NY observer holiday

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 </p><div><div class="item-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; clear: both; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(0, 153, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">New York Observer</em></font></h2><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 5px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONNECTION: OWNED BY JARED KUSHNER, TRUMP’S SON-IN-LAW</font></h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Observer </em>is a news site owned by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Under Kushner’s leadership the Observer has been an unabashed pro-Trump megaphone. The paper was <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/04/12/trumps-two-publication-endorsements-national-enquirer-and-his-son-law-s-newspaper/209893" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">one</a> of only <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/04/15/rupert-murdoch-s-ny-post-joins-national-enquirer-and-paper-owned-trump-s-son-law-endorsing-trump/209929" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">three</a> national papers to endorse him during the primary election. The outlet’s close relationship with Trump forced their national political reporter, Ross Barkan, to <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/04/13/new-york-observer-reporter-quits-over-paper-s-cozy-relationship-trump/209903" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">resign</a> because he felt “<a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/04/17/new-york-observer-reporter-who-resigned-over-trump-ties-and-endorsement-me-line-had-been-crossed/209954" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">a line had been crossed</a>” with both the endorsement and their editor-in-chief’s secret involvement with the campaign.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since Trump’s victory, the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Observer </em>has moved toward becoming a propaganda outlet for the incoming administration. On December 2, the Observer published an <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/12/07/news-outlet-owned-trump-son-law-posts-op-ed-calling-fbi-investigation-anti-trump-protests/214747" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">op-ed</a> from University of Texas-Austin adjunct professor Austin Bay calling for the FBI to conduct a “detailed investigation” into the “political thuggery” of anti-Trump protests after the election.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Observer </em>also recently <a href="http://observer.com/2016/12/pressure-builds-for-uk-and-sweden-to-release-wikileaks-julian-assange/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">argued for</a> the release of Julian Assange. Assange’s organization, WikiLeaks, released -- with the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/politics/us-formally-accuses-russia-of-stealing-dnc-emails.html?_r=0" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">probable assistance of the Russian government</a> -- wave after wave of mundane emails stolen from Democratic politicians and operatives, which were endlessly spun by right-wing media into <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/08/10/fox-right-wing-media-run-conspiracy-linking-clinton-murdered-dnc-staffer/212304" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">increasingly</a> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/22/how-fake-news-articles-fabricated-child-trafficking-story-and-led-death-threats-pizzeria/214602" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">bizarre</a>, and <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/12/05/conservatives-downplayed-fake-news-yesterday-it-almost-had-body-count/214712" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">dangerous</a> misinformation. </font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; clear: both; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(0, 153, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right Side Broadcasting Network</font></h2><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 5px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONNECTION: HELPED TRUMP WITH PRE- AND POST-DEBATE SPIN; CEO SAID “TRUMP BUILT RSBN”</font></h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) is a relatively new “news” network that <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/12/06/trump-tv-will-be-white-house-press-briefings/214735" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">announced</a> on December 6 that it would “become a 24-hour network very soon” and it would be “in the White House” and “at the press briefings” during the Trump presidency. <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/06/07/can-the-white-house-revoke-a-reporters-credentials/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">According to</a> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Foreign Policy</em> magazine, there are several steps a news outlet must go through to get White House press credentials, but the president can evade those by simply inviting the outlet to attend and allowing them to ask <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2005/02/02/go-ahead-jeff-talon-news-reporter-jeff-gannon-i/132676" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">friendly</a> questions, as President George W. Bush allowed a conservative reporter to do during his administration.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RSBN developed such a close relationship with Trump during the primary and general elections that <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Washington Post</em>’s Callum Borchers has described them as “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/22/trump-tv-already-exists-its-called-right-side-broadcasting/?utm_term=.fb94ce83d2ed" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">the unofficial version of Trump TV</a>” since last summer. Borchers reported that the Trump campaign had “teamed up with Right Side to produce pre- and post-debate analysis shows that streamed on Trump’s Facebook Page.” Right Side Broadcasting CEO Joe Seales hosted an “ask me anything” session on Reddit in which he told pro-Trump redditors that “<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/4pjlih/i_am_joe_seales_ceo_of_right_side_broadcasting/d4lh6nt/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">Trump built RSBN</a>” and they should “<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/4pjlih/i_am_joe_seales_ceo_of_right_side_broadcasting/d4lh8sn/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">continue to discredit</a>” mainstream media and instead tune into “<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/4pjlih/i_am_joe_seales_ceo_of_right_side_broadcasting/d4lhe2q/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">media outlets like us and the other conservative sources like Breitbart.