Reports
Radley Balko: Anatomy of a “Stand Your Ground” Shill
Radley Balko’s current incarnation as a crusading journalist focused on criminal justice abuse is but a recent twist in Balko’s career as a GOP public relations flak.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg Was a Follower of Jewish Rightwing Terrorist Meir Kahane
On August 15, 2012, in West Jerusalem, a small group of Palestinian teenagers was attacked by a mob of Israeli youths. The New York Times described it as an “attempted lynching.” The Israelis, who had apparently planned on lynching someone that night, set their sights on a couple of Palestinian kids hanging out at a busy city square, […]
Recovered History: Wall Street-Funded Self Help Propaganda Greased the Real Estate Bubble
I was passing through the Mojave Desert and by chance stopped by a local thrift store in Joshua Tree. I’m glad I did, because I spotted a book that I just had to own. At $0.50, it was priced to sell. And as you can tell from the title above, the book’s a classic. It’s bound […]
Megan McArdle’s Fake Full Disclosures: What the Daily Beast Correspondent Doesn’t Want You To Know About Her Koch Work
Megan McArdle’s fake disclosures are a crisis-management diversion—the shill equivalent of a squid squirting ink or a skunk discharging its stink-glands. She wants readers to wrinkle their nose and turn away in disgust—anything to keep critics from scrutinizing her Koch ties and uncovering her corruption.
Megan McArdle: Portrait of a Libertarian as a Taxpayer-Subsidized Brat
McArdle, who blogs for the Atlantic Monthly, presents herself as a principled libertarian, fiercely denouncing any attempt to provide any sort of government-funded health care, because as she argues, big government is bad, bad, bad.
Adam Davidson’s Journalistic Corruption: NPR Host Boosts for Wall Street, While Taking Undisclosed Banking Money
Little attention has been given to Davidson’s corruption. His numerous financial conflicts of interest seriously undermine his claims to being a journalist, and instead reveal Davidson as a glorified product spokesman for his Wall Street sponsors.
The HuffPo Business Model: Deliberately Obliterating the Separation Between Paid Advertising and Real Reporting
HuffPo is not a news organization at all, says Huffington Post’s president and chief revenue officer. It is a “social-media company” that exists to “help our marketers beam their messages throughout the internet, across the galaxy, the internet, and the world.”
Malcolm Gladwell Contacts S.H.A.M.E., Asks Yasha Levine to Recognize “Delicious Irony” of His Pro-Tobacco Propaganda…
Last week, I got an email from Malcolm Gladwell. He told me he read the S.H.A.M.E. report I wrote about him a few weeks ago, and asked if I had time to answer a few of his questions . . .
Malcolm Gladwell Unmasked: A Look Into the Life & Work of America’s Most Successful Propagandist
Gladwell has shilled for Big Tobacco, Pharma and defended Enron-style financial fraud, all while milking a lucrative career as one of America’s best-paid corporate speakers. He is a one-man branding and distribution pipeline for valuable corporate messages, constructed on the public’s gullibility in trusting his probity and intellectual honesty.
