck, who was the first person to realize that Stephen was bad for the magazine. 

2.  How do you feel he got away with it for so long?

Stephen was adept at making excuses for his failures.  He also had a knack for changing the topic of his oversights by making it about himself with questions like, “Are you mad at me?”

3.  Would the same situation have occurred in today's environment of so-called "fake news"?  Why or why not?

I think the same situation could happen today considering the daily barrage of pseudo news flooding our news outlets.  The result would be different, however, when the fired reporter is invited to appear on far-right news outlets as a highly paid expert/pundit..

[calicocatfancier]

9/13/23

From time to time, news about former President Barack Obama's affinity for the Hindu monkey god Hunamji surfaces.

The first news posting, along with the photo below, was in the 12/17/2008 issue of Time. However, there is no direct evidence that the hands in the photo are actually those of President Obama.

It was first reported in January 27, 2015 by ABP News based in India. The newscast was in Hindi with no English version, but the headline read "President Obama worships Lord Hanuman!" The photo below did not appear in the post.

A Google Reverse Search stated that the photo was published in Time Magazine on Dec 12, 2008, with credit going to Callie Shell/Aurora for Time. The next published occurrence I could find was in indiatimes.com nine years later on 7/5/17. The credit in the same photo was given to "inforwars.com," not infowars.com

Obama holds his sources of inspiration - maybe?

The news about Obama/Hunamanji dropped off between 2008 and 2015/2016. For reasons I cannot determine the same news made a resurgence in late September 2023. Go figure.

I am not entirely convinced that the hands in the photo are those of the former president. In the only YouTube video where I see him displaying some of his "spiritual trinkets, " a rosary was among them. However, there are no rosaries in the photo. Also, President Obama shows off a lucky metal poker chip (1:27) that does not appear in the photo.

[calicocatfancier]

Assignment 9/6

I watched a Fox & Friends newscast that aired on 10/6/23. The subject was about the exodus of Black voters fleeing the Democratic Party for the Republicans, a trend I believe has a lot of holes in it.

The premise that Blacks are leaving the Democratic Party is based on a poll by the Pew Research Group. I never put much faith in polls, especially after the 2020 Clinton/Trump presidential campaign.

So I Googled "blacks leaving the democratic party." The results showed largely conservative publications and websites, including The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Redstate.com, making the claim. These articles were all published in 2022. I haven't seen any yet published this year.

The reason given most often for the supposed GOP migration is because of soaring inflation during the Biden administration. According to factcheck.org, consumer prices had risen nearly 15.7% in July 2023. The price of gasoline also went up.

But is the White House solely responsible for the rise in prices? No, it is not. Did President Biden make some behind-the-scenes deal with American companies to push prices up? No, of course not. Am I the only person cognizant of these basic, well-established facts? I hope not! If so, this nation of ours is in big trouble!