Welcome to the second installment of Infowarzel (now with a glorious new banner courtesy of the great John Paczkowski).
I was away without internet access for two weeks and so it took a bit of time to re-acclimate to the hellscape that is the 2017 internet (the modern internet should come with a European-style cigarette package health warning, IMO). But here's a bit of what I noticed this week.
Jeff Sessions And The #Pizzagate Defense
Wednesday's Washington Post report that Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose two previous meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during his confirmation hearings dominated MSM coverage for the rest of the week. HOW IT PLAYED: The 'Blue Detectives' on the left (understandably) re-ignited their more conspiratorial musings about the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia while the mainstream press focused on the mounting pressure from lawmakers for Sessions to recuse himself from any Russian investigations (he did).
On the far-right and in the pro-Trump media (which I've dubbed the 'Upside Down') a Sessions defense predictably kicked into high gear. Lifezette ran a traditional aggregation news story on GOP lawmakers suggesting Sessions recuse himself with a healthy pro-Sessions spin. The title: "GOP Rushes to Eat Their Own Again."
Over on Breitbart, Joel Pollack went with the old standby of calling the Sessions reports "fake news."
The key paragraph: "But it is all just more “fake news.” A chance greeting at a public event, and a Senate meeting in the course of his official duties, do not add up to anything, and the full transcript — also omitted by the Times — makes it clear Sessions told the truth."
When in doubt...pedophilia! Former Gamergate personality and alt-right blogger, Vox Day had a...um...slightly different angle on the news. Writing on his blog, he dropped the not so subtle hint that calls for Sessions recusal/resignation had a conspiratorial air about them. "At least we know who is worried about Sessions digging too deeply in the pizza," he wrote. Yep! A #Pizzagate reference. The spin here being that Sessions is planning to crack down on pedophilia and child porn and a certain group of lawmakers are scared.
The #Pizzagate defense took off and rattled around certain corners of the net. One fringe site called Victurus Libertas claimed it had info from a DHS source that:I was away without internet access for two weeks and so it took a bit of time to re-acclimate to the hellscape that is the 2017 internet (the modern internet should come with a European-style cigarette package health warning, IMO). But here's a bit of what I noticed this week.
Jeff Sessions And The #Pizzagate Defense
Wednesday's Washington Post report that Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose two previous meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during his confirmation hearings dominated MSM coverage for the rest of the week. HOW IT PLAYED: The 'Blue Detectives' on the left (understandably) re-ignited their more conspiratorial musings about the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia while the mainstream press focused on the mounting pressure from lawmakers for Sessions to recuse himself from any Russian investigations (he did).
On the far-right and in the pro-Trump media (which I've dubbed the 'Upside Down') a Sessions defense predictably kicked into high gear. Lifezette ran a traditional aggregation news story on GOP lawmakers suggesting Sessions recuse himself with a healthy pro-Sessions spin. The title: "GOP Rushes to Eat Their Own Again."
Over on Breitbart, Joel Pollack went with the old standby of calling the Sessions reports "fake news."
The key paragraph: "But it is all just more “fake news.” A chance greeting at a public event, and a Senate meeting in the course of his official duties, do not add up to anything, and the full transcript — also omitted by the Times — makes it clear Sessions told the truth."When in doubt...pedophilia! Former Gamergate personality and alt-right blogger, Vox Day had a...um...slightly different angle on the news. Writing on his blog, he dropped the not so subtle hint that calls for Sessions recusal/resignation had a conspiratorial air about them. "At least we know who is worried about Sessions digging too deeply in the pizza," he wrote. Yep! A #Pizzagate reference. The spin here being that Sessions is planning to crack down on pedophilia and child porn and a certain group of lawmakers are scared.
"There is a concerted attack on Sessions due to his zeroing in on the pedophilia scandal called Pedogate. John McCain and Lindsay Graham are secretly working with Chuck Schumer and members of the clandestine services of both US and Israel to remove Sessions, or at least stop the Pedophilia investigation in its tracks.”