</a>”</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; clear: both; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(0, 153, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Enquirer</em></font></h2><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 5px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONNECTION: OWNED BY DAVID PECKER, TRUMP’S LONG-TIME FRIEND</font></h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Enquirer</em> is owned by David Pecker, Trump’s close friend, and was, along with his son-in-law’s paper and Rupert Murdoch’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">New York Post</em>, the <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/04/12/trumps-two-publication-endorsements-national-enquirer-and-his-son-law-s-newspaper/209893" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">only other national outlet</a> to endorse Trump. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">New York</em> magazine’s Gabriel Sherman <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/10/trumps-alliance-with-the-national-enquirer.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">reported</a> that while Trump’s “scandal-filled personal life would be <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">yuge!</em> for the supermarket tabloid,” he has been “exclusively celebrated in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Enquirer’s</em> pages.” Trump himself has even <a href="http://www.nationalenquirer.com/real-life/donald-trump-writes-exclusively-national-enquirer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">written</a> op-eds exclusively for the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Enquirer</em>, where he explained “I am the only one who can make America great again!”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Enquirer</em> also undertook a strange and savage campaign against Trump’s electoral opponents. With <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/ted-cruz-trump-national-enquirer-221241" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">thin sourcing</a>, often only from <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/05/09/comprehensive-guide-trump-ally-roger-stone-racist-sexist-conspiracy-theorist/210303" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">noted liar/Trump supporter Roger Stone</a>, the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Enquirer</em> alleged that Jeb Bush celebrated his father’s presidential win with <a href="http://www.nationalenquirer.com/politics/jeb-bush-snorted-cocaine-on-night-his-dad-became-president/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">a cocaine binge</a>, that Hillary and Chelsea Clinton “<a href="http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/bill-clinton-hillary-cocaine-drug-use-scandal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">covered up Bill’s cocaine rehab</a>,” and that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/ted-cruz-trump-national-enquirer-221241" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">affairs</a> with <a href="http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/ted-cruz-mistresses-revealed-national-enquirer-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">multiple women</a>. Their most outrageous pro-Trump lie was that Cruz’s father was somehow involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Enquirer</em> made this claim based on one blurry photograph, but that did not stop Trump from <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/05/04/trump-tours-morning-shows-hype-conspiracy-theory-national-enquirer/210220" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">touring cable news</a> shows to <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/05/03/watch-fox-friends-hosts-react-donald-trumps-jfk-conspiracy-theory/210187" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">hype the absurd smear</a>. </font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; clear: both; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(0, 153, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Breitbart News</font></h2><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 5px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONNECTION: OPERATED BY TRUMP’S CHIEF STRATEGIST, STEVE BANNON, WHO DESCRIBED THE SITE AS THE “PLATFORM FOR THE ALT-RIGHT,” WHICH INCLUDES WHITE SUPREMACY</font></h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Breitbart.com was founded by Andrew Breitbart <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/andrew-breitbart-news-executives-death-301754" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">along with</a> Trump’s current chief strategist, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/13/white-nationalist-who-hates-jews-will-be-trumps-right-hand-man-white-house/214419" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">Stephen K. Bannon</a>, who in 2014 described Breitbart as the “platform for the alt-right,” a term commonly used to describe people who embrace <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/08/25/what-alt-right-guide-white-nationalist-movement-now-leading-conservative-media/212643" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">white nationalism</a>, misogyny, and anti-Semitism. Breitbart News is <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/08/17/breitbart-news-worst-headlines/212467" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">infamous</a> for headlines like “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew,” “Young Muslims In The West Are A Ticking Time Bomb,” and “After The Pulse Club Massacre, It’s Time For Gays To Come Home To The Republican Party.” Breitbart even undertook <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/07/13/going-reveal-political-biases-facebooks-trending-news-team/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">campaigns of online harassment</a> directed at Facebook’s trending news team for their perceived “bias;” these campaigns were directed by Milo Yiannopoulos, who was <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/twitter-just-permanently-suspended-conservative-writer-milo?utm_term=.kwKVvMJ5E#.fc041V8zb" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">permanently banned from Twitter</a> for leading a harassment campaign against <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Saturday Night Live</em> and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ghostbusters</em> actress Leslie Jones.