(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Big Tech calling it quits [1]
[]
Date: 2023-11-05
We begin today with Meryl Kornfield of The Washington Post pointing out what a big loser Ron DeSatan is to Number 45; even in the state where he is currently the governor
The former president garnered the largest and most enthusiastic audience of the day-long event at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center. Many attendees donned Trump-themed apparel, several speakers made a point of praising him throughout the day, and during his speech, the crowd chanted his name. He then announced seven Florida state lawmakers who had endorsed him, including five who had previously endorsed DeSantis, inviting them onto the stage in a dramatic show of his solidified support. The moves marked the latest swing among some Florida Republicans from DeSantis to Trump and served as a measure of DeSantis’s changing political fortunes at home. Once seen as well-positioned to challenge Trump for the GOP nomination after a landslide reelection win last year, DeSantis has struggled this year in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, falling well behind Trump in early state and national polling. While home-state endorsements typically have little bearing on the outcome in early nominating contests, the moves were seen in Republican circles Saturday as another blow to DeSantis’s campaign. Trump, who spends the winter months at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, has sought to cultivate relationships with some local Republicans as he seeks the presidency.
Charlie Warzel of The Atlantic thinks that Big Tech is done with media organizations.
..Big Tech has decided it’s done with the enterprise altogether. After the 2016 election, news became a bug rather than a feature, a burdensome responsibility of truth arbitration that no executive particularly wanted to deal with. Slowly, and then not so slowly, companies divested from news. Facebook reduced its visibility in users’ feeds. Both Meta and Google restricted the distribution of news content in Canada. Meta’s head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, noted that its newest social network, Threads, wouldn’t go out of its way to amplify news content. Elon Musk destroyed Twitter, apparently as part of a reactionary political project against the press, and made a number of decisions that resulted in its replacement, X, being flooded with garbage. As The New York Times declared recently, “The major online platforms are breaking up with news.” [...] The struggles of legacy news organizations have no simple explanation. Trust in the media has fallen sharply in the past two decades, and especially the past several years, though much more so among Republicans. Some of this is self-inflicted, the result of news organizations getting stories wrong and the fact that these mistakes are more visible, and therefore subject to both legitimate and bad-faith criticism, than ever before. A great deal of the blame also comes from efforts on the right to delegitimize mainstream media. Local-news outlets have died a slow death at the hands of hedge funds. A generational shift is at play as well: Millions of younger people look to influencers and creators on Instagram and especially TikTok, along with podcast hosts, as trusted sources of news. In these contexts, consumer trust is not necessarily based on the quality of reporting or the prestige and history of the brand, but on strong parasocial relationships. You can see how public opinion has shifted in surveys covering the 2010s. In 2014—squarely in the halcyon days of social news—75 percent of adults surveyed by Pew said that the internet and social media helped them feel more informed about national news. But by 2020, the conventional wisdom had shifted. That year, a Pew survey of more than 10,000 people found that “U.S. adults who mainly get their political news through social media tend to be less engaged with news” and, notably, less knowledgeable about current events and politics.
“Influencers” as “trusted news sources”...
Ruth Elisabeth Appel writes for The Conversation about the differing views that Republicans and Democrats have on content moderation.
Only three weeks after the Biden administration announced the Disinformation Governance Board in April 2022, the effort to develop best practices for countering disinformation was halted because of Republican concerns about its mission. Why do Democrats and Republicans have such different attitudes about content moderation? My colleagues Jennifer Pan and Margaret E. Roberts and I found in a study published in the journal Science Advances that Democrats and Republicans not only disagree about what is true or false, they also differ in their internalized preferences for content moderation. Internalized preferences may be related to people’s moral values, identities or other psychological factors, or people internalizing the preferences of party elites. [...] When we compared how Democrats and Republicans would deal with headlines overall, we found strong evidence for a preference gap. Overall, 69% of Democrats said misinformation headlines in our study should be removed, but only 34% of Republicans said the same; 49% of Democrats considered the misinformation headlines harmful, but only 27% of Republicans said the same; and 65% of Republicans considered headline removal to be censorship, but only 29% of Democrats said the same. Even in cases where Democrats and Republicans agreed that the same headlines were inaccurate, Democrats were nearly twice as likely as Republicans to want to remove the content, while Republicans were nearly twice as likely as Democrats to consider removal censorship.
Tal Shalev of The Jerusalem Post maintains that, impart, the Oct. 7 attack on souther Israel is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fault. Period.
It’s been almost one month since the horrific morning that took the lives of over 1,400 Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not attended even one of the hundreds of funerals of victims who perished during the vicious pogrom that was carried out by Hamas. Besides meeting with families of hostages, he hasn’t met with any of the civilians who managed to escape from the Gaza border communities, or with the security teams that courageously rescued them. Netanyahu has not visited even one of the thousands of wounded survivors lying in beds in Israel’s hospitals. He has not visited with any of the more than 21,000 civilians who were displaced from their homes in southern or northern Israel, and are now scattered in hotels around the country. He held two meetings with 13 families whose loved ones are being held captive in Gaza, but has not spoken – not even by phone – with more than 227 other families who are fraught with worry for their loved ones. Moreover, there are three words that Netanyahu has yet to voice: “I am responsible” – for the worst catastrophe to befall Israel since the establishment of the state, which took place under his watch. Every one of Israel’s military and security leaders has publicly admitted their responsibility for the failures and shortcomings that led to the tragedy that took place on October 7: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, Military Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, Israel Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yaron Finkelman, and National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi. Every one of these figures has acknowledged his shortcomings that led to the catastrophe. Even Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and a few Likud ministers admitted during interviews that the responsibility lies with the government, although they immediately afterward added, “but now is not the time to play the blame game.” Netanyahu also said last week that “we will all need to provide answers, including me” – but only after the war. [...] Some of Netanyahu’s advisers have been pressuring for him to make a public claim of responsibility, if only so that he can put this issue behind him and move forward. But even if he does so eventually, it will be too little, too late, and is likely to be legally formulated. However, even if Netanyahu never actually utters these words with his own voice, he is still responsible. Period.