New Right blogger and media personality, Mike Cernovich, noted that the original sin here is letting General Flynn resign over potential Russia ties. "We're at war with the media. when you're at war you don't give them a scalp. You don't give them a fallen soldier you don't give your enemy victories. Flynn never should have been gone," He said on a recent YouTube video.
He continued though, echoing the pedophile defense:
"Here's a thing people don't want to talk about — Jeff Sessions is going after human traffickers. !/3 of people in the Deep State are pedophiles or connected to pedophile networks. thta the real reason they're going after sessions. That's why they're going after him and nobody wants to talk about that. That's where we're at — I should really talk to Alex Jones again."
This has been a pretty common theme among the Upside Down. Here's how Infowars reported Sessions' AG confirmation back in February:
From Reddit To Trump's Twitter — In Less Than 24 Hours.
Twenty hours. That’s about how long it took for a picture to make its way from the depths of Reddit to the Twitter account of the president of the United States. I diagrammed it on BuzzFeed News if you want to see how the whole thing went down.
The above (amazing) image is from a pretty cursory profile of Alex Jones in the German paper, Der Spiegel. It contains this GLORIOUS kicker.
Of course, Infowars may have foreshadowed it first back on March 2nd with this post about how Obama is hellbent on trying to oust President Trump.
Or maybe that's just my conspiracy theory!
Stuff to read:
If you haven't read this great article from my colleague Joe Bernstein about the rash of fake news across YouTube (and how Google isn't really getting any flack for it/doesn't seem to want to fix it). Read it here.
And here's a good guide to the Secret Language Of The Alt-Right from Ryan and Katie. Memes Explained! Read it here.
Stuff to watch:
Go see "Logan." It's the rare gritty super hero movie.
Stuff to listen to:
Ezra Klein interviews Kara Swisher about reporting (among many, many other things).
Highly suggest reporters listen to this. The best bit is about how Kara reports (constant contact with sources via small little texts and emails and phone calls. Staying in touch when you're NOT looking for a story.) It's a really great tutorial on reporting and interviewing. It's long but worth your time.
A great long thing I read: I’m Renting a Dog?
The above (amazing) image is from a pretty cursory profile of Alex Jones in the German paper, Der Spiegel. It contains this GLORIOUS kicker.
"He piles up food onto a plastic plate, and then he suddenly takes off his shirt without explanation. With his bare torso, he sits there and shovels meat into his mouth, a caricature of manliness, but also a show of power to the reporter sitting in front of him. He can do as he pleases.
Then Jones gets up and holds out a sausage. "Wanna suck?" he asks."
AND IF YOU'RE INTO THAT, HERE'S A GREAT SHORT VIDEO (click the thumbnail):
Wiretapping Tea Leaves
Of course, Infowars may have foreshadowed it first back on March 2nd with this post about how Obama is hellbent on trying to oust President Trump.
Or maybe that's just my conspiracy theory!
Stuff to read:
If you haven't read this great article from my colleague Joe Bernstein about the rash of fake news across YouTube (and how Google isn't really getting any flack for it/doesn't seem to want to fix it). Read it here.
And here's a good guide to the Secret Language Of The Alt-Right from Ryan and Katie. Memes Explained! Read it here.
Stuff to watch:
Go see "Logan." It's the rare gritty super hero movie.
Stuff to listen to:
Ezra Klein interviews Kara Swisher about reporting (among many, many other things).
Highly suggest reporters listen to this. The best bit is about how Kara reports (constant contact with sources via small little texts and emails and phone calls. Staying in touch when you're NOT looking for a story.) It's a really great tutorial on reporting and interviewing. It's long but worth your time.
A great long thing I read: I’m Renting a Dog?
This is...funny? But also really pissed me off. Perhaps the best argument for adopting a dog I've ever seen (also proof we're living in the darkest/weirdest timeline).
And to close — A picture of my dog:
Until next week!
Charlie
And to close — A picture of my dog:
Until next week!Charlie