Full Circle
Do you know how the term “Fake News” was coined? The term first appeared in the 1890’s when newspapers, mainly in New York, competed for subscribers by printing the most sensational news. Another term for fake news that I learned in school was “Yellow Journalism.” In this case, the term refers to a cartoon strip that appeared in Hearst newspapers called ‘Hogan’s Alley,’ which featured a character called “the yellow kid.”
The Yellow Kid
It was sensational news coverage in Hearst papers like the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor that whipped up American anti-Spain sentiment that resulted in an actual war with Spain. And the Yellow Kid got the blame.
Fast forward to 1988, and The Onion started publishing satirical news articles. The term “Fake News” was firmly attached to The Onion and its many copy cats.
Then Donnie D Cups got his hands on the term and applied it to legitimate news that criticized him for his many faults and misdeeds.
So it is not without a little irony that today we hear that “The Onion” made headlines in the legitimate news when they bought, at Alex Jones’ Infowars bankruptcy auction, Jones’s website, its social media accounts, its studio in Austin, Texas, its trademarks, and its video archive for an undisclosed sales price.
Mark Bankston, lawyer for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, asks Alex Jones questions about his emails and text messages during trial at the Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas, U.S., August 3, 2022. Briana Sanchez/Pool via REUTERS
This is all brought to you by the lawsuits filed by Sandy Hook parents who successfully sued Jones for a collective $1.5 billion (yes, a billion with a “b”). No way these assets will cover his tab, but that wasn’t the point was it?
Fake News absorbs Fake News, and we go full circle.
Again, a shout out to Juanita’s son, Mark Bankston, who blew Alex Jones’s defense wide open in the Texas trial against Jones.
1I about spewed my coffee and then busted out laughing when I saw that this morning. KARMA bites!
2Karma not only bitees, it kicks butts!
3Steve Bannon is bent out of shape because magats didn’t step up and save Jone’s livelihood for Jones.. Hope Bannon pops an very large artery and loses his cell phone.
4Rare when anything these days related to “news” makes me laugh. When I read this, I burst out laughing. Couldn’t haven’t happened to a more deserving thug. And Bannon… Good Grief! How do these abject low lifes get traction?
5I’ve followed The Onion since the ‘80s(?) in Madison, WI when they were printed on paper, and the internet was a few dudes on Usenet.
Never in a million years would I have believed full circle could have started the way it did.
It fills the day with great hope.
6I love these money vs mouth types. Steve Bannon could have easily bought Infowars and still have more money than he could spend in 3 lifetimes. But he blames the rubes for not ponying up. The Don said he would self fund his first campaign and spent the last ten years groveling for more. Rudy Guiliani says he’s hungry, they send him $100,000. Muskrat spent 2 days earnings on the Dons election and he’s made to sound self-sacrificing.
And the donors keep on giving.
7And of course the Onion provides an explanation:
https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/
[Rick: I first started reading it while at the University of Illinois. It had the most important characteristic required for a grad student living near poverty level: it was free.]
8InfoWhores sale on hold as Jone’s lawyers cry foul, naturally.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/the-onion-infowars-bankruptcy
9The Yellow Kid ran in the World, a Pulitzer sheet.
The first famous fake news story was a 6-parter about a civilization on the moon, published in the Sun in 1835 — significantly, just as the rotary press made it possible to print lots of copies, creating a desire for lots of eyeballs.
10As Trump’s nominations reach into the bottom of the barrel, here’s some American history from the good old days to make it potentially worse:
The Largest Mass Deportation in American History
As many as 1.3 million people may have been swept up in the Eisenhower-era campaign called ‘Operation Wetback.’
https://www.history.com/news/operation-wetback-eisenhower-1954-deportation
11Rick @10, et al.,
Since I lived most of my life right on the Mexican border, in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I actually have known people who were affected by that Operation Wetback. The Valley was one of the major centers of it.
Comrade Donnei’s deportation scheme certainly will be done on a massive basis, and rapidly. It will not be done strictly by government officials. In fact, they have already been recruiting civilian assistance, publishing requests for RWers to report any potential illegals that they are aware of. It can and will be executed quickly and on a huge scale. Undoubtedly many innocents will be swept up by it.
So, as I’ve mentioned here before, many of y’all (lots of comments here) doubt that tRump is going to pull off what they intend to do.
The Rethugs damned sure are going to blitzkrieg our American government, and totally reshape it to suit their rabid visions.
They will do it very rapidly and thoroughly, they have been planning this coup d’etat for decades.
The Democrats have been asleep at the wheel for far too long.
.
For proof, please read this article from a very eloquent writer who understands the issues well:
Decapitation Strike
Preserving America from Trump’s Appointments
Timothy Snyder
Nov 15, 2024
https://snyder.substack.com/p/decapitation-strike
12Alex Jones moved three miles to X and has a new conspiracy website up andrunning already.
13Lawyers from X are trying to overturn auction and purchase Infowhores back for Jones.
14Re the “report” by the Onion that I posted above: the Onion reported that they had 4.3 trillion daily readers. Which anyone with two brain cells to rub together realizes is ridiculous. It comes to over 500 times the current world population.
But count on Fox to not know how to count:
https://www.latintimes.com/fox-news-claims-satirical-news-site-onion-has-43-trillion-daily-readers-after-falling-565914
15Surly Professor @ 14:
The reporting by Fox of The Onion’s 4.3 trillion readers may have been a professional courtesy. Fox gets numbers, statistics wrong so often they probably had a begrudging respect for The Onion, and some resentment that Fox didn’t use some form of trillions of viewers themselves first.
16How long before drumpf repeats the claim as gospel?
17Law and Chaos podcast Friday had an excellent rundown of the Jones auction.
All is not as it might appear.
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