This oped may now seem unremarkable but remember that The Jerusalem Post is a conservative publication and this isn’t the first time that I have read an editorial like this one in The Jerusalem Post.
Jessica Steinberg of the Times of Israel reports that “hundreds” of Israelis have returned to the streets in order to protest Netanyahu and called for his resignation.
..in Jerusalem and elsewhere, hundreds renewed protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing the premier of mishandling the war and hostage negotiations and calling for his resignation. Outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, participants held up posters with pictures of those kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, calling for them to be brought home even as they expressed a variety of views on how to best achieve that goal. [...] Netanyahu has come under pressure from some families to consider an offer dangled by Hamas to release all captives in exchange for all of its prisoners being held by Israel. Netanyahu’s administration has dismissed the offer as an insincere ploy, and has also resisted calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting without receiving hostages in exchange. Opening the rally, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai referenced the anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin exactly 28 years earlier. Rabin “knew how to make difficult decisions,” Huldai said. Netanyahu must now do so and bring back all the captives, said Huldai.
x Tensions soar in #Jerusalem as Israeli protesters clash with security forces outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Jerusalem's Azza Street. Demonstrators are calling for Netanyahu's immediate resignation over his failure to return captives held in Gaza since… pic.twitter.com/pBb5jjE7Np — Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) November 4, 2023
A 6-reporter team from Der Spiegel says that the political polarization between the West and The Global South that started with the Russia-Ukraine war has now significantly widened and deepened because of Israel’s war with Hamas.
The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine that began in February 2022, to be sure, deeply divided the world following a few early weeks of apparent unity. But compared to the global situation left behind by the Hamas attack, those earlier cracks seem relatively clear and understandable. Roughly speaking, they ran along the line dividing the West from the Global South, between the wealthy, industrialized nations and the emerging and developing world. The divide is similar today, but it is only one of many fault lines running through countries, regions, governments, populations and generations. And these fault lines are deeper and more complex. In Germany, which bears "historic responsibility for the worst imaginable crime," as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in her UN speech in reference to the Holocaust, one misguided sentence can divide families and end friendships. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the same is true in many countries of the Muslim world. In societies and countries that are farther away from this conflict, the debates may proceed differently. But there, too, they are increasingly toxic – from Southeast Asia to Latin America, from the U.S. to Europe. What are the consequences of this extreme polarization? What are the consequences for a possible cease-fire, armistice or – as anachronistic as it might sound – for a political solution of the Middle East conflict? What about the broader consequences for a world order which, following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the U.S., the financial crisis in 2008, the coronavirus pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is clearly decaying?
Ran Boker of Ynetnews.com reports that two Israeli film stars will be screening some of the footage of Hamas’ attack on Israel to “prominent figures” in Los Angeles and New York.
Footage collected by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit showcasing over 40 minutes of disturbing horrors that took place in Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7 will be screened to prominent figures in Hollywood hosted by Israeli actor Guy Nativ. "Gal Gadot helped make this happen," sources close to the Israeli star said Saturday. Military officials said they're aware of the event, though are yet unsure of its official date and participants., adding the screening will take place in Los Angeles and New York. [...] Nativ noted that pro-Hamas accounts on social media are spreading the word that the massacre in southern Israel never took place and was fake. "I won't let this happen on my watch. I'm fighting for awareness of what happened in the Holocaust and what happened on October 7. We can't just ignore it." Nativ also mentioned the screening is intended not only for Hollywood stars but also for other creators - Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers, directors, and producers. "People with a background in filmmaking, so we can show them this brutal movie that resembles films made about the Holocaust," he explained.
Boker’s report follows a earlier report from The Hollywood Reporter that there will be a documentary about “before, during, and after the horrific event” at the Supernova Music Festival; a documentary that is also expected to include footage of the massacre by Hamas on Oct.7.
Finally today, Jaroslav Lukiv of BBC News reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the Israeli-Hamas war has taken some of the focus from the Ukraine’s war with Russia.
Speaking at Saturday's briefing in Kyiv with visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Mr Zelensky said: "It's clear that the war in the Middle East is taking away the focus" from Ukraine. He said Russia wanted this focus to be "weakened", but stressed that "everything is in our powers". Mr Zelensky was also asked to comment on this week's assessment by Ukraine's chief military commander Valery Zaluzhny that the war was now moving to a "positional" or static stage, and this would benefit Moscow by "allowing it to rebuild its military power". "Everyone is getting tired and there are different opinions," Mr Zelensky replied, adding: "But this is not a stalemate." He admitted that Russia was "controlling the skies" and that Ukraine urgently needed US-made F-16 warplanes and advanced anti-aircraft defences to change the situation.
Try to have the best possible day everyone!
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/5/2203666/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-Big-Tech-calling-it-quits?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_8&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