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the 2016 election, reporters and even former Breitbart employees repeatedly criticized the site for attempting a “<a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/28/mtv-news-jamil-smith-breitbart-news-trying-mainstream-white-supremacy-through-trump/212707" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">rebranding of white supremacy … through Trump</a>.” Former Breitbart writer Ben Shapiro accused the site of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/08/18/the-breitbart-alt-right-just-took-over-the-gop/?utm_term=.691ce9ec3ef9" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">embracing</a> “a movement shot through with racism and anti-Semitism,” and his former colleague Kurt Bardella similarly labeled Bannon a “dangerous” and “combative” “<a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/08/17/former-breitbart-news-spokesman-rails-against-new-trump-ceo-pathological-liar/212472" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">pathological liar</a>.” Bardella <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/03/breitbart-spokesperson-parts-ways-with-website-220645" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">resigned</a> from Breitbart on March 11 when Trump’s then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/11/video-shows-trump-campaign-manager-corey-lewandowski-grabbing-reporter-michelle-fields.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">grabbed Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields</a> at a Trump event. Rather than defending their Fields, a Breitbart employee hurriedly <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/03/11/breitbart-news-text-message-exchange-with-trump/209200" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">worked</a> to “make sure that [the incident] doesn’t turn into a big story.” </font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; clear: both; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(0, 153, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Infowars And </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Alex Jones Show</em></font></h2><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 5px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONNECTION: TOP TRUMP ADVISER ROGER STONE IS A FREQUENT JONES/INFOWARS COLLABORATOR AND TRUMP APPEARED ON JONES’ PROGRAM AND PRAISED HIM</font></h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is the host of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Alex Jones Show</em> and heads Infowars, which distributes right-wing content through its website and social platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Jones and his website <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/12/01/comprehensive-guide-alex-jones-conspiracy-theorist-and-trump-valuable-asset/214668" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">have pushed</a> false stories and fringe conspiracy theories, including that the government perpetrated the 9/11 attacks and the tragedies at Columbine, Oklahoma City, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon, among others.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jones and Infowars were a leading source of false stories and conspiracy theories about Clinton in 2016. They pushed false claims about <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/17/msnbcs-maddow-highlights-how-clinton-health-conspiracies-made-their-way-alex-jones-infowars-fox-news/212489" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">Clinton’s</a> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/10/17/huff-posts-sam-stein-trumps-claim-clinton-used-drugs-debates-comes-straight-alex-jones/213871" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">health</a>, <a href="https://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/12/07/after-pizzeria-death-threats-and-sandy-hook-harassment-indictment-alex-jones-still-pushing-expanding/214749" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">the “pizzagate” conspiracy</a>, and <a href="http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/28/trump-s-fake-election-claims-came-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-media-isn-t-reporting/214635" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">supposed pro-Clinton voting fraud</a>, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/10/11/conservative-media-run-absurd-smear-hillary-clinton-hates-everyday-americans/213748" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">among</a> <a href="http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2016/09/08/trump-campaign-runs-alex-jones-conspiracy-about-clinton-earpiece-during-nbc-forum/212925" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">many</a> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/09/29/trumps-debunked-google-clinton-conspiracy-theory-comes-straight-conservative-and-russian-media/213424" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">others</a>. Several of these stories were subsequently highlighted by Trump on the campaign trail.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone serves as the president-elect’s messenger to Jones’ audience. Stone has been one of Jones’ most frequent guests, helped <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/07/17/roger-stones-pro-trump-rally-will-be-freak-show-rnc-circus/211571" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">organize a pro-Trump event</a> with Jones, and is also an Infowars <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerJStoneJr/status/806580972523229184" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">guest host</a>. Trump <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/12/01/comprehensive-guide-alex-jones-conspiracy-theorist-and-trump-valuable-asset/214668#trump" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">mainstreamed</a> Jones’ program by appearing on it in December 2015 and telling him: "Your reputation's amazing. I will not let you down." Trump has repeatedly echoed Jones’ rhetoric and <a href="http://www.infowars.com/trump-tweets-infowars-liberals-go-into-meltdown/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">he</a>and his <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=from%3A%40DonaldJTrumpJr%20infowars.com&src=typd" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">campaign</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40AJDelgado13%20infowars.com&src=typd" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">tweeted</a> links to Infowars.com.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump suggested his relationship with Jones will continue: Jones said the president-elect called him after the election to <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/14/conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-says-president-elect-trump-called-thank-his-audience/214424" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">thank</a> his audience and promise he would return to the program. And Stone <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-alex-jones-conspiracy-theorist-extraordinaire-got-donald-trumps-ear/2016/11/17/583dc190-ab3e-11e6-8b45-f8e493f06fcd_story.html?postshare=5841479416662824&tid=ss_tw" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">said</a> Jones will be a “valuable asset” for “President Trump’s legislative program.”</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div>

