@dangillmor With you Dan! Until we can wrest control of our media from the cluches of the billionaires, disinformation will continue to flourish and democracy is very much at risk.

I've been disappointed to see journalists I respect sticking with Twitter, but the more dangerous Musk gets, the less I can maintain that respect.

Important post from @caseynewton at Platformer: Musk's vile platform will be "voter fraud" central for the Trumpists in coming days.https://www.platformer.news/x-election-elon-musk-voter-fraud-misinformation/Journalists, what the eff are you still doing there? You are supporting one of democracy's most effective enemies. Don't you have a conscience, or did you put it in cold storage?

Semafor should post the full audio of the NY Times internal meeting (adjusting volumes so that the Times can't figure out via triangulation who was holding the recorder). The story reporting on the event is grossly insufficient especially given Semafor's right-wing leanings... https://www.semafor.com/article/11/03/2024/in-a-frank-internal-meeting-the-new-york-times-wrestled-with-its-political-role

Can anyone point me to resources on how to report trouble -- e.g. right-wing intimidation -- at polling places?

The always vile James O'Keefe is back in action, and his naive helpers aren't just going to endanger election workers -- and trust in the election itself, which looks like the goal here -- but themselves.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/03/us/politics/2024-election-james-okeefe-voting.htmlBTW, NY Times, calling O'Keefe "conservative" is like calling a Stalinist a "liberal" --

Want to know why the Dow Jones Industrial Average keeps going up? One key reason: They replace stocks that aren't doing well with ones that are. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-replace-intel-dow-jones-212628611.html

How on earth does Musk still have a security clearance? https://www.thebulwark.com/p/elon-musk-is-putins-best-weapon

Europe's Green parties know Jill Stein is a spoiler for Trump. The idea that she cares what they think is laughable, however.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/01/european-greens-ask-jill-stein-to-stand-down-and-endorse-kamala-harris

Your daily reminder that if the Biden administration had done anything resembling this -- Trump regime blocked aid to Puerto Rico after its disastrous hurricane -- it would have dominated the news for days or weeks. As it is, one outlet cared.Remember as well: This is how a new Trump regime will handle disasters: States that voted for Harris won't get help, period.https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/new-probe-confirms-trump-officials-blocked-puerto-rico-receiving-hurri-rcna749

@jeffjarvis has written an excellent explainer about why so many people are discouraged, and disgusted, with "mainstream media's" malpractice in political journalism: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/liberals-infuriated-media-cancel-subscription-editorial-endorsement-times-washington-post-jarvis.php

Dear journalists: Trump and his cult have been calling Democrats and liberals one vile slur after another, nonstop. Biden **may** have insulted the cultists in New York (but probably was referring to the "comedian").Has it occurred to you that these are not equivalent situations? Why are you treating it that way?The right-wing screams of agony are charades, pure and simple. But so, I guess, is political journalism.

@dangillmor Maybe it's their enthusiasm for spicey content and the prospect of the greatest nation in the world going down in flames is just too tempting a morsel for these adrenalin news junkies. The thing that is most amazing is the complete lack of conscience. These people are smart enough to know the dangers they are playing with, and they don't care. They just want to watch it burn.

Musk's campaign PAC is even more evil than you knew, but about as evil as you'd imagined.https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-america-pac-blitz-canvassing-michigan-uhaul/

Everyone should read -- and think hard about -- Rick Perlstein's latest commentary. He poses a series of ugly hypotheticals that could easily come true in a new Trump administration. And he asks, "What will you do?"If the worst happens in this election, we ALL should be preparing to answer this question.Because our answers will be decisions -- to be collaborators in fascism, or members of the resistance. There can be no middle ground.https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-30-what-will-you-do-trump-wins/

Topics in the latest edition of my "Cornerstone of democracy" newsletter -- a compendium of the best of political reporting/commentary (and more) -- include:-- Courage when it counts-- The fascist rally at Madison Square Garden-- The Bezos betrayal-- The Musk connectionI curate to save you time. Please subscribe (it's free), and let other folks know about it.https://cornerstone.ghost.io/essentials-october-27-2024/

@dangillmor I feel like if Bezos is telling the truth that not endorsing was always the plan, he should have mentioned that to the Post's editorial page staff before they wrote an endorsementhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/10/25/washington-post-endorsement-president/

A vote for a third party this year is a vote for fascism.A vote to punish Harris even though you know Trump is vastly worse is a vote for fascism.Not voting is a vote for fascism.This is the starkest choice in decades: democracy or fascism.It truly is that simple.

@lauren @dangillmor @jpanzer My experience as a journalist is that Twitter doesn't boost my traffic by any noticeable measure. Story tweets that get 10s of 1,000s of views simply don't translate to increased traffic to those stories. What's more, a fair number of journalists' followers these days are no longer active because they have left or greatly scaled back their use.Leaving Twitter behind is the right thing to do. And if that's not feasible, scaling back use is crucial. Staying there means you think the value of your tweets outweighs the harm Twitter is inflicting on a free press and democracy itself. And that's simply not the case.

I believe the fascist rally today at Madison Square Garden had two goals: 1) further mobilize the Trump cult to flood the polls (disrupting Democratic voting in the process).2) demoralize Harris voters into thinking it's all over.It may succeed on the first, but my hope is that it completely backfires on the second -- that everyone who doesn't want a fascist government will turn out and swamp the extremists.