Notices by Jay Rosen (jayrosen_nyu@mastodon.social), page 2

Below is Brian Stelter with another story from Dominion's latest filing.

A truthtelling journalist at Fox was thought by Tucker Carlson to have committed a firing offense. Her crime: seeing no evidence for Trump's stolen election claims she said on Twitter "there is no evidence." 4/

THREAD

The latest filing by Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation suit against Fox nails something critics have long argued for.

Fox is not a news organization. It's something else.

But what is this other thing? In this thread, I will try to answer that.

Next slide, please. 1/

#journalism #fox #uspol #uspolitics

The Dominion suit establishes that Fox stars (like Tucker Carlson) and executives (like CEO Suzanne Scott) were fearful and enraged when some of their own people blundered into delivering a true and accurate report about the 2020 election.

Think about that for a moment. When its own talent reported the facts truthfully, the result was an atmosphere of crisis in the company.

This is one way we know that Fox is not specifically a news organization.

There are others... 2/

I wish more of these stories (what happened to this MAGA person who used to be in the range of normal) landed on a simpler fact.

When you go full MAGA you have to say a lot of stuff that's completely false. There can be huge consequences to that.

People look at you differently. Reporters ask questions. Friends turn away.

MAGA teaches you it's The Fake News. But it's you. What you did.

"The impenetrable armor of Elise Stefanik." https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/22/elise-stefanik-trump-gop/

#journalists #journalism #uspolitics

Jack Shafer says journalists should shrink Elon news to a little “Shit Musk Said” box.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/21/elon-musk-twitter-press-00074881

I agree.

Shafer also says, "Musk is now the greatest press manipulator since Donald Trump inhabited the White House."

No.

If you're quite rich, and a jerk, and willing to make an ass of yourself in public, then it's EASY to draw press attention. That doesn't make you a master manipulator. Just means you lack the gene for shame, and can withstand a lot of humiliation.

#journalists

Politico put it this way:

"The former president and the person that polls show is still the most likely GOP presidential nominee in 2024, today on Truth Social called for the suspension of the Constitution."

This poses a problem for journalists who would cover the 2024 election. By what logic can that coverage proceed?

Neutrality makes sense only within a constitutional order that his candidacy is trying to upend. "Just report the news" pretends this will be a normal campaign.

#journalism

Quoting Elon Musk:

"As Twitter pursues the goal of elevating citizen journalism, media elite will try everything to stop that from happening."

My definition of citizen journalism— 14 years ago:

"When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism."

http://archive.pressthink.org/2008/07/14/a_most_useful_d.html

I still like that definition.

But: that citizen journalism can or should replace the professional kind is a crazy claim.

"What I’m finding most satisfying about Mastodon, and I’m seeing a lot of other journalists feel this, is that it actually forces you to ask and confront some of these questions and to make active choices. Even if Mastodon were to remain Twitter’s very tiny stepbrother, I would still like to be part of a Mastodon journalist community because I think we got lazy as a field, and we let Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and, god help us, Elon Musk decide..."

—@adamdavidson

https://themarkup.org/newsletter/hello-world/mastodons-moment