<p>

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/media/billionaire-owned-observer-whines-about-democratization-media-and-bernie-sanders-2016s-worst">http://www.alternet.org/media/billionaire-owned-observer-whines-about-democratization-media-and-bernie-sanders-2016s-worst</a></p>

<p>

econd only to glib equivalencies between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, 2016’s most popular lazy media trope is the idea that rabid Sanders fans have unleashed dark populist forces that threaten our republic. Both are fairly common, and more or less write themselves if the author tosses coherence and intellectual honesty out the window. But it’s rare that both are on such stark display as with <a href="http://fair.org/home/at-ny-observer-trumps-too-close-to-cover-but-promoting-publishers-real-estate-is-no-problem/">New York Observer</a>‘s editor-at-large Ryan Holiday’s recent op-ed (<a href="http://observer.com/2016/02/the-cause-of-this-nightmare-election-media-greed-and-shameless-traffic-worship/">2/17/16</a>).

The diatribe, “The Cause of This Nightmare Election? Media Greed and Shameless Traffic Worship,” poses as media criticism but is little more than petulant establishment gatekeeping. Let’s begin with the thesis, or what passes for one, which is that the democratization of media has created a “sub-prime market” for the media. A superficially catchy hook but one that, upon further examination, makes little sense:</p>

<p>I am talking, of course, about our media system. A system in which tens of thousands of reporters—bloggers—chasing online traffic bonuses <a href="http://observer.com/2016/01/this-is-the-hollowed-out-world-that-outrage-culture-has-created/">produce sensational</a>, <a href="http://observer.com/2014/03/sourceless-online-reporting-becomes-a-race-to-the-bottom/%E2%80%9D">inflammatory</a> and <a href="http://observer.com/2015/03/the-shame-of-our-public-shamings/">outright dangerous “news”</a> at the expense of the public they are supposed to be serving. A system in which speculative, high-valence news—whether it starts as a tweet or a rumor—is packaged, dissected, repacked and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_up_the_chain">passed along from outlet to outlet</a> until a thinking person can hardly follow what is real and what is fake.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Those damned “bloggers” (gasp!) are “chasing online traffic.” This is opposed to sometime in the past when ratings, newspaper sales and the ad revenue they generated didn’t matter. But never mind that; this new breed of vague “media system” has created a monster:</p>

<p>Atypical candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are effectively subsidized by the media in order to provide the storylines those outlets require to create the compelling spectacles they need to keep the cycle going and audiences hooked.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Here Holiday—formerly the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-biggest-lies-told-by-american-apparels-top-pr-man-2012-8#">marketing director for American Apparel</a> and, according to his bio, a “media strategist and prominent writer on strategy and business”—has hatched a somewhat goofy conspiracy theory: that “the media” are intentionally propping up “atypical” candidates to keep “audiences hooked.” He begins by saying the “the media” (now morphed from bottom-feeding bloggers to major corporate media) disproportionately covered Trump and help feed his rise, which is empirically true. Trump, as the the Tyndall Reportdocumented (Washington Post, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/12/07/donald-trump-has-gotten-more-nightly-network-news-coverage-than-the-entire-democratic-field-combined/">12/7/15</a>), was the focus of 234 minutes of nightly network news coverage in the first 11 months of 2015—more than twice as much airtime as the next-most-covered candidate, Hillary Clinton, at 113 minutes.

