A Nation Poisoned by “Pink Slime” Media

Our news information ecosystem has been corrupted in so many ways. I have been studying this problem for years, but the scale of misinformation delivered during the 2024 campaign has shocked even me.

Via Wikipedia ...

Pink-slime journalism is a practice in which American news outlets, or fake partisan operations masquerading as such, publish poor-quality news reports which appear to be local news. The reports are either computer-generated or written by poorly-paid outsourced writers, sometimes using pen names.

The term "pink-slime journalism" was coined by journalist Ryan Smith in 2012. A related term, "news mirage", was coined in 2024 by journalists Miranda Green and David Folkenflik to refer to websites that "look like news, but in truth [serve as] mouthpieces" for corporations or advocacy groups with a non-journalistic agenda.

Let's get right to the weblog today.

Here is the critical thread from Miranda Green of Floodlight News about the enormity of this "pink slime media" problem.

Many of these newspapers used to be authentic news sources with trusted brands.

Here is one of the examples she cited ...

The ‘Dallas Express’: Your Go-To Source for Right-Wing, Astroturf News

The formerly Black-owned, progressive newspaper has re-emerged as a “pink slime” media site that launders conservative propaganda.

The Texas ObserverSteven Monacelli

The pink slime are a huge problem, but not as big of a problem as the misinformation that takes place in trusted right-wing news outlets.

Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won?

It wasn’t the economy. It wasn’t inflation, or anything else. It was how people perceive those things, which points to one overpowering answer.

The New RepublicMichael Tomasky

And this point from that column is so important.

The answer is the right-wing media. Today, the right-wing media—Fox News (and the entire News Corp.), Newsmax, One America News Network, the Sinclair network of radio and TV stations and newspapers, iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel), the Bott Radio Network (Christian radio), Elon Musk’s X, the huge podcasts like Joe Rogan’s, and much more—sets the news agenda in this country. And they fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win.

Let me say that again, in case it got lost: Today, the right-wing media sets the news agenda in this country. Not The New York Times. Not The Washington Post (which bent over backwards to exert no influence when Jeff Bezos pulled the paper’s Harris endorsement). Not CBS, NBC, and ABC. The agenda is set by all the outlets I listed in the above paragraph. Even the mighty New York Times follows in its wake, aping the tone they set disturbingly often.

If you read me regularly, you know that I’ve written this before, but I’m going to keep writing it until people—specifically, rich liberals, who are the only people in the world who have the power to do something about this state of affairs—take some action.

Michael Tomasky

Here is Kate Riga from Talking Points Memo, who has a similar argument.

Democrats Need To Compete In The New Media Landscape — Or Keep Paying The Price

As always happens after a bad election loss — and is compounded when that loss is sweeping, and to the man who launched a coup against the country — the losing side is in full panic mode.

TPM – Talking Points MemoKate Riga

Of course, this is not a new problem; it is just one that has been massively scaled up.

Crime Is Down. Why Do So Many Rural Americans Think It’s Going Up?

In rural America, emphasis on migrant crime, bolstered by right wing propaganda, takes attention away from other, more pressing issues.

Barn RaiserRachael Hanel

Here is another essential read about the state of our essential fourth estate.

I blame the media | Press Watch

The American people were insufficiently alarmed and insufficiently informed.

Press WatchDan Froomkin

And one about the future of our essential fourth estate in MAGA 2.0.

‘Death by a thousand cuts’: How experts warn Trump could use an authoritarian playbook to go after the media | CNN Business

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to go after much of the media in his second term, threatening to jail journalists, revoke broadcast licenses and target outlets with a flurry of lawsuits. It’s a playbook he’s threatened to use before.

CNNHadas Gold

So yeah, our essential fourth estate is already badly damaged. But this is an important letter to all of you young journalists. Your work is more important now than ever before.

Another Letter to a Young Journalist

We’ve entered a dark age. We need your generation not to despair, but instead to recommit to the fight for democracy.

Columbia Journalism ReviewSamuel G. Freedman

And what does a broken fourth estate deliver? A broken nation full of unchecked corruption.

We have just a couple of months until we are all living in a new reality. And guess what we are going to get built in this reality! Concentration camps!

Yes, concentration camps in the United States of America.

Why? Because the private prison industry is going to make billions by MAKING FREE LABOR GREAT AGAIN. Fun times.

Private Prison Companies Call Trump’s Deportation Plans ‘Unprecedented Opportunity’

Private prison executives imagined tracking “millions” of people electronically, transporting hundreds of thousands by plane, and expanding detention centers.

HuffPostMatt Shuham

Trump allies, private sector quietly prepare for mass detention of immigrants | CNN Politics

Donald Trump’s allies and some in the private sector have been quietly preparing to detain and deport migrants residing in the United States on a large scale, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.

CNNPriscilla Alvarez, Alayna Treene

And, of course, it isn't just the rapacious assholes from the private prison industry that have seen their wealth and their stocks soar since Tuesday.

The Triumphant Return of Corruption

A look at the biggest stock gainers since Trump’s election shows that paying tribute to the next president will have its benefits.

The American ProspectDavid Dayen

It is a great time to be a rapacious asshole in the USA. And we all can be part of this booming market! Millions can be made! Scratch that; billions can be made! All we have to do is smash our inner moral compasses with a hammer!

What a time to be alive.

For fucks sake.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

I just finished George and Peter's brilliant but heartbreaking book. This is the best thing I have read about how we got to where we are. And if you are wondering about who influences my "radical" art, George Monbiot is one of my favorite professors.

FREE BOOK ALERT!

I just downloaded this one for free. I've always been a big fan of Rebbeca Solnit, but I haven't read this one yet.

But yeah, I could definitely use some hope right now.

To close, the best thing I read today is about patriots doing essential work on the investment and stewardship side of my handy economic scale.

FYI, I do not embed posts from Elon's eXit app, only screenshots. But please support the work of the patriots I am trying to amplify who are still bravely posting in that hellscape.

Stay strong, my friends.