Odds and Ends — 30 May 2021
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
The media's lab leak fiasco: A huge fuckup, with perhaps not-so-huge policy stakes
These Florida concert tickets are $18 if you’re vaccinated, $1,000 if you’re not
More than 100 employees suing Houston Methodist for requiring them to get COVID-19 vaccine
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
SEC charges 5 for illegally promoting $2 billion Bitconnect Ponzi
Google Cloud Now Provides Blockchain Insights for Polygon Network
Politics:
“Dear Trolls”: A form letter media can use to tell right-wing mobs where to shove it
Just another day in paradise: North Korea says children volunteering on mines and farms
…”dozens of orphan children rushed out to the Chonnae Area Coal-mining Complex to fulfil their oath to repay even just a millionth of the love the party showed.”
Biden Took Campaign Donations From Russia Lobbyist
Hat Shop That Sold Anti-Vaxx Nazi Star Patches Also Posted From Capitol Riots
Texas Republicans Finalize Strictest Voting Bill
Texas lawmakers on Saturday finished drafting a bill that would impose a raft of new voting restrictions, setting up the likely passage of what would be among the most far-reaching laws in Republicans’ nationwide drive to overhaul elections systems and limit voting.
The bill would tighten what are already some of the country’s strictest voting laws, and it would specifically target balloting methods that were employed for the first time last year by Harris County, home to Houston.
Serendipity:
US Soldiers Exposed Nuclear Secrets on Digital Flashcards
U.K. Police Bust Major Bitcoin Mining Operation They Thought Was a Drug Farm
Meme credit: xXepicgamer3400Xx (source)
The part I've emphasized is a good example of what Froomkin in his 'Trolls' piece called "setting out to make and win arguments." Journalists across the political spectrum don't simply report. They characterize, and very often mischaracterize.
All news is editorialized. Which is fine. WaPo vet, Dan Froomkin, pretending it's some kind of "unique and marvelous" higher calling to truth and fairness though...that's a sick joke.
Well, either Republicans are trying to limit voting OR it’s entirely coincidental that the changes they’re pushing will have the effect of limiting voting, particularly in areas that tend to vote Democratic. What would Occam’s razor suggest?
The bottom line is that these words weren't necessary to tell the reader facts about the Texas bill. They're only included to paint the bill in a certain, very debatable, light.
Newspapers and news shows do this to make and win arguments. At scale.
Froomkin's satire argues correspondents don't proselytize. He may be lying or he may be blind.
Either way he's wrong.
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