But he lumps Sanders in with Trump in a misreading of media coverage so off-base as to be hallucinatory. Over the same time period, Sanders got just ten minutes of coverage—less than 5 percent of Trump’s coverage, 10 percent of Clinton’s coverage and even a fifth as much as the 56 minutes given to Joe Biden and his protracted decision not to run for president.

To justify his complaint that even this minimal coverage was too much, he puts forth one of the more risibly elitist nuggets of political commentary of the 2016 campaign:</p>

<p>On the other end of the spectrum, the rise of Bernie Sanders simply doesn’t pass the smell test. This is a candidate who Nate Silver shows is <a href="http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/329156/nate-silver-says-trump-more-likely-nominee-than-sanders/">extremely unlikely to win</a>, who would be 75 years old on Inauguration Day, who embraces, quite openly, the word “socialist” in a country that considers the word more dangerous politically than “atheist,” and who is drowning in headlines.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Of course, Sanders has not been “<a href="http://fair.org/home/two-candidates-surge-in-2016-polling-but-only-trump-not-sanders-fascinates-media/">drowning in headlines</a>” (emphasis in the original). His coverage did tick up after his poll numbers began to catch up to Clinton’s—but even in 2016, as Sanders virtually tied in Iowa and beat Clinton by a wide margin in New Hampshire, he still got only 83 percent as many mentions as Clinton in the New York Times (and 75 percent as many as Trump).

What, exactly, would Holiday have the “the media” do? Should they ignore Sanders because Nate Silver—one of those dreaded bloggers—ran a model and said the voters didn’t matter? Since when does 538.com determine who the media should and shouldn’t cover? It’s hard to overstate how contemptuous of the democratic process this line of argument is.

Holiday’s piece is written by media elites for media elites, the type of thing that gets passed around in journalistic circles because it angrily expresses what so many of them truly believe: Candidates must win the Washington Post andNew York Times primaries to be taken seriously by voters in actual primaries. The whole premise—that some scruple-free, vaguely defined gutter “media” helped propelled Sanders in a supra-democratic fraud—ignores the fact that nearly every major media outlet, from the <a href="http://fair.org/home/nyt-rounds-up-left-leaning-economists-for-a-unicorn-hunt/">Times</a> and the <a href="http://fair.org/home/washington-post-wont-let-journalistic-integrity-stand-in-the-way-of-scaring-you-away-from-sanders/">Post</a> to <a href="http://fair.org/home/for-meet-the-press-bernie-sanders-is-he-who-must-not-be-named/">NBC</a> and<a href="http://fair.org/home/cnns-double-dealing-in-des-moines/">CNN</a>, has either marginalized or openly warned against Sanders.

===</p>

<p>

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-biggest-lies-told-by-american-apparels-top-pr-man-2012-8#">http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-biggest-lies-told-by-american-apparels-top-pr-man-2012-8#</a></p>

<p>

Holiday, American Apparel's PR man, has published a book about how he spent years lying to the media and manipulating bloggers to advance the agenda of the company and his other clients, which include Tucker Max and Linkin Park.</p>

<h3><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-biggest-lies-told-by-american-apparels-top-pr-man-2012-8#because-he-encouraged-false-perceptions-through-blogs-one-of-his-clients-ended-up-being-branded-a-known-rapist-1"><strong>Go straight to the list ></strong></a></h3>

<p>His main point, however, is that bloggers and reporters are so lazy and mendacious that they manipulate the truth just as much as he does.

The media and PR business, therefore, is a bit like pig wrestling, he argues: Everyone gets dirty, but the pig loves it.

The book is titled "Trust Me, I'm Lying; Confessions of a Media Manipulator," and can be summed up by a quote from the first page of his introduction: "I'm paid to deceive. My job is to lie to the media so they can lie to you."

Given that Holiday has happily confessed that he tells lies for a living, here are some of his greatest hits, all from the book.

<em>Disclosure: Large chunks of his book are devoted to criticizing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/business-insider" class="hidden_link">Business Insider</a> and its staffers, including the author of this post and his employer, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/henry-blodget" class="hidden_link">Henry Blodget</a>.</em>

==</p>